BBQ Beef with Cucumber Sunomono

     
     Since beginning this 365 day challenge, I have come to LOVE my slow cooker.  It is amazing to come home from work and have dinner ready to eat!  Sometimes I prepare dinner the night before and then just stick it in the slow cooker in the morning before leaving.  Anyway, I have never made shredded BBQ beef and we had some hamburger buns to use up so it sounded like a good idea.  I found a promising recipe on allrecipes.com (my LIFESAVER, I think 90% of my recipes come from this site). So here's the recipe:

BBQ Beef:

Chuck Roast ( I believe mine was 1.85 lbs )
2 Tbl flour
1 can of tomato sauce
1 chopped onion
4 Tbl brown sugar
2 tsp. beef bouillon
1 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. mustard powder

1.  Rub the roast down with flour and then salt and pepper it to taste
2.  Mix everything else and pour over meat in the slow cooker.
3.  Cook on high for 8 hours - At about 7 or 7.5 hours, remove the roast and shred.  I used two forks and just pulled it all apart and then replaced it in the slow cooker, mixing it well to coat the meat with the sauce and allow the flavoring to soak into the meat.

     I'm not one for measuring precisely.  These are estimates based off of the original recipe, but I tend to add a lot more seasoning than a recipe calls for because I love a good strong flavor.  After getting the meat going I also made the cucumber sunomono.  Apparently those vinegar soaked cucumbers that your mom made with the extra cucumbers from a garden, are actually called Sunomono and is a Japanese dish.  Well anyway, here's the recipe for the marinade:

2 large cucumbers, peeled and sliced
1/3 c. rice vinegar
4 tsp white sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ginger (it called for 1 1/2 tsp fresh ginger root but I used what I had in my spice cupboard instead)

Mix all ingredients except cucumbers.  Put in freezer bag, add cucumbers and swish around occasionally to make sure they marinade evenly.   This recipe was delicious that night but my cucumbers got kinda soggy by the 2nd day.  Maybe that's normal, but I don't remember my mom's or mother-in-law's ever going soggy.  When all was said and done, my husband loved the BBQ beef and the cucumbers provided a nice fresh contrast of flavor and color.