Thursday, February 01, 2007

A Welcome Home Dinner for my Darling

J had to go to Chicago for a couple of days to present at her company's national sales meeting, so I wanted to make her a special dinner upon her return. While I was preparing Tuesday night's dinner (roasted chicken from the deli, boxed au gratin potatoes...Boot would cheerfully eat an entire package of those by himself despite his usual dislike of potatoes...and corn) for the kids, I got a pot roast marinating for last night's dinner. It's so much fun for me to have these things done ahead of time. This time, it enabled me to throw a couple of potatoes in the oven with the roast and settle in to watch Iron Man with J & Pie while dinner made itself. When everything was cooked, I threw a bag of Italian salad on the table, toasted some pecans in a dry skillet and topped my salad with those and some crumbles of Maytag blue cheese. I then drizzled it with light raspberry vinaigrette. I should have thought to toss some dried cranberries in, too, but that just occurred to me now. How I did the roast:

1 (3-5 pound) pot roast
1/2 c. oil
Scant 1/2 c. soy sauce
Juice of 1 lemon
1/8 c. Worcestershire sauce
1/8 c. mustard
14 smashed garlic cloves (our friend Hyacinth gave us the most wonderful organic garlic)
A good grinding of black pepper

Slash roast at 1" intervals & put in gallon Ziploc bag. Mix everything else & pour over roast in bag. Marinate (my father in law would tell you to "fornicate" the roast! This is the man who also jokingly talks about "penis butter and jelly" sandwiches and spent my wife's entire childhood slapping his wife gently on the rump while she was cooking...wildly irreverent and funny man when he isn't liberal-baiting me) 24-48 hours, turning every now and again. Remove from bag, stick in roasting pan and bake in a preheated 325 degree oven about 2 hours. Let stand 5 minutes before carving.

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