This is an America’s Test Kitchen recipe.  I love those guys.  This is the second time I’ve made it.  It’s not too labor-intensive, especially if you skip the frying-the-tostadas part (but they’re good, so I did it).  One thing I did differently was to cook the pork all day in the crockpot.  That significantly reduces the active cooking time.

Ingredients

Tinga

• 2 pounds boneless pork butt, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1-inch pieces (see note)
• 2 medium onions, 1 quartered and 1 chopped fine
• 5 medium garlic cloves, 3 peeled and smashed and 2 minced or pressed through garlic press (about 2 teaspoons)
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme (I used a generous shake of dried because the store never has thyme and it failed in my garden this year)
•  kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 of a 14.5-ounce can tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon ground chipotle powder (I ordered it from Penzey‘s)
• 2 bay leaves

Tostadas

• 3/4cup vegetable oil
• 12(6-inch) corn tortillas (see note)
•   Table salt

Garnishes

•   Queso fresco or feta cheese
•   Fresh cilantro leaves
•   Sour cream
•   Diced avocado
•   Lime wedges

Instructions

• 1. FOR THE TINGA: Place pork, quartered onion, smashed garlic cloves, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, and 6 cups water in a slow cooker.  Cook on low for 8 hours or so.  When ready to move on, remove pork and discard remaining slow cooker contents except one cup of cooking liquid.  Set reserved cooking liquid aside.  Trim visible fat from pork and shred it into smallish pieces.
• 2. Heat olive oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add shredded pork, chopped onion, and oregano; cook, stirring often, until pork is well browned and crisp, 7 to 10 minutes. Add minced garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
• 3. Stir in tomato sauce, chipotle powder, reserved pork cooking liquid, and bay leaves; simmer until almost all liquid has evaporated, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove and discard bay leaves and season with salt to taste.
• 4. TO FRY TOSTADAS: Heat vegetable oil in 8-inch heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat to 350 degrees. Using fork, poke center of each tortilla 3 or 4 times (to prevent puffing and allow for even cooking). Fry 1 at a time, holding metal potato masher in upright position on top of tortilla to keep it submerged, until crisp and lightly browned, 45 to 60 seconds (no flipping is necessary). Drain on paper towel-lined plate and season with salt to taste. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
• 5. TO SERVE: Spoon small amount of shredded pork onto center of each tostada and serve, passing garnishes separately.

Quiche is another of those meals I can usually make with what’s around.  If I were awesome, I would make my own pie crust, but that kind of negates the point of an easy meal, no?

I buy 4-packs of frozen pie dough blobs.  I think they’re better than the frozen ones that come pre-pressed into the tins, but they’re way easier than making pie crust from scratch (I save that effort for special desserts).

Ingredients:

• 1 single-crust pie dough
• 1/2 onion
• other veggies (I used red bell pepper and zucchini)
• whatever herbs you like (I used oregano since it seemed to be going an Italian direction)
• cheese of your choice, 3 oz or so
• 6 eggs
• 1 cup milk, cream, half-and-half, or whatever you have, in whatever proportion seems right for the occasion

I also sometimes add bacon or prosciutto or whatever else I have around, but it’s good without meat too.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Roll out pie crust and fit into a 9-inch pie pan (not deep-dish).  Saute vegetables until tender; season with S&P and whatever herbs and spices you like.  Sprinkle veggies more or less evenly over crust.  Cover with cheese.  In a bowl, beat eggs, milk, and some S&P.   Pour over vegetables and cheese.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on how cooked you like your eggs.  Let sit for a few minutes before serving.  You may need to use a pie crust guard to prevent excessive browning around the edges.

I served this with fruit salad.  Green salad would be good too.