Tuesday, March 18, 2008

By Popular Demand!


So, Pamibe wanted the pot roast tricks. Well, here they are...Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

First put a mess of flour on a plate or in a large paper sack. Liberally sprinkle salt, pepper and garlic powder on (in) it. Now take a good sized chuck roast and dredge in with the flour/spice mix or drop it in the bag and shake well.

Now, repeat with a Boston Butt pork roast, usually somewhat smaller than the beef roast. Note: No one will kill you for skipping the pork if you happen to be Jewish, Muslim or some other religion that has pig-phobia. Do not trim the fat off until the cooking is complete.

Now sear the roasts on both sides over high heat. This doesn't do anything but make the outside of the roasts a little prettier and may be skipped. Put the roast(s) into a good sized roaster. Fill the roaster with water about one third of the way up the roasts.

Cut up a large onion and a couple of potatoes. You should have several bags of frozen stew vegetables, in addition. Given a choice I like PictSweet but frozen vegetables are, after all, frozen vegetables. You will want the total weight of vegetables to be somewhat more than the weight of meat. If you have extra carrots or celery in the fridge, here is your chance to get rid of it. For instance I don't have the teeth to eat raw carrots anymore but the dogs love them. However, too much carrots in their diet leads to messes on the floor so half the bag goes to waste. Not this time!

Add a couple of bay leaves to the water, sprinkle some more garlic powder on, a little sage, any other spices that sound good on the spur of the moment. Cover and put it in the oven. Now, leave it alone. Just don't let it run out of water. It needs to cook for three-four hours. Now trim the excess fat off the roasts and call the dogs.

Serve with Crescent Rolls, brown and serve dinner rolls or your other bread of choice. Since the kids are long gone this one cooking session is a weeks worth of meals for us. Note that you can put individual meal sized bags in the freezer and microwave a real supper. I am not sure how long this lasts in the freezer, I like this stuff too much for it to last long enough to go bad. It's a good deal for the chaotic modern working family that is real lucky to have one or two sit down family suppers per week. Make this, freeze individual meal-bags and everyone gets a good meal at his or her convenience.

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