Cooking spree! Pork and Cabbage Soup

I was afraid to restock my Ike-emptied fridge for the first 2 weeks after electricity was restored. Catching sight of both doors open for 15 days never failed to give me a start... kind of like seeing a relative laying on the kitchen floor bleeding profusely would. Not sure I'd survive throwing away another freezer full. Not to mention the dread of cooking everything all at once again.

Good decision because 10 days later it went off for 24 hours (new tree-falls on my lines). But it knocked comcast out of order which took 5 days to fix. I decided the odds of electricity failing again were enormous, and I couldn't work with no internet access, so I went shopping. I purchased 4 family packs of different pig parts :O! None of them cost over $1.67lb so I drug out the Foodsaver and started cooking (Please, Brer Fox, please don't throw me into the briar patch - this time it was fun cooking everything at once.)

First start was a loaf of whole wheat bread. My courtyard table gives the best rises but I wondered how it would be affected when the current coldwave kept the temp below 80 even at high noon. No worry. This happened in just under an hour. And, by Jove, Jon Stewart's right. Karl Rove's face DOES look like a loaf of unbaked bread dough.
All three dishes were prepped at the same time, in 3 different areas of the kitchen, so I guess I'll separate them by dish. (Hope I don't have to say these were finished and eaten over 36 hours) First was getting the pork and cabbage soup started in the crockpot.

This was .99lb pork steak cut into pieces and sauteed. Under the top steak (both packages) the steaks were 25% pork fat so I guess I'll be rendering lard in the near future. Not sure what I'll use it for but everyone from Homesick Texan to the top chefs give how to instructions and recipes on their blogs so what the hey.
Tossed the pork, raw onions, celery, carrots, and cabbage in the crockpot with Italian spices and poured in a can of diced tomatoes. 8 hours later it looked like this and I sliced into the whole wheat bread.


Mmmmm. This is good even if it's not cold outside.