Warning: Use of undefined constant SCRIPT_DEBUG - assumed 'SCRIPT_DEBUG' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/j78deqridyky/public_html/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4144

Pot Roast

July 1, 2007 | Chuck

My girlfriend, a.k.a. Hungry Bear, and I hosted Sunday Nite Dinner (SND) today. I had a craving for a big hunk of braised meat so we decided to make pot roast. Our friend, Jane, can devour a lot of red meat, despite being a small 5'5" woman. The last time I cooked a pot roast, Jane and I downed 4 lbs of roast between the two of us.

(We documented the making of SND. Just click on the large picture to advance to the next one.)

Since there were going to be 7 people at SND, I picked up 8.5 lbs of chuck roast from my butcher, Antonelli's in Cal-Mart. Yes, that's a lot of roast but I had to account for Jane's freakish red meat eating capabilities. I originally planned on going on a bike ride while the chuck roast braised in a crock pot, but there was no way the crock pot could accommodate an 8.5 lb roast. So I had to braise the chuck roasts the traditional method (stove top then oven).

The menu for today's SND was...

The pot roast recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks, The New Best Recipes cookbook by Cook's Illustrated. I liked the results of recipe but I would use all beef stock instead of a combination of stock and water in the future. I think the pot roast would have been a little bit more flavorful with all stock.

The long beans were a simple stir fry with a little oil, garlic, shiitake mushrooms and salt. Jane made the corn salad, which is always light and refreshing. It's a simple recipe with fresh corn off the cob, red onions, basil, extra virgin olive oil and cider vinegar. The fresh corn salad recipe is by Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa.

My favorite part of the meal was dessert. Hungry Bear and I were watching the Barefoot Contessa and saw her make chocolate cupcakes and peanut butter icing. The peanut butter icing was something different than the traditional chocolate or vanilla frosting.

After looking at Ina's recipe, we decided to use Gale Gand's chocolate cupcake recipe instead. Gale's recipe has fewer ingredients, particularly no butter or buttermilk. We did use Ina's peanut butter icing recipe, but reduced the sugar and heavy cream.

I like reducing sugar whenever possible. I prefer tasting the main ingredient, in this case peanut butter, in the icing instead of sugar or sweetness first. I really hate it when I buy a chocolate brownie and it tastes like pure sugar without any chocolate taste. Everyone really enjoyed the peanut butter frosted cupcakes. It's definitely something different to try.

Overall, SND was very good and we had a lot of leftover pot roast. Hungry Bear and I love eating leftovers, so we were pleasantly surprised. This was also the first Sunday Nite Dinner in over a month so it was good catching up with everyone.

SNDsters: Chuck, Hungry Bear, Jane, Mark, Garry, Karen, Ed

[tags]chocolate, corn, cupcakes, long beans, mushrooms, pot roast, salad, shiitake[/tags]

3 Comments on “Pot Roast”


    Warning: Use of undefined constant ’user_id’ - assumed '’user_id’' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/j78deqridyky/public_html/wp-content/themes/SND-1.0/comments.php on line 42

    Warning: Use of undefined constant ’user_id’ - assumed '’user_id’' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/j78deqridyky/public_html/wp-content/themes/SND-1.0/comments.php on line 42
  1. East Coast Lover of SND said:

    I think I have a case of the Monday’s… Those pot roast photos are making me curse that we still have six more days to SND! Would love to join you all for dinner somtime – Hungry Bear especially sounds like a very cool character! :)


  2. Warning: Use of undefined constant ’user_id’ - assumed '’user_id’' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/j78deqridyky/public_html/wp-content/themes/SND-1.0/comments.php on line 42
  3. Chuck said:

    East Coast, you, Aimee and Ava will always have an open invitation to SND. We’ll have to have an honorary SND with you, the next time Hungry Bear and I are in NYC.

Trackbacks

  1. Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting | Sunday Nite Dinner

    […] butter icing and thought it was a brilliant combination. We actually made them for dessert in our first post (scroll down) on the site. They were a big hit, so we made them again this past […]

Leave a Comment

Comment Guidelines:
Email addresses are never published. Comments are editable for 15 minutes after submission. Basic HTML can be used, e.g. <strong> <i> <em> <strike> etc. Gravators (globally recognized avatars) are enabled. Sign-up at Gravatar to display your avatar on SND and other sites.