Thursdays Are For Cooking…
,,,.and for ringing in the New Year, too. So if you are getting together with friends, or just hanging out with family only, this should please everyone as either a buffet item or served at the table. It is one of those “set it and forget it” deals, since you know how long it takes, and you can start the day by putting this thing together. As always, Betty Crocker’s kitchen mavens do their job, but the seasonings should be to your taste.
So let’s quietly say “Bye-bye” to the weirdest year on record, and let the scent of good food from the slow cooker waft through the house until someone, some short person who got all excited over a pack of colored markers at Christmas or a good kid’s book like “Have Spacesuit – Will Travel”, says, “When do we eat? I’m starving!”, and everybody says “Yeah! When do we eat???”
Happy New Year, and many, many more down the road!
Slow-Cooker Beef Roast with Onions and Potatoes
Onion and potatoes add Old-World flavor to a family favorite beef roast.
Ingredients
1 large sweet onion, cut in half, then cut into thin slices
3-lb boneless beef bottom round roast
3 baking potatoes, cut into 1 1/2- to 2-inch cubes
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 ¾ cups Progresso™ beef flavored broth (from 32-oz carton)
1 package (1 oz) onion soup mix (from 2-oz box)
¼ cup Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
Steps
1 In 5- to 6-quart slow cooker, place onion. If beef roast comes in netting or is tied, remove netting or strings. Place beef on onion slices. Place potatoes and garlic around beef. In small bowl, mix 1 1/4 cups of the broth and the dry soup mix; pour over beef. (Refrigerate remaining broth.)
2 Cover; cook on Low heat setting 9 to 10 hours.
3 Remove beef and vegetables from cooker; place on serving platter. Cover to keep warm.
4 In a small bowl, mix remaining 1/2 cup broth and the flour; gradually stir into juices in cooker. Increase heat setting to High. Cover; cook about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sauce has thickened. Serve sauce over beef and vegetables.
Expert Tips
- Warm frozen dinner rolls while the juices are thickening in the slow cooker. Cook frozen broccoli in the microwave, and the meal is ready in minutes.
- To save precious time in the morning, cut the onion and chop the garlic the night before and refrigerate.
I’m modifying a Betty Crocker yeast-bread recipe today. Favorite Daughter bought me some buttermilk before Christmas. I was saving it for some buttermilk biscuits and pancakes, but then got sick, and it went past the date – but still tastes good.
What I’m doing:
1 pkg active dry yeast
1/4 c warm water
1 c buttermilk, warmed
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp canola oil
3 c all-purpose flour
Mix water, yeast, sugar, salt, buttermilk
Add 2 c flour and mix
Add flour until texture is right
Knead on floured board/countertop (10-15 times)
Place in greased bowl, cover, and let rise until double. (Aprox. 45 min)
Punch down, knead again, roll out on floured board
Roll up seam side down & ends folded under.
Put in bread pan if desired, or on a cookie sheet, and let rise (covered) until double.
Heat oven to 400 degrees F
Bake about 35 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
I butter the crust when it first comes out.
Enjoy fresh hot bread.
Ah! Good stuff! Keep it coming, Graybeard!
Thanks, Ex!
Something about the feel of this batch tells me it will be a nice, moist bread.
Kinda hard to explain to those who don’t have much experience kneading dough, but this feels gooood. It is on its 2nd rise now. Couple of hours, about the time Mrs. GB comes back from shopping, it should come out of the oven and I’ll know.
NUM NUM!!! Nothing like a beef beast orast, percurlating lowly in a crockett pot over night. Makes the house smell so damn yummy.
And Graybeards fresh bread would go just outstandingly as a pot likker on that.
Here at Firebase Magnolia, there’s a crocked pot of Southern Style Black eyed peas and another of Turnip Greens, both with a ham hock swimming around. Gonna cook up some ham steaks and a skillet of cornpone for the tradition Southern New Year’s Feast. Be some candied yams in the mix along with a Mrs. Smith’s Key Lime Pie. And of course, the house wine, sweet iced tea.
Graybeard, I gots some homemade cane syrup to go with them flapjacks and that fresh bread iffen you’re a mind to swap?
You’d better start sharing those recipes, KoB, or I will turn your whiskers blue.
Homemade cane syrup? I’ll be right over >grin<
At the GB Compound we're gonna cook up some of our homegrown blackeyes with a hambone for tomorrow as well. Add some homemade cornbread that Mrs. GB is so good at, and hoo doggie!
The bread is on the cooling rack now and looks and smells fabulous.
I’m going to keep that recipe in the “to be posted” file and bring it up this next year. It’s like that Italian woman’s stovetop pan-baked bread: simple, easy and no real work at all.
Just as an aside, pressure cookers like the Instant Pot and the Ninja are perfect for proofing dough. The proofing takes less time, but most of all you control the temp and moisture levels.
The breads I have made in the IP have cut proofing time in half.
Just saying…..
Sorry, gitarcarver. I ain’t givin’ up the ways my ancestors taught me. >grin<
Besides, this loaf was so perfect there is no way on God's green earth it could be improved.
And that is the consensus of the GB Clan. They all said it is the best loaf I've ever made.
And for those who like to cook under pressure….
Roast Beef
Ingredients
1 can (14-1/2 ounces) Italian stewed tomatoes, undrained
1/2 cup beef broth
1/2 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
4 teaspoons prepared mustard
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon soy sauce2 teaspoons pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 large onion, halved and sliced
1 medium green pepper, halved and sliced
1 celery rib, chopped
1 boneless beef chuck roast (2 to 3 pounds)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
In a bowl, mix first 10 ingredients. Place onion, green pepper and celery in a 6-qt. electric pressure cooker; place roast over top. Pour tomato mixture over roast. Lock lid; adjust to pressure-cook on high for 35 minutes. Allow pressure to naturally release for 10 minutes, then quick-release any remaining pressure.
Remove roast and strain cooking juices, reserving vegetables; keep roast and vegetables warm. Skim fat from juices. Return juices to the pressure cooker. Select saute setting and adjust for low heat; bring juices to a boil. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and water until smooth; stir into cooking juices. Cook and stir until sauce is thickened, 1-2 minutes.
Serve roast and vegetables with gravy.
Source: Taste of Home – https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/pressure-cooker-melt-in-your-mouth-chuck-roast/