Down Home Pot Roast

I recently went on a trip to Ft. Worth to visit some great friends and to see one of my mentors live, Mr. Dave Ramsey. The man knows how to stir up an audience of 7,000 plus individuals looking for advice on life, marriage, kids and money. On my trek from Kansas down south, I most likely witnessed our entire nation's supply of beef between Oklahoma City and Dallas. I mean, are you freaking kidding me? You've got Herefords and Angus and Limousin and heifers and steers and cows! (Now you know what all I remembered from my animal science class). All these happy cattle, roaming fields, all heads down feeling their way across the plains with their mouths. And I took a silent moment, to thank God for the circle of life. Hey, I'm no vegetarian, but have you really taken a moment to think about where your food comes from?

After staring at miles and miles of cattle and spending some time in the Lone Star state, I decided there was only one recipe that I really needed to blog about. 

Down home pot roast.

Do you ever get that *sniff* "ahhhh" feeling when you walk through the front door after a long day of sitting on your ass and staring at the computer when you take that first whiff of stewing meat and veggies?

Yeah. You know that moment.

That moment -- there's nothing sweeter. Or savory-er?

Nothing quite says welcome to the Midwest like beef and fresh vegetables thrown together in Madame Crockpot. And at the same time, the Midwest would not be complete without the love and grace of its people to craft the perfect pot roast.

Down Home Pot Roast

You'll need...
3 potatoes
4 carrots
1 package of white mushrooms
2 lb. chuck roast
1 packet of Lipton onion soup mix
2 tbs. of butter
1/3 cup of flour
2 tsp. of meat tenderizer
Salt and pepper

Madame Crockpot never fails me. She is a hand-me-down from my Nana. I like to think she is watching over me whenever I pull out the crockpot. It only has two real settings: happy and warm or spit-fire hot. Just like Nana.

Take your chuck roast and generously sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides.

Add your favorite meat seasoning. I just used meat tendorizer, but garlic salt, onion powder or even a BBQ blend will work.

Sprinkle some flour...

And work it into the meat with your hands. Yeah, you and chuck roast sort of bond through this process.

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium to high heat in a large skillet, but be careful to not burn the butter as I am demonstrating. Although it did make for a really good crust on the roast.

Strike that. Brown that butter, baby.

Brown the meat on both sides, about 3-4 minutes per side.

Aww yeah. See that butter crust? Think of the possibilities. It's just like when you get a little butter crust on a cheese quesadilla. Your hips and taste buds won't lie. 

Grab a pair of tongs and carefully lift the roast into your crockpot. No, I didn't throw this away. Although the plastic liner I use for easy cleanup could be easily mistaken for a waste basket. Just get past the plastic...

Dump one packet of Lipton's French onion soup mix on top of the meat.

Pour about 1 1/2 cups of water, just enough so that the water is covering half of the meat.

Like dis. Cover on low for 4 hours. Or, if you have a touchy Madame Crockpot, crank it to high. It'll be falling apart before you know it!

Go take a nap or listen to some old school Maxwell or watch Robin Hood. 

All of these things are good.

In the mean time, peel and cut the carrots and potatoes into 2 inch pieces or 1 inch or half inch. Hell, it's your pot roast so you can do whatcha wanna do! Throw in some celery for all I care!

This is about 4 hours into cooking time and I decided that the veggies were ready to join the party. You can also boil the carrots and potatoes in a pot of water and dump it in the crockpot during the last half hour of cooking time. Or you can start the veggies at the same time as the meat, I just didn't want the potatoes and carrots to be too mushy.

Match made in beef heaven if you ask me. Cover and keep on low for another 4 hours.

Then go do something else.

And then go looking inside the fridge for a snack because the fumes from cooking meat are starting to get to you. Then find some mushrooms that were hiding behind the milk jug.

I decided these just had to go in with the roast. So I cut them in quarters and threw them in the mix in the last 2 hours of cooking time. It just felt like the right thing to do.

After 8 hours, I couldn't take it any more. I grabbed the tongs and the meat was just falllllling apart. Tell me that's not a pretty sight to see! I served this up with a side salad and some warm sourdough bread.

Get down home and make this pot roast. Make your inner Texan howl out loud and all that shit. Your Midwestern mates would be proud.

Clean Slate

I drank way too much on New Year's Eve.

I am never not drinking again.

You see, when you reunite with some of your closest sorority sisters (ahem, yep, I was one of 'em) it's easy to miscount the number of drinks one might consume in a few hours. I went from an educated 25-year-old working woman to a newbie college student at her first college party in a matter of seconds.

We started doing robot poses.

It got weird.

So the next day, after letting go of any shred of hope that I might be able to function, I rolled around in my cheetah robe and thanked God for my boyfriend and his willingness the night before to buy Jimmy John's after narrowly escaping a pick-pocketer.

Like I said.

It got weird.

I decided to lay low for a couple of days and then grabbed the leftover salmon lox in my fridge and had a brilliant idea. A new year calls for a new recipe.

Smoked Salmon Dip

You'll need....
8 oz. block of cream cheese, softened
3 oz. of smoked salmon
1 tsp. capers
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. dill
Juice from half of a lemon
Couple dashes of Tabasco

I used my Ninja for this but a food processor or even a fork will do!

Add the cream cheese to the Ninja. It will need to be softened. I grabbed mine straight out of the fridge and popped it in the microwave for 20 seconds and it worked perfectly.

Isn't the color of salmon so beautiful? I have found the best lox at Costco but of course, living in the Midwest we don't have a ton of options for this type of delicate fish!

Squeeze a half of a lemon into the mix.

Couple of dashes of Tabasco. I used 3-4 dashes. It's the cajun in me.

About one teaspoon of dried dill. Give or take. You can't go wrong with dill and salmon.

Couple of dashes of Worcestershire.

If you haven't tried capers, you have not lived! They taste like mini pickles. My little sis lives off these things. Capers also make an appearance in my dad's chicken scallipini -- so devine!

I put in about one teaspoon of capers. You may add as much as you'd like.

Let the blades work through the cream cheese mixture...

Blend until the dip looks pink in color. Wouldn't this be fun for one of those color-themed parties? I heard about these "white" parties where all the food is white and you have to dress in white. I wonder if all the people are white, too? In that case, I'm not sure how many pink people there are in the world that would come to my pink party.

I digress.

And then I digest. 

Spread these on your favorite cracker. I had buttery club crackers but tablewater crackers, veggies or your favorite bagel would be heavenly.

May you have a great start to your new year and remember: Dip. Don't drink! (Too much.)

French Onion Soup

Life decided to go by in a flash from July to November. In a matter of months I:

• Partied with 25 of my closest relatives in Beavers Bend National State Park in Oklahoma.
• Contemplated on moving in with a boy for the first time in my life.
• Comforted my best friend in Florida.
• Turned 25.
• Experienced the musical phenomenon Wicked.
• Decided life was moving too fast and took a day off from it.

It was time to take a break, unwind, and let the cooking do the talkin'. Sometimes it's nice to be quiet, pensive, and let my hands do the work -- not my mind. So naturally comfort food was produced and consumed.

French Onion Soup

Nothing says fall quite like French onion soup. It warmed my heart and stilled my mind. Even if it was for a moment.

You'll need....
4 large onions
1 cup white wine (I used Riesling, it's what I had on hand)
4 cups chicken stock
4 cups beef stock
2 cloves minced garlic
worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon thyme
1/2 stick butter
3 tablespoons olive oil
italian blend cheese (any cheese will do: swiss, provolone, gruyere, whatever's your favorite!)
french bread, cut into 1 inch slices

I also used sea salt to season the onions as they cooked. It's about to get smellin' good y'all!

Cut the onion in half and then slice in thin strips. You may start crying and your eyes will burn but it's worth the pain.

Throw the onions into a large pot with 1/2 stick butter and about 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Throw in a generous sprinkle of sea salt and pepper. Heat should be medium high. 

Let the onions sweat in the pot. The goal is to get these cooked down to a nice golden brown so I threw a lid on the pot and stirred every 5 minutes so they cooked evenly.

This is about 10 minutes in. By now your kitchen should smell amazing. Your neighbors might even be knocking on the door asking about the sinly aromas sneaking out of your front door.  

Make sure to scrape off the brown bits at the bottom. Those are the flavor nuggets! I let the onions cook down about 25 minutes until they got to this color. At this point, pour in a generous cup of white wine. I had Riesling on hand so that's what I used. I would recommend using a nice pinot grigio for this soup though. Mmm, nothing like a good pinot and onion combination! 

Turn down the burner to medium heat and add 4 cups of chicken stock.

Add in 4 cups of beef stock. Do you like my fancy new measuring cup? It's silicone and I love it. Oh, the simple kitchen pleasures in life.  

 Press two cloves of garlic and add into the pot.

I added about a tablespoon of thyme. Parsley would also be good in this soup. Or both! Your choice.

Add a few dashes of worcestershire sauce. Your taste buds will thank you later.

 Let the pot come back up to a boil, about 10 minutes. 

The best way to serve up this soup is by topping it with slices of french bread. My sis toasted the slices under the broiler brushed with some garlic butter before we added it to the ramekins.  

Top off with a handful of your favorite cheese. We used an italian blend but any white cheese will do! Put everything under the broiler for about 3 minutes until cheese is melted and browned.

Oh, baby! 

The bread soaks in the soup from the bottom. Let your spoon hit the crunchiness of the bread and the soft onions and melty cheese. Happy fall!