Pride and Pot Roast

Moving in to my Mom's home has taken its toll on my pride. Being able to take care of myself has always been something I was proud of. I didn't always do the best job of things on my own, but I always managed to do well enough. But as I get older I have begun to realize that I'm not moving forward very quickly, in fact, hardly at all. I live week to week and barely scrape by. And I know I set myself up to have a hard time by moving out so young to begin with. And I keep telling myself that there are plenty of people who have to move back in with their parents at one time or another because of hard times. I think sometimes I'm too hard on myself. I just want to be able to take care of myself but not have to struggle so much. We're paying my Mom rent every week, admittedly it's less than what our apartment cost. But we do a ton of chores around the house to make our stay less of a burden.


Less complaining and explaining about nothing worth wasting time on.....Let's focus on something I love: food. I've been making a pot roast lately that has definitely become something I will keep in my repertoire for handy, easy, yummy dinners. It's really so fricken easy I can't believe it. But it seems like it must have taken forever and required so much preparation once you set it on the table.
I start by looking for the least expensive cut of meat that is appropriate for the recipe. The first time I used a hunk of shoulder roast and the second time I used a bottom round. I had no preference other than whatever was cheaper and at least three and a half pounds. Enough to feed me, Mikey, Sam, Scooter, and my Mom. And we have extra meat that can be used to make a Shepard's Pie tonight. Anyway, then all that's left to do is brown the meat on all sides in a big, heavy-duty, metal pot with a tight fitting lid. Use just a bit of oil in the pot for browning. Once browned, add a bunch of chopped onion or a handful of boilers. I was so excited recently to learn about boiling baby onions for a couple minutes then transferring them to ice water to cool which makes popping them out of their skins super simple. They just slide right out with a little squeeze. Awesome. So anyway, add the onion, shallots, garlic or a mix and let those soften for a few minutes. Oh, I also rubbed salt, pepper, and some various Italian seasonings and a tiny bit of butter (I just LOVE butter) on the meat prior to browning. Once Onions are softened, the last remaining step is to add about a half a cup of wine to the pot. Let the whole shebang come to a simmer and then turn the heat to a very, very low setting and basically just let it sit for about three hours or so until the meat seems to almost come apart. Yummy.

I also tried a new chocolate cake recipe that I found on the Bon Appetite website. It was a bit more dry and crumbly than I would have liked. But it still managed to seem fluffy while not quite moist enough. The flavor was very good though, either way. The thing that made it good in the end was really the frosting. It used no butter and instead used hot cream and marscapone cheese. Wicked Good.