Smoked Carnitas ((pork butt)) Tacos

Smoked Carnitas ((pork butt)) Tacos

Every year at this time, the clan heads to the lake. Our lake is Table Rock – we spend 51 weeks out of the year counting down to the one week we are ‘home’. There are 26 of us in total, well – this year there are 27.

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We play hard all day – family style. Some are observers, some are drivers, some tube, others ski ((me)), wake board & slalom – others cruise of the wave runners. We have ‘our’ spots – the best coves on the lake and we swim – all of us, together. We also eat family-style and after 55 years of heading to the lake the same week every year…this clan has family-style eating down to a fine art.

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Each individual family joins with another family & are responsible for 2 entire dinners in the week. This means that there are 5 nights we all have a ‘break’ from cooking. It works out great.

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This year, I tagged teamed on ‘Mexican Night’. David & I started our work early by smoking 10 lbs of park butt & freezing it BEFORE we hit the road. With the main dish out of the way all that was left were the sides and dessert.

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Along with the tacos, we served, flash-pickled peppers, onions & tomatoes, Mexicali style cream corn, queso with a secret ingredient, a simple fresh guacamole & homemade vanilla strawberry ice cream and birthday cookies for dessert. Here is a link to my recipe for flash-pickling veggies. ((Along with my all-time favorite ‘pin’ ever))

image This pork butt is something David & I do once or twice a year – usually once in the summer & once on Christmas Eve. Typically, I heavily season the meat with Lawry’s seasoned salt. But this time, I decided to add lemon pepper and Montreal style steak seasoning to the mix. It was a hit. The lemon pepper added that extra ‘something’…and will now be a permanent ‘go-to’ when seasoning pork for the smoker. 

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 This is a little glimpse at our ‘lake food’ – that makes up our family’s favorite part of Food for a Year. Many more recipes to come!

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