My First Pot Roast

This past Thursday I made my very first pot roast!
If you think about that, its kinda sad considering I've been cooking since I was 8! ;)

But anyways, yeah, my first pot roast!

I started with this lovely 2.5 lb. hunk of meat... and 5 peeled and chunked carrots, 10 mushrooms, 6 garlic cloves and 4 onions cut in half (I like onions and Karl doesn't and so I used a lot of onions!)

I generously salted and peppered the meat and browned the veggies.

And then it was chuck roast's turn to be browned into submission!

At this point I pulled the meat out and whisked in about 2 cups of beef broth, dislodging all that fine looking brown stuff at the bottom of the pan and then put the roast back in and arranged the vegetables artfully (ha!) around it. I was told by my father that it is important to make sure the meat is submerged at least halfway in the liquid, and though I can't be certain that this is the only way to do it, it worked well for me!

This is where the seasoning-crazy side of me comes out... I really like using herbs, and pride myself on being creative in that area, but I am sorry to say that since I moved away from Pennsylvania (and my mom's spice rack) I have yet to acquire some of the more crucial herbs such as rosemary *hangs head in shame*. But I made up for that with a generous helping of thyme and bay leaves. Specifically a tablespoon of one and three of the latter!

Before the commencement of said seasoning though I preheated my oven to 275 degrees. After that all that is left to do is sit back and wait for three hours as the sweet smell of pot roast permeates your house, apartment or bungalow.

After those hours are up feel free to cut or shred the tender beef and make gravy out of the drippings. I didn't have corn starch and so I regrettably did not make gravy. And since I didn't put potatoes in with the roast I made mashed potatoes. I would include the recipe except for the fact that they were a flop... edible, but a flop nonetheless! Still haven't figured out exactly how I like to make my mashed potatoes yet, but when I do I will post the recipe!

Let me just say that the whole time I was browning the vegetables and meat our apartment's two smoke alarms were were doing their best to annoy the heck out of me by beeping every five seconds to remind me that I did indeed take the batteries out to avoid the screeching noise I knew would follow the smoke cloud that forms in my kitchen when I attempt to brown things!

I made a killer apple pie too... so prepare for a post on that later this week!

P.S.
I know I promised Vanilla Bean Scones before I left for Pennsylvania, but unfortunately I forgot to purchase the beans for my source in P.A. and I discovered that the cheapest I can find here is 2 for $9 and, as I need 4 of them and am not made of money, I am holding off until I can find less expensive beans! Sorry for the let down! :(