BBQ, anyone?

I love barbeque!  It embodies all that is good during the summer months--being outdoors, pleasant smells, and yummy food.  Being rushed for time, as we all are, I use my crockpot to make "pseudo" bbq.  Pulled pork to be exact.  Last night I tossed a piece of frozen pork shoulder roast in the crockpot and turned it on low.  This morning at 6:30 it was wonderfully cooked and was fork tender.  I switched the crockpot to warm and forgot about it... until 20 minutes before lunch.

In the old days, I would've grabbed my bottle of KC Masterpiece out of the fridge and piled on the saucy goodness.  More recently though, I've learned that the "saucy goodness" is far from good with high-fructose corn syrup being one of the top ingredients plus artificial coloring and flavorings, soy products, oh, and tomatoes.

Now that I've ditched all my condiments and opted to make my own, it's not something you do on the spur of the moment.  I have to plan because without all the preservatives, homemade condiments usually only last a week or so.  So, there I was with 20 minutes before lunch was supposed to be on the table and no BBQ sauce.  Enter allrecipes.com.  Seriously I wonder how I ever cooked before the internet.  I found a fairly high-rated recipe called Buzzsaw's BBQ Sauce.  With a name like that, it had to be a winner, right?
LOL

Of course I did make a few changes.  I am out of ketchup, so I used about 3/4 cup tomato juice and 1/4 cup of sugar in place of the ketchup and water.  It ended up a bit thin, but I'm sure I could've added more cornstarch to thicken it up.  I really didn't care though, since I was coating the pork.  In a grill situation I probably would've wanted it thicker.  Also, I used sugar because it was handy.  I'm out of honey and the maple syrup is in the downstairs fridge.  Either sweetener would've been fine (and unneeded if you use ketchup which already has sugar in it).

Here is the original recipe.

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1/2 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

3 tablespoons vinegar

2 tablespoons molasses

1 teaspoon prepared mustard

1 cup ketchup

1/2 cup cold water

1 teaspoon cornstarch

Saute the onion in the oil until soft.  Add the garlic and saute a couple minutes more-don't let the garlic burn.  Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well and simmer for 10 minutes.  Sauce should thicken as it heats through.

This sauce was a definite success.  All of the daycare kids ate the pork roast and many asked for seconds.  Hubby only gets a small serving for lunch tomorrow because there wasn't much left.  Hopefully he'll give a thumbs up and this will become our new BBQ sauce-and since it takes less than 15 minutes from start to finish, I can whip this up quickly each time we grill.