The other day I ran across Ree's Pot Roast recipe and immediately fell in love. Pot Roast, along with Chicken Fried Steak, Stuffed Bellpeppers, Meatloaf and Salisbury Steak are all staples of my childhood dinners. Good 'ol farmer food. Once I left my childhood home I rarely had that food again . . . not because I didn't like it but because I was never taught how to make it. Us kids? Our jobs were to set the table, clear the table, wash the dishes, dry the dishes, put away the dishes, dust, vacuum, wash clothes, mow the 2 acres of landscaping, slop the hogs, feed the chickens, gather the eggs, weed the garden, move the irrigation rainbirds . . . I think you get the idea.
We weren't children who needed to learn how to nurish ourselves and think for ourselves and balance checkbooks and have self-esteem and oh, basically learn the tools to become productive adults. Ohhhhh, no no no. We were SLAVE FUCKING LABOR, believeyoume.
As I was growing up, I swore I would never hoe another row of corn or play Dodge the Charging Boar once I was An Adult. Boy did I miss the food though.
Don't get me wrong. I went years happily scarfing chicken that wasn't served breaded and fried, vegetables that weren't limp and drowned in butter, tuna that not only didn't come from a can but was RAW :gasp: and I lurved it all! Who knew there were pastas outside of spaghetti? That there were fruits outside of apples and oranges? Man, the first time I had a mango I about died and went to heaven.
But every so often I'd get a hankering for some of my childhood 'rib sticker' food. Meat and taters, don'tcha know. As I started to have grownup relations with boys I'd cautiously try to cook things. Goodness I was terrible in the beginning! I think if the recipe had clearly stated "make sure you don't completely forget this is in the oven until you smell smoke" I'da had much better luck and would've eaten less pizza, lol.
Eventually I felt at home in the kitchen. It helped that I married a man who will pretty much eat anything. Almost everything I've tried to cook has been off the top of my head. I know what meatloaf should taste like so I noodled through how to make it. One thing I've not been able to 'wing it' on has been my crock-pot. Before tonight I'd made about 4 or 5 dishes in it and not a one of them were Mmm Mmm Good. One or two were downright Meh if we're being honest here.
When I saw Ree's recipe, I got all excited! I looked over the ingredients while at work one day and that night we bought the groceries I needed. If you remember, I don't *ahem* write shit like that down though, so I had to rely on my little brain for memory. I did pretty damn good, 'scept for one teensy tiny thing.
I COMPLETELY OVERLOOKED THE FACT THAT THIS DISH IS COOKED IN A ROASTING PAN IN THE OVEN!!!
A roasting pan I do not own. I can't even pretend that 'woopsie, I used to own one but I sold it at the garage sale and forgot'. Duh, thy name is AJ.
Plan A of Ree's pot roast was still in action, but Plan B of 'how do I modify it for a crockpot' came into play. A few Google searches later, and I realized that basically I'd need to cook the meat in the crockpot a heck of a lot longer than was required for the oven. Good thing I figured this out at 10am today and thus hustled my buns into the kitchen at 10:30 this morning.
I hope the following pictures give proof that despite my lack of parental teaching I'ma doing just fine!
We weren't children who needed to learn how to nurish ourselves and think for ourselves and balance checkbooks and have self-esteem and oh, basically learn the tools to become productive adults. Ohhhhh, no no no. We were SLAVE FUCKING LABOR, believeyoume.
As I was growing up, I swore I would never hoe another row of corn or play Dodge the Charging Boar once I was An Adult. Boy did I miss the food though.
Don't get me wrong. I went years happily scarfing chicken that wasn't served breaded and fried, vegetables that weren't limp and drowned in butter, tuna that not only didn't come from a can but was RAW :gasp: and I lurved it all! Who knew there were pastas outside of spaghetti? That there were fruits outside of apples and oranges? Man, the first time I had a mango I about died and went to heaven.
But every so often I'd get a hankering for some of my childhood 'rib sticker' food. Meat and taters, don'tcha know. As I started to have grownup relations with boys I'd cautiously try to cook things. Goodness I was terrible in the beginning! I think if the recipe had clearly stated "make sure you don't completely forget this is in the oven until you smell smoke" I'da had much better luck and would've eaten less pizza, lol.
Eventually I felt at home in the kitchen. It helped that I married a man who will pretty much eat anything. Almost everything I've tried to cook has been off the top of my head. I know what meatloaf should taste like so I noodled through how to make it. One thing I've not been able to 'wing it' on has been my crock-pot. Before tonight I'd made about 4 or 5 dishes in it and not a one of them were Mmm Mmm Good. One or two were downright Meh if we're being honest here.
When I saw Ree's recipe, I got all excited! I looked over the ingredients while at work one day and that night we bought the groceries I needed. If you remember, I don't *ahem* write shit like that down though, so I had to rely on my little brain for memory. I did pretty damn good, 'scept for one teensy tiny thing.
I COMPLETELY OVERLOOKED THE FACT THAT THIS DISH IS COOKED IN A ROASTING PAN IN THE OVEN!!!
A roasting pan I do not own. I can't even pretend that 'woopsie, I used to own one but I sold it at the garage sale and forgot'. Duh, thy name is AJ.
Plan A of Ree's pot roast was still in action, but Plan B of 'how do I modify it for a crockpot' came into play. A few Google searches later, and I realized that basically I'd need to cook the meat in the crockpot a heck of a lot longer than was required for the oven. Good thing I figured this out at 10am today and thus hustled my buns into the kitchen at 10:30 this morning.
I hope the following pictures give proof that despite my lack of parental teaching I'ma doing just fine!
(that is cream cheese peeking through, which will make sense when you read Ree's Mashed Potatoes recipe. I hid that container from The Mike and wouldn't you know, he asked me what I had put in the potatoes! He totally could tell there was *something* different)
That cooked exactly like Ree said it would! One fork was enough to separate the meat)
(Ree's "Finished" photo. It's just like mine, right? RIGHT?! She certainly has a photog gift)
I'm no Ree (and if you don't know of her, then puhleeze get yourself to her Life on a Cattle Ranch site and her Rib Sticker Recipe site) but I think I did pretty a-ok! Here's my whole photoshoot.
All this done today while on crutches, by myself, except for setting up the crockpot by my husband. Wanna know what The Mike had to say after he had dinner? Are you sure? It blew me away, lemmetellya.
"Next time you should use those jars of gravy."
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