Our summer hot spell hasn't been conducive to heating up the kitchen with a fiery oven. I actually used to scoff at the idea that an enclosed, fully self-contained box could warm up an entire room but, having experienced that whole sweat running down my face in the midst of a cooking frenzy, I'm going to have to change my beliefs. Maybe it's the combination of scurrying to put together a meal, along with the heated oven, all I know is I can go from just cool as a cucumber fine to ready to drop over from heat prostration, in about 5 minutes time.
All that to say, I decided to do my roast in the crock pot yesterday. If it were up to me, I would've eaten the leftovers from a cornbread salad and called it a suitable summer meal but the hubby wants his meat and potatoes, no matter how hot it might be outside - or inside.
What can you say about a recipe that involves cutting up a few potatoes and carrots, dumping on some packets of sauces, and then waiting for the outcome? Oh wait, I know something "newsworthy" in cooking up this particular meal! I bought and used, for the first time, those crock pot liners you see next to the aluminum foil and saran wrap in the grocery store. My crockpot is a large oval shape so I worried when the bag seemed to be more rounded but, once it was all unpleated and separated, darned if the handy little contraption didn't fit perfectly over the bowl of my crockpot. And, just as promised on the box, clean up was a breeze thanks to the liner.
Oh, and the roast turned out incredibly moist and tasty. I liked the "gravy" because it wasn't quite as heavy as what comes out when using cream of mushroom soup. This was more like a hybrid between gravy and au jus.
As with anything crockpot, your house will have that "yes, I'm in control of my schedule and a fabulous home-cooked meal is awaiting you at the end of the day" promise wafting through the air from morning until time to eat. What man can resist that aroma letting him know all is right in his castle?
Before we go any further, I should confess that my picture comes from the website where I got this recipe so thank you Marie, of Mariescookingadventure. You're just going to have to trust me on this one - in real life my final product looked identical to Marie's, but every time I try to immortalize roast via photography, my version turns out looking like a big pile of dog food. Or worse.
Best Ever Pot Roast
from Mariescookingadventure.com
What you need:
NOTE: The "I use" annotations are from Marie. I followed her advice as closely as possible, except for the Western Brand italian dressing. No such thing in my store so I went with Stater Bro. brand.
A 2-5 lb roast. (any kind) (I use a lean cut, about 3 lbs.)
1 envelope ranch dressing (dried) (I use Hidden Valley brand, not buttermilk)
1 envelope Italian dressing (I use Western Family brand.)
1 envelope brown gravy mix (I use McCormick brand)
Potatoes and Carrots (enough to fill a bottom layer on your CrockPot) I use about 7 or 8 baby red potatoes and a half pound of carrots to feed 3-4.
1 to 1-1/2 cup water
What you do:
Put any carrots and potatoes in the bottom of your CrockPot. I usually quarter my potatoes and use baby carrots.
Put Roast on top of vegetables.
Sprinkle all 3 spice envelopes on top.
Add the water.
Cook on LOW for 6-10 hours until tender and veggies cooked through.It is better to cook the roast longer. This will be sooooo tender and yummy!! (I (Barbara, not Marie) set my crockpot to 10 hours. She (Marie, not Barbara) was right - very tender and very yummy.)
If the Ohio Stoops have a crock pot this might be a nice thing to make for them, along with a nice salad and another vegetable on the side. (So J can still eat if she doesn't want the beef.) Limited mess if you use the crockpot liner, not much slicing and dicing so you're not messing around someone else's kitchen long.
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