Italian Pot Roast, May 6, 2018

Yesterday, I wanted to make my wonderful wife something homey and delicious before she had to travel this week. As much fun as eating in restaurants can be, with the right company, it's not her favorite thing to do when traveling for work. She often just goes to whatever restaurant is closest to the hotel. So, cozy food it is, for the Sunday of a travel week! I also wanted to have the afternoon free to do something with the family, instead of being tied to home with something in the oven. So, I spent a little time in the morning getting an Italian-accented roast in the slow cooker and a chocolate cake in the icebox.

That cake was a bit of a disaster. I was using a modern recipe, from a modern magazine like Real Simple, so it never occurred to me that there would be eggs in a no-bake recipe. If I hadn't been feeding it to my toddler, I wouldn't have worried so much about it, but given a two-year-old salmonella poisoning isn't on my bucket list. So, I had a dilemma. Toss it all out (because, of course, I mixed everything up before reading the recipe) or bake it like I do my key lime pie? I decided that I might as well bake it, since it might turn out okay. If it turned out badly, well, I was just going to toss it, anyway. I burned the tips of the ladyfingers a bit, but not much. Most of them collapsed into the filling, though, and the filling was flat as could be, so it looked a fright. I chilled it, though, and gave it a try. Wee Boy wasn't interested in dessert at all (could be the ice cream I put in his before dinner "milk cocktail") and the wife took one bite and pushed it away. I thought it was a hot mess, but a pretty tasty one, so I saved the rest of it. If you want the original recipe, you can find it here. In the future, I will be using the tips on this page to help me stay safe while using raw eggs in uncooked desserts.

While the cake was a bit of a flop, the roast was a roaring success! I couldn't believe how much Wee Boy devoured. I served it with egg noodles and lush, silky asparagus from the farmers market.

Italian Pot Roast

2 1/2-3 lb chuck roast (We happened to have a London broil in the freezer, so that's what I used)

Salt & pepper

14 oz. diced tomatoes, with juice

1 white onion, sliced into thin half moons

8 oz. cremini mushrooms (or whatever sort you like), halved

4 cloves garlic, crushed

A couple teaspoons Italian seasoning

1 tsp. basil

1 tsp. oregano

A pinch of fennel seeds

A sprinkling of garlic powder

A couple teaspoons cornstarch, dissolved in cold water

Sprinkle both sides of the roast with salt and pepper. Place in slow cooker. Top with everything but the cornstarch. Cook on low 8 hours. Remove roast and mushrooms to a platter and tent with foil. Place remaining juices in a pan and heat, with cornstarch, until thickened. Next time I make this, I'm going to tip some wine into the sauce, too. Serve with roast. Serves 4-6.