27 February 2013

Roast Beef and mashed potatoes

A seriously boring, ordinary Sunday dinner. But I ate it for three days straight and am still dreaming about it. Cory found it fine but nothing special. Not me. Something about the balsamic vinegar and tomato sauce and slow cooked onions with some buttery, salty mashed potatoes. YUMMMMMMMM....

** PS--I did the browning and all that business despite the fact that it was sunday morning before church and we had to cram in also making/frosting cookies and making a scrapbook page for Harrison's teacher...the extra work made us late but it was totally worth it.  Like "my life is crazy, why did I ever have kids, do I not get a spare minute EVER??.... wait? food? mmmm....this is SO good...what was I saying??" worth it.



Balsamic and Onion Pot Roast
Recipe Source: modified slightly from Kalyn's Kitchen

3-4 pound boneless chuck roast
Seasoning Salt
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
black pepper to taste
1-2 T olive oil (depends on your pan)
1/4 cup water to deglaze pan
2-3 large onions, peeled and thickly sliced
1 cup beef stock, reduced to 1/2 cup (can use a can of beef broth, but be sure to reduce it)
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup tomato sauce


Rub meat well with seasoning salt, onion powder, garlic powder and black pepper. 
Heat heavy pan with small amount of olive oil and brown roast well on both sides.
 This will take a few minutes; don't rush the browning step.

While roast browns put 1 cup beef stock in saucepan, bring to a boil and cook 
until reduced to 1/2 cup, then let cool slightly and mix in balsamic vinegar 
and tomato sauce. Peel onions and cut into thick slices.  

When the meat is brown on all sides, remove the meat and then deglaze pan with
 1/4 cup water. Add the pan drippings to sauce mixture.

Place onions in bottom of slow cooker. Put meat on top of onions and pour 
beef stock mixture over. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, until beef is tender. 
The meat might be partly submerged in liquid after this much time.
Remove meat from slow cooker and cover with foil to keep warm. Drain liquid from
 Crockpot and remove as much of the fat as you can with fat separator or skimmer. 
Cook down liquid byabout 1/3, and serve sauce with meat and onions.


19 February 2013

Taking the plunge

I'm a little hesitant to post this since this doesn't really feel real yet but oh well.  As of last night we are officially under contract to buy a HOUSE! YAY!!! We close on March 23rd. Houses out here in our price range go super fast and I saw one I liked a couple of weeks ago that I didn't think too seriously about because it was just above what we could afford. Then last week it was reduced 10k and my realtor called the listing agent and said they'd drop it down another 10k.  We knew it would go quickly at the lower price so we jumped on it and made an offer which was accepted. Now I need to somehow believe a bank is going to actually lend us a whole freaking lot of money and everything is going to work out and we're moving in like six weeks. WHAT??? In any case. I've given our landlord notice so we're moving here or somewhere else pretty dang soon. Let's start packing :) here's to having your own little piece of the American dream, right?

West Springfield here we come.

 living room
 deck made of fake deck stuff that doesn't have to be maintained (sellout? maybe but who has time to re-stain your deck every few years)
 Front view in springtime. YAY for front porches and brick boxes to plant things in! Oh yeah, and grass!

 kitchen--gas stove and much larger than what I'm used to.
 Dining room. Now I just need to refinish my table so it will look pretty in here.
a place for the toys in the basement




10 February 2013

Sunday morning breakfast

We sure are lucky to have church at 11:30 this year!