Let’s bring back the Pot Roast!

Ummm pot roast, I just love it. Yes, it’s not fancy, it’s not sexy, but it’s so good! When you mention a pot roast for dinner you might get the same reaction I would get if I were to tell my kids we were having meatloaf for dinner. It’s not a very exciting reaction because… it is a loaf of meat and no one tried to hide that when they named it.

I think the pot roast generation is dying out and most likely for many reasons. It sounds like something that my grandparent’s generation would have made for Sunday dinner or would have prepared for a dinner party, something that would feed a crowd. It sounds time consuming – something you would need to check on multiple times or braise with drippings (I don’t know if people do that, but that is what I picture when I think pot roast). I also think people assume you need a detailed recipe and they don’t have one. I am not old, I cook for 6 people, not 16, and I don’t have a detailed recipe but occasionally I crave a pot roast for dinner because it’s classic, comforting and can be cooked in a crockpot – all of those are reasons we need to bring back the pot roast!

You can make a pot roast with basically any cut of meat. I am no expert on meat but I am telling you from experience that I have used several cuts and it always turns out well. You are just slow cooking meat with veggies – so use whatever meat cut you feel like eating. Slow cooking tends to give you a more tender meat so often people suggest using a tougher cut and saving the more expensive, tender cuts for things like steaks. Whether it’s beef or venison, a shoulder (chuck roast) or hindquarter (rump roast), you are good!

We eat venison. I put that out there like a blanket statement because I know there are people that are completely turned off by this. If that is you, it’s completely fine! I realize that it may seem gross if you aren’t use to it. I grew up eating it, my dad still gives me venison and I have a couple of brother in laws that kindly give us venison also. If I had to guess, I would say we eat it once a month. It is a very lean red meat that makes a great roast. Using it for a pot roast helps hide that gamey taste most people complain about with venison. If it’s not your thing, just use beef!

I soak all venison over night in vinegar water (thanks for the tip dad!) to help draw any blood out and soften the meat. It a very hands off step that only takes a minute. Fill a pot with water, add a couple splashes of white vinegar, add your meat and soak over night in the fridge. The next day you are ready to prepare your roast.

I can set my crockpot with a roast in the morning and be done with it until it’s time to eat – I love this!! Here are the steps I followed for my last pot roast. I just did what felt right and it turned out great!

After soaking my cut of meat over night, I placed it in my crockpot. I don’t have any exact amounts for you because you don’t need them – a crockpot roast is very forgiving BUT if you are a “numbers” person, I’m guessing my roast (a deer hindquarter) was about 2 lbs. It had already been cut from the bone – shout out to my brother in law for being awesome!

 

Next, I added my veggies, I used a couple handfuls of purple potatoes because… well, they are purple!  I grabbed them from the store because I knew my kids would find them exciting and they offer more vitamins than white potatoes – they are 4 times higher in antioxidants! The purple potatoes were fun but you can use white, red, sweet – whatever you choose. I cut my potatoes in half.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, I added a few handfuls of carrots and a splash or 2 of chicken stock (roughly 1/2 cup). You can add any liquid of your choice – water with bullion, broth etc. I use chicken stock because I tend to keep it on hand. You can make your own stock from leftover chicken. The 100 Days of Real Food Cookbook by Lisa Leake gives awesome, easy instructions on how to make your own stock from the leftovers of a whole cooked chicken. I have done it a few times and loved the results but I keep store bought on hand. Costco’s store brand chicken stock is awesome and has a nice, whole food ingredients list (no sugar or MSG added) and so does the the brand pictured below – Kitchen Basics. I buy both and both are priced comparable to other brands available.

Next I added some seasonings – a couple dashes of garlic powder, a dash of onion powder & a pinch or 2 of salt. I just happen to use Pink Himalayan Salt (it’s higher in minerals) because I had it.

You can use any salt and add enough to taste, you can always add more after it’s done cooking. After you add your spices, you are done!

How beautiful! Love the colors!

 

I set my crockpot on HIGH for 6 hours because that is what I had time for. The meat turned out very tender. If you want to set this before work or are going to be gone all day, you could cook it on LOW for longer (8 hours). Either way, my crockpot, I’m sure others also, go from the “cook” setting to “warm” to keep it ready to eat until meal time. The roast was delicious, my kids enjoyed it and we had enough for dinner and my lunch the next day. Simple ingredients, 10 minutes of hands on time and you have a hot, homemade, delicious meal! Enjoy!

I decided to tear my pantry apart…

My kids were on their fourth … maybe fifth snow day in a row this winter and I decided to tear my pantry apart. I love a good snow day just as much as my kids do. I love that a snow days means there are no school lunches to pack, no rushed breakfasts, no school outfit arguements and most of all we get the day together. I LOVE having my kids home with me. Yes, the kids fight… and yell… and even cry but when we are all home together I feel like I have all the pieces to my puzzle and that feels good. My kids had several snow days this winter. We enjoyed every one of them but after a few days of us all at home, I was getting the itch for a project. It drives my husband crazy but I thrive on having a “productive” day. IT IS NOT HEALTHY AT ALL, but I usually measure how great of a day I personally have by how much work I get done that day – I’m working on changing this but as of right now, this is how it works for me. SO in January we had been cooped up in the house for a few days just the kids and I, my husband Matthew was back at work, and that is when I decided to tear out our pantry…

THE Farmhouse’s current kitchen cabinets were made in the 60’s by my husband’s grandfather and a local man that made cabinets in the county at the time (I know he told us the man’s name at one point but I honestly can’t remember it) I do remember Matthew’s grandfather said the man had a cabinet shop and he helped the man complete the cabinets. I found this old picture of THE Farmhouse Kitchen from when we first moved in – notice the large bushes growing in front of the windows. This is how most of the downstairs windows were.

THE Farmhouse’s cabinets are great – they are plain, simple and wooden which I feel like makes them timeless, classic cabinets. Inside the cabinets, all the sections connect, meaning there are no dividers on the inside. All the cabinets (and their contents) run together on the inside, this is the only thing about the cabinets I can’t stand. The lack of dividers creates a bit of a mess inside, things sort of shift around, especially in the pantry section.

The pantry was three large doors (far right of the above picture) that all opened in the same direction (unlike a set of french doors). Above the main pantry space was another 3 smaller doors that worked the same way. The pantry was also pretty deep. The arrangement of the pantry often resulted in lost or overlooked items. I had been wanting to redo it for some time and the the fourth snow day in a row just seemed like the right time to start, so I grabbed a hammer and a small saw and started!

My husband got home when I had half the pantry torn out. We currently had a couple other projects half done so to keep him calm about me starting ANOTHER project, I told him the pantry project was all on me… even though I really didn’t know what I was doing yet. It took me about a week to tear all the existing doors and shelves out of the pantry. During this time, we were living with all our food/pantry items in laundry baskets in the kitchen… The situation was driving me crazy, driving the kids crazy and I know it was driving my husband crazy even though he never said anything about it.

Once I got the entire pantry area removed, I gave it all a coat of bright white paint. When we moved into THE Farmhouse, all the cabinets, trim and ceilings were painted a creamy off white color. I spent the first year we lived here painting all of it white. I never painted  the back of the pantry (as you can see in pictures). To finally put a nice coat of white paint on the the pantry felt good.

At this point, I finally asked my husband for some help. I explained what I envisioned for shelving. My husband helped with the measuring, did the cutting and we started putting the shelves in – the fun part! I decided on three selves at the bottom that are the full width of the pantry space. Above the full width shelves, we did shelves that were only half the width of the space going all the way up to the ceiling. I figured out the distance I wanted my shelves spaced. We measured cereal boxes! No joke – one of the things I really wanted was to have cereal boxes that could fit upright – we had to lay them on their side in our old pantry.

 

For the shelves we used 2×12 yellow pine boards. The three bottom shelves (the ones full width are 2 boards). The boards are nailed into place resting on 1×2 inch wooden brackets nailed to the sides of the pantry. As it’s going together, the new pantry space is starting to look like a hutch, or piece of furniture built in to my cabinets and that is what I like the most about it!

When the shelves were done, I sanded them and stained them in a medium shade. I went with a stain we already had – Minwax Early American. We used this color on a built-in bench we have in our house and I really liked that it matched THE Farmhouse’s original stairs so I decided to use it again on the pantry. After the stain dried, I lightly sanded any rough patches one more time and then I decided I would wax the new shelves. I LOVE wood wax or waxing paste – I used this one.  Wood Wax protects wood from moisture, it’s quicker than applying a polyurethane coat (the dry time is a fraction of the time) and it gives your finish product a dry looking finish that I really like. Wood Wax or Finishing Paste is not recommended for areas with heavy traffic but it’s perfect for projects like my pantry shelves.

To complete the look of the pantry we mounted glass doors on the front. We had a set of glass french doors that came from a house Matthew had done some work on years ago. We were able to cut them down to fit the pantry opening. My favorite part was that we were able to do an inset mount (flush mount) on the doors so it gives the pantry a clean built-in look. The doors were slightly shorter than the pantry space so we had to mount a header board at the top. I actually like the look the board at the top gives the pantry. The pantry truly looks like a hutch that was built in to our kitchen and was always there.

I can finally easily see and get to all of our pantry items. I have plenty of space for all our food as well as other pantry items (table cloths, crock pot, food scale, party dishes etc). I have baskets at the bottom for potatoes, granola bars, school lunch items, paper plates etc. Eventually I might get larger matching glass jars for all my baking items. We are now finding a new place for our trash can (we are going to do a pull out one in another location), I need to caulk the top board we added, give it another coat of paint and we are working on mounting a board at the bottom to take the kick plate out of all the kitchen cabinets. I am very pleased with the way we re-did the space and made it more functional. Another project is checked off our list for updating THE Farmhouse!

CHECK OUT THE SIDE BY SIDE BEFORE & AFTER!!!