2 medium yams, halved
1/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons cream
1 teaspoon dried parsley
salt and pepper

1. Wash yams, pat dry and lightly coat with flour.
2. Bake in a 350 degree oven until tender (about 45 minutes.)
3. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and then fry skin of yams.
4. Scoop out inside of yam and reserve in a bowl.
5. Add butter and warm cream to the yam and mash thoroughly. Season with parsley, salt and pepper and return to their skins. Bake again if desired.

Makes 4 servings

2 cups baby brussel sprouts or regular halved
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg, beaten
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons pistachios
salt and pepper

1. Boil, steam or microwave the brussel sprouts until they are tender but still retain their shape.
2. Let sprouts cool, then roll them in flour, egg, then flour again.
3. Melt butter in a pan over medium heat and fry all sides of the brussel sprouts.
4. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with warmed pistachios.

Makes 4 servings

4 pound pork shank
1 bulb garlic
1/2 pound sausage, cooked and sliced
1 large onion, sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
water or stock
salt and pepper

1. Trim pork of excess fat then score fatty side like a 4×4 grid.
2. Rub pork with olive oil, salt and pepper until completely coated.
3. Sear all sides of pork in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
4. Transfer pork to a large roaster. Press garlic cloves and sausage into crosses of the scored side and cover with onions.
5. Fill roaster a little more than 1/3 full with water or stock and cover tightly.
6. Put roaster in a 350 degree oven and cook until a meat thermometer registers at 155 degrees (about an hour and a half.)

Makes 16 servings

Everyone seems to be selling pork for ridiculous prices this week, so I'd be a fool to pass up on these specials. The 4 pound roast I made tonight was barely .00. Sure, I probably trimmed a pound of fat off of it before roasting, but that's still a fantastic deal.

The cheap cuts of meat are generally my favorite. I'd rather have something tender from the crockpot than tenderloin for example. It's so easy just to throw something in a pot and forget about it and the results are always perfect.
Not surprisingly the Braised Garlic Pork Shank was wonderful. Shannon absolutely loved it. I made it earlier in the afternoon and we were both pulling bits off of it while it cooled. It's tender and infused with a nice garlic and onion flavor. I've already got plans for the leftovers for Tomorrow.

For side dishes we had Brussel Sprouts and Baked Yam. The yam recipe seemed very strange to me and I reread it several times before deciding that even though it didn't make a lot of sense that I would try it anyway. The idea was that you peeled the yam and then baked it covered in flour and eventually this would brown and form a shell. After an hour and a half of baking it was still white as snow and showed no signs of changing, so I pan-fried it. Not only did I miss the skin (my favorite part) but the whole substitute barely worked out at all. They tasted great (assuming you like yam, there's no such thing as a bad one) but it was a disappointing experience.

The brussel sprouts were brussel sprouts, which means Shannon didn't eat them and I didn't like them. The ones I used were sort of bitter and the batter suggestion just sort of made them slightly burnt tasting. Even the pistachios absorbed a brussel sprout flavor. Brussel sprouts are one of those super healthy foods that have to be eaten in unhealthy ways for me to want to choke them down, like smothered with cheese sauce.