[jenny_islander]

This takes 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes at noon, and half an hour before dinner. This is my third-most-exhausted scratch meal (second is plain roast chicken or turkey, first is pasta with freezer meat, and after that it's storebought frozen pizzas and so on.)

1. In the morning, put a big hunk of some barbecue-ready cut of pork or beef in the slow cooker. We use beef neck bones or pork shoulder, about 7 pounds. Put in about a cup of water, put on the lid, turn the cooker on Low, and walk away.

2. After lunch, dip out as much of the stock in the pot as you can. This is delicious as a base for soups and stews.

3. Half an hour before dinner, put on a pot of rice. Put a small saucepan on another burner. Melt a stick of butter in it. Stir in 2 cups brown sugar, a tablespoon of garlic powder, 1/4 cup of your favorite mustard, 1/2 cup honey, and 1/2 tablespoon salt. Taste, adjust the seasoning, spread the sauce over the meat, and leave until the rice is done. The meat should be meltingly tender by now--you should be able to just pull out the bones.

4. Serve with bag salad or a cut-up melon. Or just say "Forget it, we're carbo-loading tonight" and nuke some corn! When I am not exhausted, I make coleslaw the night before (KFC clone recipe yum yum--the secret, BTW, is tarragon vinegar) and butter rolls the day of.