justin penney

When I first put the Dakota on the market, I asked Grandpa what he would want for his truck. He threw out a quick number that I felt was fair.

Once the Dakota left, Grandpa let me take is truck on an “extended trial”. I was fairly concerned with the milage and wanted to make sure that it would be reasonable and that I didn’t mind driving it the 25 miles to work.

The truck is a 1990 Ford F-150, extended cab, long-bed. Oh, and two fuel tanks: one is fourteen gallons and the other is sixteen gallons. Despite the heft I was able to eek out fourteen miles per gallon. Not too bad when I was getting sixteen to eighteen in the Dakota.

Today, we were having lunch at my grandparents and Grandpa wanted to do the deal on the truck. He did have a surprise for me. The back of the title was already filled out with a sale price of $1.00.

Grandpa came out to the truck with me to clean out the bed. Even though he hadn’t been able to use the truck in over two years, he still knew exactly where everything was.

Once everything was put away we spent a couple minutes just talking about the truck. Grandpa was reminiscing about things that had been done with it. We talked about maintenance, cleaning, repairs. I mentioned cleaning and that it needed a coat of wax before winter. Granpa looked down and lowered his tone. He said, “I used to be able to take better care of my vehicles.” After a few moment we headed inside.

This felt less like buying a vehicle and more like being handed stewardship of it.

I’ve been threatening to use the slow-cooker more. Today, being cold and un-full, seemed like a great day to start.

Ingredients:

Pork:

• 4 pound pork butt
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 jalapeno
• salt
• pepper
• cinnamon
• cilantro (I didn’t have enough dried and couldn’t find any fresh)
• beer (I used Boulevard pilsner)

Toppings:

• 1 avocado
• 1/2 of a white onion
• queso fresco (crumbly cheese, could use feta if queso fresco can’t be found)
• corn tortillas

Beans:

• canned (exciting)

I bought an 8 pound pork butt and cut it in half, making use of the newly aquired deep freeze. I trimmed the largest pieces of fat off and cut slits in the butt. I stuff the slits with the chopped up garlic and jalapeno. I used about a table spoon of salt and a tablespoon of pepper and rubbed it on the top of the roast. The little bit of dried cilantro was  sprinkled onto the top of the roast along with around a teaspoon of cinnamon. I poured the beer over the top of the roast and set the cooker on high for 6 hours.

The beer and cinnamon flavors consumed the air in our house. The scents were especially potent when coming in from outside. The smell of food in the air makes a home inviting.

Once cooked the meat came apart with a gentle tug of the fork. The meat was piled onto the tortillas and topped with the onions, cheese and avocado. I added a little Cholula sauce to mine but Jacey kept hers naked.

My 2006 Dodge Dakota left with its new owner earlier today. It was a great truck, but it made no sense to be paying on a vehicle that just sat in my driveway.

2006 Dodge Dakota

I’m not sure what I’ll be using for bad weather transportation. I may be buying my grandpa’s truck but on the phone earlier he was leaning toward a “long test drive”. We’ll see how that works out.