I decided that my first "Sunday dinner" meal would be a pot roast. I was a little scared since usually my mom cooks these big meals. Or at least in my mind this is a "big meal". Big not as in size but as in emotion. A pot roast dinner is a big deal. Big importance. Big (and hopefully fond) memories. A pot roast dinner to me is the type of meal you will always remember. You will always remember as a child your mom cooking up a pot roast dinner. You will always remember a house full of that amazing pot roast smell. A smell that years later when smelling it again it will flash you back to that time in your childhood. This is what terrified me!! What if I screw this up and ruin my child's views on pot roast dinners for the rest of her life?!? I can pictures botching this meal so bad that any mention of the word pot roast to Allie in her adult years will cause her to vomit violently while curled up in the fetal position under a bed. But lately I am about making memories. Good and bad ones I guess. And so it was decided. I would cook a pot roast dinner.
I will admit I had no idea there were so many kinds of roasts! For the love! How does one decided?? Thankfully I took Mom with me:) She is my cooking guru. Her knowledge of do's and don't amazes me. She is one of those "if you don't have this use this instead" type of people. Bringing her to walk with me through the grocery store to guide my cooking ways puts my nerves to rest some. Thank God! Plus, that woman can stretch dollars further than anyone I have ever met. Another thing that is very useful in the grocery store.
While at the meat case Mom was checking out $17 roasts. Hahaha. She cracks me up! Apparently she & I need to have another talk about what my checking account looks like these days. Seriously! Even if I had the money I am NOT paying $17 for ONE hunk of meat! The roast I was looking at was only $7ish. Mom was looking at beef while I was looking at pork. Mom claims pork tastes better. I couldn't even begin to tell you the difference! I know one moo's and the other oinks. And hopefully not while you are trying to wrestle it into the pot. Anyway, I went with the cheaper, apparently tastier roast...PORK!
The beginning....
Ingredients:
~1 Pot Roast (2-3 pounds)
~1 can cola (I used 1 1/2 cups Coke and it make a done of juice!)
~1 10.5oz can Cream of Mushroom soup
~ 1 packet onion soup mix
~ 1 pound carrots (next time I will use more because I LOVE veggies that have been cooking with a roast all day)
~ Red Potatoes (I bought a 5 pound bag and used most of them. But again I love veggies that have been cooked with a roast. I just added them until I ran out of room.)
~Kosher salt, pepper, minced garlic (enough to rub your roast down with)
FYI: I used generic ingredients for all of it. No need to pay $1.19 for a can of Campbell's soup when $.59 for Aldi's brand taste the same. Also, if you really want to be snazzy you could make your own cream soup. But I am taking baby steps...
Prep it up!
The first thing I had to do was cut the skin off my roast. It had actual pig skin still on it! Actual little pink piggy skin. Only somewhere along the way it lost it cute piggy pinkness and was just skin color...*gag* I felt like Hannibal Lecter. "Why, hello little piggy."
I had to use scissors because due to my lack if cooking experience/knowledge/skills I don't own sharp knifes. Well that and the fact that my steak knifes also double as screw drivers or box opener, or whatever else I need to break into and can't. Yeah so my knifes are dull. Big deal. Scissors worked just fine.
Once the skin and chucks of fat were removed I rubbed that sucker with tons of Koser salt, pepper and minced garlic. I mean really rub it. Don't just sprinkle it on there. Rub that roast like it pays your bills. I read that not only does this help the salt, pepper and garlic sink into your meat but it also helps the meat to relax. Which I guess helps the cooking process some how. Okay, whatever. Rub away!
Next, the roast need to be seared. I didn't know what searing was. Thank you allrecipes.com for explaining it! Below is the link. You might have to copy and paste it. I don't know to "link" websites to blogs.
http://allrecipes.com/howto/searing-meats-tips-and-tricks
But here is a crash course.
For searing: get your pan HOT, HOT, HOT! If your pan is cool your roast will stick. If your roast doesn't have a lot of fat on it then you'll need to add a little bit of oil to the pan. Once your pan is HOT drop your roast in. Each side took about 2-3 minutes to sear up. My roast was round so it took some talent on my part to sear all of it. This process locks in the juices and gives your meat a great charred flavor. Or so I think.
Putting it all together
Now it was time to finish this little dance. Once that roast is all seared up put it into the crockpot. Arrange your carrots and potatoes all around it.
Lastly, mix the Coke, Cream of Mushroom soup and onion soup mix in a separate bowl. Mix slowly because the Coke fizzes and you will end up with a mess. Trust me I know. Once you have it all mixed up pour it all over your roast. It will look pretty and smell yummy!
Low & Slow...or high & fast. You decide.
That's it! Cook this pot of porky heaven for 4-5 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low. I ended up cooking it for about 5 1/2 hours on high. Not because it needed the extra time but by the time I set the table and such an extra half hour had past by. That is the beauty of the crockpot!
And that is what is for dinner!
I am so happy I decided to start this new cooking chapter of my life. There wasn't much conversation at the table because we were all to busy shoving our faces. But holy cow was it amazingly good! Or should I say holy pig?:)
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