Super Simple Pulled Pork in Slow Cooker

Need a really, really easy recipe for cool Fall Football days? Pulled pork in the slow cooker.

Ingredients: 3-4 lbs pork shoulder (leave untrimmed for most flavor) and one can of root beer (not diet, you need the sugar). Put shoulder in slow cooker, pour root beer over it, close and cook for 8 hours. Remove from slow cooker onto cutting board or work surface. Drain & throw away juice & fat from in the slow cooker, rinse out so you can reuse.

When the pork is cool enough to handle, shred using two forks or your hands. It should be falling apart. Put shredded pork back in slow cooker. Add an entire bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce (pork will absorb the sauce so don't worry if it looks really wet at first). For best / more flavor add hot sauce or Sriracha to taste, some salt and vinegar for a little tang. Mix well - put slow cooker back on low or warm to reheat to desired temperature.

Serve on favorite buns with some Cole Slaw on top.

Thomas Keller's BEST EVER simple Roasted Chicken

Looking around online for a new and easy roasted chicken recipe, I found this article on BuzzFeed where they did a cook off of the ten best roast chicken recipes from greats like Thomas Keller, Martha Stewart, Julia Child, Jamie Oliver and so on.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/christinebyrne/roast-chicken-rules#4befe4q

Seeing that Thomas Keller's incredibly simple recipe was the winner, I needed to give it a try. I mean come on! Three ingredients? You really can't screw this one up. You can follow the link above for pictures & the recipe but it's this uncomplicated:

• allow chicken to come to room temperature
• preheat oven to 450 degrees
• dry chicken all over & in the cavity with paper towels (moisture is not your friend)
• generously add kosher salt & some ground black pepper to the cavity
• generously salt the outside of the chicken with kosher salt & black pepper
• truss the bird (there's a nice YouTube video to see TK demonstrate trussing)
• put on roasting rack, in roasting pan
• throw in oven for 50-60 minutes until gorgeous golden all over
• take out of oven and let sit on cutting board still trussed for 15 minutes
• carve and serve

Best chicken ever! So juicy it's out of control.

** excuse my amateur trussing technique - needs practice ***

Aldo Sohm Wine Bar, NYC

For our anniversary we met up at the newly opened Aldo Sohm Wine Bar (www.aldosohmwinebar.com) across the courtyard from Le Bernardin where Aldo is also still the sommelier. This is a nice space with bar, sofas and high top tables. Small plates menu accompanies the wine selections. We started with a bottle of champagne and ordered the four cheese sample from Murray's Cheese as well as fennel salami and truffle mousse pate. We added to that the much raved about foie gras lollipops and the truffle pasta with grated yak cheese. Finished off the experience with a half bottle of red wine.

Overall a really nice addition to midtown - a sophisticated happy hour with lots of men in suits unwinding with bottles from the well balanced list. But you have to get there early - by 6 PM all the seats are taken and it's standing room only with little space left over to navigate around patrons all waiting like vultures for a table to open up.

Word of adivce - if you do get there late, immediately see the hostess if you can find her and get your name on the list for a table. It is not first come, first served.