Pot roast and mashed potatoes...YUM! I was imagining how the aroma would waft through our house. Creeping up the stairs, and into every nook and cranny. I could almost feel the happy, warm, fullness in my belly. My thoughts drifted to visions of happy kids, spooning every bite happily into their mouths. Begging for more! A lovely dinner, had by all. But alas, it was all of 10am :)
We had a date as a family to clean the garage, so a trip to the store wasn't on my to do list. I had no pot roast cut of beef, but I did have a Tri-tip roast. So...called my mom (had to get the go ahead, that a Tri-tip would suffice:) then got to work. Had a bag of carrots, plenty of onion, and coincidentally a brand new box of beef stock I had accidentally opened thinking it was chicken broth yesterday.
Here is what I used:
1 Tri-tip roast
1 onion (chopped to your liking)
1 cube of frozen garlic
2 bay leaves
Just about 3/4 of a cup of red wine, give or take a little
32 oz. of beef broth
Chopped carrots (I used 6 I think)
Fresh Thyme and Parsley
Smoked paprika just a few shakes
Salt and pepper
First things first, I started cooking onion in some olive oil. Just getting it nice and soft, translucent and then a bit browned. I threw in the roast and seared it. I did NOT cook it, just a quick turn for some color. Something I heard from Carla Hall last year at the Taste of Tulalip cooking demo... "There is flavor in the brown." :) I love that!
Then I threw it in the crockpot and added the rest of my stuff. I tossed in the carrots, the wine, the broth, bay leaves, garlic, a few shakes of my smoked paprika, just for flava :) and then added some fresh chopped parsley, and a little bunch of fresh thyme. I had already tossed in a 1/2 tsp of dried, but decided to float a small bunch of fresh. You can see the thyme pretty clearly. The parsley was not a full handful. Maybe half a handful, chopped. Then I let it sit and sit and sit.
It was on high from about 10:30am, until 4pm. Then I turned it to low. You need to decide what is best for you and your crockpot. Mine cooks SUPER hot. It was at a boil at 4 when I checked it. By then all my day dreams were coming true. Lifting the lid, the smells filled my nose and my heart was happy :)
By 7 when we were ready to eat, it was falling apart. Joe used our meat cleaver (not sure why) to pull it apart. Perhaps that's the manly way to do it :) Though it was SO tender!
Now we are in training, Joe and I, for a half marathon coming up in December. I knew we needed (ok I needed) mashed potatoes to eat happily :) But as I said we had a date to clean the garage and run training meant we had a longer run to get in. So I did what any self sufficient busy mom would do...I called my mommy!
Growing up my mom made mashed potatoes, I could swear she made them once a week. Happily the case for me. I have brought myself up to be a decent cook, but for some reason I cannot make mashed potatoes that ever come close to my mamas. So although I was somehow on top of my dinner, with all my garage cleaning and running I knew potatoes were going to be tough. SO Thank you Mommy :) Not only did she watch our kids while we ran but she had piping hot mashers waiting for us when I picked them up! Now that's love! Here they are all silky and beautiful!
Long story...still kind of long :) Dinner was delish! Hit the spot and was everything I hoped for. I love when you want something so bad and it turns out just how you hoped. Well almost...The kids... well Delaney, said it was not good (gasp!) I don't take it personal any more. She says that even when I make her favorite meal. It's a phase right!?!?!
It is that time of year. So here's to tummy warming, tongue tickling delicacies!
enJOY!!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
1 comment:
Sumptuous delight!
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