The Pot Roast Diaries

What inspired me to make a pot roast was Kim - she's trying to get her diabetes better under control and they were coming over for dinner. The lasagna was out the door - I do make a mean lasagna but I'm from Long Island so that's not saying much - the ability to work a smattering of Yiddish in conversation, to do some very creative hand waving when excited and cook a lasagna that could make angels cry is just part of your DNA. Unfortunately it's also Carb Overload - Kim suggested we could go out, she said that's sometimes easier because she has the ability to pick foods she can eat - but what's the challenge in that? I recently located my grandparent's cookbook, along with my Betty Crocker New Picture Cook Book circa 1961 so I decided to kick it old school - I'm making a pot roast I announced and I think Kim was a little impressed at potentially  having a Pot Roast Cooking Friend in her address book. 

                                                                               

 I'd already bought heritage baby carrots at Whole foods because they  make me feel fancy andlike  I know what I'm doing because they are so perfect and  colorful - yellow, purple, orange. I went to Safeway on Saturday for the rest of the ingredients and then headed to the meat section. Now, as a vegetarian I do not spend  my free time peeping at the corpse display, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. And then I realized three things - A) I have made it to the age of 58 without ever cooking a pot roast, B) I'm not entirely sure I've ever seen a pot roast and this lead to C) I have no idea what a pot roast looks like. Hmm. I saw some things that looked like what I imagined a pot roast would but I finally gave up and called Kim. She didn't know either - they were broke when they got married and then were vegetarians for quite few years so they hadn't had any pot roast either. She had Stephen google it and he actually said I should look for a pot roast with  A LOT OF CONNECTIVE TISSUE  thereby ensuring, til the day I die, I  will NEVER EVER EAT MEAT. EVER. I found some nice connective tissue marked pot roast - hmm. Connective tissue is a bit pricey in case you've never made a pot roast - but you know what - I was all in by this time so I headed home with my $36 worth of meat riding shotgun. 

I hauled out my dutch oven and found a simple, but super great recipe. Did you know if you cook 4.5 pounds of pot roast it takes about 4 hours? I set the timer for every hour since I had to buy two of them so I could keep switching the bottom one out. I added the little potatoes (I used the little ones in stew too, great time saver. You just cut them in half and throw them in - no peeling or chopping), the baby carrots (ditto). Just an FYI, do not waste your money on Heritage Baby Carrots at Whole Foods,  they go in all impressive and showy, then they all turn brownish because they're boiling in meat juice and broth. So I'm sure you're wondering after all this strum and drama how it turned out........ it turned out perfect. It smelled amazing and everyone had seconds and I think thirds. It was fun to really be cooking something that took time and preparation, we had wine and salad- all the trimmings. And now I can add a dish to my repertoire - pot roast which sounds a hell of a lot better than Hot Connective Tissues.