Pork and Pumpkin Stew (and something far more exciting)

Although I have loved making all sorts of new, from-scratch type recipes this year, ever once in awhile you need a good 'starter.'  I love perusing the shelves at Williams-Sonoma and on any given day find half a dozen things that would be neat to try.  Of course I limit myself and actually this little jar is the first food item I have bought from there.

It's not a recipe so much as it is simply following the directions on the jar (which, oh heavens, I very nearly messed up.  true story.), but everyone needs a little no-fail meal help from time to time.

Step one: Purchase a 3ish pound boneless pork shoulder roast

Step two: Cut said roast into 1 1/2ish inch cubes

Step three: Brown said cubes in a skillet with olive oil over medium high heat, about 8-10 minutes per batch

*You can continue preparation in your oven with a Dutch oven or in your slow cooker.  I chose the slow cooker since I wanted this meal to cook while I spent the afternoon at work, and although my work is about 15 steps from my front door, I just didn't think leaving the oven on was a swell idea...

Step four: Misread the directions on the jar and think that the stew needs to cook in the slow cooker for 8-10 hours.  Realize your mistake just in time (before starting slow cooker at 10am) and see that in fact only needs to cook for three hours.  Whew.

Step five: Put browned pork chunks and jar of Pumpkin Stew Starter into slow cooker, cook on high for 3 hours.

Step six: Enjoy!

Serving suggestions on the jar included serving over mashed potatoes, but I thought about it and realized my feelings toward mashed potatoes are just sort of eh, so I served over egg noodles instead.

Verdict:
Um, you know, good.  Especially for something so simple.   I wouldn't necessarily say, "Go!  Run!  Buy this now!"  But I would buy it again if it happened to be in the store next fall.  The consistency was a bit more soupy than I had envisioned.  Something mashed potatoes may have helped.  But the pork was tender (nothing worse than dry pork) and the sauce was a little sweet with a hint of cinnamon that sort of took me back to the glories of Michigan in the fall....

Oh, and we may have enjoyed our stew with a side of this:

Because Alex signed a contract, and we are officially moving back home this summer!!!!!

And you know what that means?  Aside from family and friends and new house and no more bi-monthly 4+ hour I-75 commutes?  I won't need recipes to remind me of Michigan in the fall because I will be in Michigan in the fall!  And truly, there is no better place to be in the fall.

Happy Diva.