after hearing about the book the island at the center of the world (russell shorto) from john, i went to the cambridge public library this morning to check it out. it's about the city of new amsterdam founded by dutch colonists before the english took it over and renamed it new york. i also picked up a biography on chiang kai-shek and a historical book about lost boston.

later i went to market basket to pick up some ingredients for making pulled pork (partially inspired by what my sister made last night). i bought 5 lbs. of pork butts for $8.50 along with a bottle of special spicy BBQ sauce. i found a bunch of slow cooker pulled pork recipes online, but in the end i just went with the simplest recipe. i basically cut the pork butts in half so it'll fit inside my crock pot. i cooked everything on high, and added some chopped garlic and about a cup of chinese rice wine. the wine was a suggestion from my mother, who said it'd mask the unpleasant pork smell during cooking.

i started slow cooking at 2:00 and didn't get to eat until well after 10:00. around 8:00 i took out the pork butts and shredded (pulled) it with some forks. apart from the rice wine, there was also a lot of leftover juices, which i threw away. any part of the pork that wasn't covered in liquids ended up being a little dry (so in the future, add more fluids). i then put the properly shredded pork back into the crock pot, emptying the full 16 oz. content of the BBQ sauce into the mixture as well. the final pulled pork was okay, but i wonder if it would've been better had i slow cooked with the sauce from the beginning. there just seems to be a slight blandness in flavor with the pulled pork that i made tonight. another future idea would be to create my own BBQ sauce (a combination of apple vinegar, brown sugar, and other ingredients).

a little home renovation project: i sealed the threshold of my bedroom door with a clear silicone caulk. i discovered a few days ago that there's actually a draft that seeps out from the small crack below the floorboard. that's why when i walk into my bedroom in the wintertime it always feels so cold. hopefully things will be a bit warmer now.