Saturday, December 30, 2006

Pot Roast

Tonight I decided to try out one of my Christmas Presents, a Rival Crock Pot. My old one was getting old for an appliance. My mother-in-law gave it to me, and it was a wedding gift from when she got married. This one is so nifty! You can take out the inner part and wash it, and it has a setting to keep your meal warm until you're ready to eat. I plan on using it a lot. Tonight I tried a beef underblade roast with a can of cream of mushroom soup, 4 cloves of garlic, some apple cider vinegar, and a few turkey stock cubes from the freezer. As I was trimming the roast, it occured to me that I would be making a huge meal! The beef was two and a half pounds, and I'm really not big on leftover pot roast. I thought about freezing whatever was left after cooking, but that idea didn't excite me either. Then, it occured to me in a flash: why not freeze half of the roast before cooking? And that's exactly what I did. Sitting in the freezer now is an uncooked roast that I can just stick in the Crock Pot on a day I don't know what to do for dinner.


It doesn't look too great now, but it will once it's cooked! On the side we had homemade beer bread, toasted and sprinkled with garlic salt, and some green beans.

The verdict
I'm glad we'll be having this meal again, because it sure was good! The vinegar made a good job of tenderizing the meat, and the soup made for a good base. I'd never tried making garlic bread out of beer bread, but it was tasty, too. This was a delicious, down-home type of meal. I give it 4 stars for taste and 2 and a half stars for health.

3 comments:

Kat said...

Crockpots rock!!! I love mine. There are several great cookbooks called "fix it and forget it" that are nothing but crock recipes...i used one to do a whole turkey breast in my crock...and boy was it yummy! ( and the being able to take the crock part out and set it on the table, then wash it...big bonus!

Jacki said...

Thanks kat, I'll be on the lookout for those cookbooks. How do you do a whole turkey breast? I have one sitting in my freezer right now!!

Kat said...

I'd love to tell you but, my cookbooks are somewhere between Los Angeles and Florida ( I hope they are enjoying the trip).
But if i remember correctly, something like 2 cups of chicken broth ( or turkey broth/stock if you have it), Cover the outside with melted butter ( or I can't believe its not butter spray is what I alwasy did) then douse liberally with lemon pepper, put half a diced onion and 2-3 stalks of celery cut up into the cavity. Place it in the slow cooker ( meaty side down), pour broth or stock aournd the brest, cover with tin foil if the lid won't quite go on, cook on high for 1-2 hours and on low for approximently 4 more...obviously make sure its actually cooked before eating it. I think thats right but i'll look it up for you when our stuff arrives in Florida. Happy crocking =) ( Btw try adding rosemary to your next pot roast...adds a nice woody flavor! we had prime rib with rosemary in some snazzy eatery some relatives took us to and hve been adding it to roasts ever since!)