Perfectly Pulled Pork

I had this meal one week ago, and I am still craving leftovers. I was part of a moving crew helping to move a friend's mother to her new apartment at the spiffy retirement center here in town. It was a long, hard day of climbing stairs, carrying furniture, unpacking boxes, and trying to keep an 86 year old calm and accepting of change. Whew. After 8 hours of that, we needed a really good meal and some really good wine. Fortunately, we had both.

Dinner was centered around Pulled Pork - a pork shoulder roast cooked for 15 hours in a new smoker, which had been delivered from Santa. Luckily for me, that was not my contribution to the dinner because it required getting up at 2:00 a.m. to start the smoker! My friend's 20-something son cheerfully took on that task - and probably did not have to set his alarm because he was still up at 2:00 a.m. The pork was perfect - falling apart tender, smoky to the core, and amazingly flavorful. Oh, how I wish I had some right now.

We surrounded the pork with soft yeast rolls, homemade cole-slaw, hot polenta with shaved parmesan, and slow cooked beans. The only other thing we needed was fake Southern drawls, but that's a bit hard to pull off in the Napa Valley. The Napa Valley contribution was several bottles of sparkling wine, a couple bottles of Merlot, and a lot of glasses to wash the next morning. Pull me in, though, I'd love a repeat of this one!