I finally did it!

Last night I decided that I was going to attempt a pot roast... again. Since John David and I have been dating I have tried to make his favorite meal numerous times and always failed horribly. I tried the roast in the crock pot like his mom does it and in oven- it has never ever worked.  Well tonight my luck changed! I recently purchased Pioneer Woman's cookbook- as I was flipping through it I saw her roast and decided to try again.

I got my olive oil heating on medium high in the pot while I chopped my onions in half- I used baby carrots so those didn't get chopped.

Brown the carrots and onions seperately in the pot just enough to get brown on each side.

Salt and sear the meat on both sides- I used a 1.5 pound chuck roast because it wasn't for a lot of people. This searing thing is easier said than done. For some reason my pot was really smoky- like set the smoke alarm off twice and then finally have to climb a chair to take the battery out smoky. When I finished preparing the roast and got it in the oven and went to lay down on the couch the house was so full of smoke my throat burned a little. ha. So not sure what the fix is for that one- PW said it was supposed to be hot so that is what I did!

Remove the roast from the pot

Add about a cup of beef stock and a few tablespoons of cooking wine and scrape the bits off the bottom of the pot.

Then, throw everything back in the pot

I put a few sprigs of rosemary out of my garden- tucked down in the pot so it would get in the juices

Add more beef stock until the roast is about halfway covered- then I added about 1/4 cup of red cooking wine

Bake on 275 for 2 hours for a 1 1/2 lb roast and 3- 3 1/2 hours for a 3 lb roast. This is the key cook it low! (I'm not sure if this was my prior problem since I had done it in the crock pot on low before)

While it was cooking I took a much needed nap and then made some of pioneer woman's mashed potatoes- I also modified this one a bit- I boiled red potatoes with the skins on until they were done- I added half a stick of butter and 4 oz cream cheese and some milk. These were awesome with the roast!

The entire meal earned rave reviews from the boyfriend and my roommate who said (and I quote) "I don't want to end up in your blog!"

So proud! I give all of the credit the freshly grown rosemary from my garden- and to Pioneer Woman for talking me through it step by step :-)