The Best Pot Roast

I love a good roast.  It is hands-down my favorite meal to eat when we visit my in-laws.  Mom always serves it up with squash casserole, mashed potatoes {or sometimes rice}, cauliflower with cheese sauce, and often a chocolate pie for dessert.  During our first year of marriage, we lived just down the street from my in-laws, and we would frequently have Sunday dinner after church at their house.  We definitely made it a point to go if previously stated menu was on the agenda.

I have never been able to make a good roast.  It either ends up too dry or just tasteless.  One of my cooking goals this year was to learn how to make a delicious roast.  Goal accomplished.   Last week I found and tried the perfect pot roast recipe and it.was.delicious.

I've been given permission to make this one again, so that tells me it's truly a winner!  Next time I might try the red wine instead of the beef broth, though--we'll see what a difference that makes in the taste.

Why did I like this recipe so much?  Searing the onion and the carrots before cooking gave both a sweet flavor that I don't normally taste in a roast.  We also had a few carrots from our garden, so it was fun to put those to work in one of our meals.

The meat was perfectly done without having to do anything to it.  Once it was in the pot in the oven, I left it alone and just took it out in time to eat it.  It was tender, juicy, and fell right off of the fork.

Instead of having to make gravy after the meat was done, we just used the juices in the pan for our potatoes, and it was perfect.  This saved time, and I'm not the world's best gravy maker, so it also saved me some frustration.

If you're looking for an easy pot roast recipe, this is the one!  Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Perfect Pot Roast

1 whole Chuck Roast (4-5 pounds)
2 Tablespoons oil
2 whole onions
6 whole carrots {I don't think I quite used 6, just whatever was in the fridge}
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup beef broth {or red wine}
3 cups beef broth
1 teaspoon dried thyme

Salt and pepper the roast on both sides.  Heat oil in a large oven-proof skillet or Dutch oven.  Cut onions in half.  Place onions in hot oil until browned on both sides.   Set onions aside.

Place carrots in the hot pan and cook until nicely browned, but not cooked thoroughly.  Remove carrots.

Add some more oil, if needed, to the pan, and sear the meat on all sides.  Remove roast to a plate.

With the burner still on high, pour in 1 cup of beef broth and whisk vigorously to remove all brown bits from the bottom of the pan.

Place the roast back into the pan, along with the carrots, onion, remaining broth and thyme {you can also throw in some rosemary}.

Put the lid on the pan and cook at 275F for 3 hours {for a 3 pound roast} or 4 hours for a 4-5 pound roast.

source:  Pioneer Woman

My New Chalkboard for the Kitchen

Ever since we moved into our new home I've been wanting a chalkboard for the kitchen.  My first inspiration came from Janell at Isabella & Max Rooms.  She has a great tutorial on how to build your own chalkboard message board, which you can find here.  I would have loved to do this, but decided to go with something a bit simpler.  During a recent trip to Goodwill, I stumbled upon this beauty:

For $4 I couldn't pass up such a great wooden frame.  I didn't want a huge board, so this was just the right size, and I loved the depth of the wood--perfect for what I wanted. 

After removing the glass and picture from the frame, I spray painted the entire frame with Krylon gloss white (sorry, no pictures).  When I turned it over to finish, I didn't check to make sure the paint was dry, so when I thought I was ready to complete my project, there was newspaper stuck to the frame!  Distressing hadn't been in my original plan, but thanks to my moment of neglect the chalkboard frame is beautifully distressed and I love it!

My husband told me a few weeks ago that if I was going to distress anything else I needed to research more how to do it.  This was his gentle way of saying that what I had tried didn't look right.  He agreed that I did a much better job with this distressing job.  Thanks, honey.

The chalkboard is simply the original picture and glass, just spray painted with chalkboard spray paint.  I applied 4 coats of paint, allowed it to dry for 24 hours, and then rubbed chalk over the entire surface.  It sat like this for a couple of weeks until we finally got around to hanging it last night. 

Here's a little tip for hanging large frames that might move around (such as when writing on a chalkboard):

Cut triangle shaped pieces of felt for each corner of your frame.  Then attach with hot glue.  

The hardware needed to be replaced, so Bradley attached some new hooks and placed a piece of wire across the entire frame.  

Here's the finished product:

I love that I can use this chalkboard for all kinds of things, but right now it's a scriptural reminder of what I need to work on this week.  

The breakfast nook with new chalkboard and fresh flowers from a sweet friend.

 Linking to:
End of August Thrifty Treasures at Southern Hospitality

Faux Roman Shades for the Kitchen

Does anyone else have a difficult time treating windows?  And by treating, I mean window treatments, not cleaning or preparing for the elements.  Making this decision is always a long process for me for several reasons:

1. They need to look good.
2. Spending a lot of money is not an option.
3. DIY is a preference.
4. Easy is better.

Meeting all of this criteria can be a challenge, specifically for someone as fickle as me in my decorating choices!  Oh, to be able to take the time to go back to school for some interior design classes...

My kitchen opens up right to the family room, so my choices in there needed to coordinate/flow with the choices I made in the family room. (You can read about  my family room drapes here). The kitchen was my first project, so I started with picking fabric.  After perusing the fabric outlet in town, the internet, and finally Joann's, I decided on this gorgeous fabric:

One of the colors in the pattern matches perfectly the color that we chose for paint (you can read about my paint choices here), which is why we chose that paint color!  I love the linen background and the floral pattern.  Plus, the pattern has the blues and greens which I wanted to keep going throughout the downstairs of our home.

After choosing the fabric, the next step was determining how to use it.  I knew that I wanted a top treatment, not something that would hang to the floor, for the kitchen.  There are a ton of patterns out there for valances and other top-treatments, but nothing really caught my eye.  What was left?  Roman Shades.  Ugh!  I have always loved the look of these, but the thought of actually making one terrified me!  But, this was the only thing I liked, so I had to do it.  I decided on the 'faux' kind, simply because it used less fabric (economical-meets the criteria).

I waited for a big sale at Joann's, and then purchased my fabric and supplies.  I became more terrified as the ladies were cutting my fabric and cording for the shades when they started bombarding me with tips on how to make sure the shades were perfect, saying things like, "If you don't line everything up perfectly your shade will open crooked and won't look right".  I finally told them to stop because I thought for sure I'd never be able to make it work!

Thankfully, I used a pattern for these, but I've also seen some great tutorials in blogland for making Roman Shades, in case you don't want to spend the money on a pattern.  (Just google 'tutorial for Roman Shades').

I think I literally sat for 4 hours reading the pattern trying to decipher what the directions were telling me to do.  Am I the only one who has this trouble with patterns?  Finally, it clicked and I dove in.  Once I started it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, just some simple seam-sewing.  The challenging part was measuring the placement for the rings (where the cord would hang) and rigging the cord.  My mom happened to be in town the weekend after I had sewn the shades, so she graciously assisted me in this process, since she had done it before.

I love the way they turned out and I really like having this style in the kitchen.  It keeps it open, fairly casual, but still dressed nicely.

Now, since we have neighbors in the back, blinds will be a necessity!  Maybe we'll get those up this weekend...

A Few of my Favorite Things: Kitchen Gadgets

There are oodles of products out there to purchase for use in your kitchen.  Certainly every one of them could be put to great use, but how do you decide which ones you really NEED?  Obviously, measuring cups and spoons, a spoon to stir with, a spatula--these are definitely necessities--but what other items should you have on hand to enhance your efficiency and productivity in the kitchen?

This list is not comprehensive by any means, but just a list of a few kitchen gadgets that I am so thankful that I have.  I don't use all of them everyday, or even once a week, but they are the kinds of things that when I do need them, they help to save me a TON of time!  If you are in the mood to purchase any of these, I've made it easy for you! Simply click on the picture and you'll be taken directly to a purchasing page.

1. Pastry Knife/ Dough Blender - This is used for cutting in butter to flour.  Sometimes recipes will say use a pastry knife or two forks.  Two forks is awkward, so I definitely recommend having one of these.  We eat biscuits frequently and this tool comes in really handy.

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2. Zester - The peel of citrus fruit has tons of flavor and adds a great taste to pies, pastries and other dishes.  A zester is used like a grater to peel off that flavor-packed layer.  I have both of these (I registered for them when we got married); the longer one also works well for cheese.

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3. Cheese Grater/Storage - I'm sure you've seen these used at restaurants when they grate cheese onto a salad or pasta.  My version of this is actually from Pampered Chef, but other brands I'm sure are great.  I use this for grating fresh Parmesan cheese, which is usually in small quantities and then it's great to have a little container to store the leftovers in.

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4. Egg Slicer - If hard boiled eggs are a favorite of yours, then this tool is great for you!  Making egg salad or just chopping eggs for a Cobb salad is much easier with this.  ps- click here for my egg salad recipe.

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5. Brownie Spatula - I'm not really sure of the technical term for this, but we use this every time we make brownies.  It's also great for removing biscuits and small cookies from a pan. 

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6. Pastry Brush - Coating crusts with milk or egg whites to get a nice browned finish is made easier with this little brush.  You'll have a smooth top and nothing really drips, like if you were to use a spoon or knife. 

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7. Pie Crust Shield - Tired of using aluminum foil to cover your pie crusts to keep them from burning?  This gadget works wonderfully to keep the edges of your crust cooking evenly and finishing with a perfect golden brown. 

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8. Chopper - Great for chopping nuts and other ingredients in small quantities.  

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What are your favorite kitchen gadgets?