A Tough Man's Tender Pot Roast

You can do this.  Start with a good friend, Hamilton Beach.  A slow cooker is great. You just prepare the stuff and switch it on, low and slow.

I tried a recipe for pot roast with tomatoes, and a bunch of other veggies.  I didn't follow it to the letter.  Never do.  I find I'm always improvising.  Basically my ingredients were: 2 lbs of boneless chuck roast, 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 sliced onion, 8 oz sliced mushrooms, some carrots, garlic and celery, 1 can beef broth and a glass of red wine (always).  I seasoned the mix with salt, pepper, Emirel's Italian Seasoning.

I seared the meat in a frying pan first to help seal in the juices, about two minutes per side.  Then I sauteed the onions, garlic and mushrooms in the same pan, having removed the meat and wrapped it in foil.  I put the meat on top of the veggies in the pot, then poured the onions and garlic on top.  I cooked it on high for an hour and then on low for seven hours, then powered off the cooker and let it sit for another hour.

It was great and made the whole kitchen smell terrific. The meat fell apart as I picked at it with a fork, but the veggies needed more time.  Maybe next time I'll cook them on high for two hours before adding the meat.  Give a try.

Fishing Around for a Quick Lunch

I wasn’t sure what I wanted for lunch today, but I thawed out a Cod fish filet just in case. If I changed my mind, it could wait a day or two.  Last week, I bought some frozen Cod filets in a bag.  There are individually packaged filets in plastic bags and I can thaw them out as I need.  No need to thaw the whole bunch.  Great idea.

I used an aluminum baking pan, fired up the broiler and got to work.  Alone, a Cod filet is a bit bland, so I needed to pump some flavor into this thing.  I happen to like red peppers, so that was my choice today, along with some Mango seasoning from Weber.  I love that other people know how to make these great seasonings and I don’t have to mess with that.  I’ll let Rachel and Bobby and Giada do that.

I sprayed the pan with Pam ( a Pam pan) and slid the fish out of the bag and into the pan.  I also sprinkled some garlic salt over the fish.  I love garlic.  Then I put on the Mango seasoning.  To speed up the process, I had already cut up a little bit of red pepper and zapped the stuff in the micro for two minutes.  Next, I sprinkled the peppers and their juice onto the fish, placed it in the broiler, set the timer for six minutes (a best guess) and, presto, I had my lunch in about fifteen minutes, total.