The Last (Pot Roast) Supper

While grocery shopping a few weeks ago I noticed that the local Harris Teeter was having a pretty big sale on meat and decided I should stock up while the getting was good.  I came home with a 3 lb chuck roast and threw it in the freezer until this weekend when I decided the time had come for the last pot roast of the season.  The official start of spring is less than two weeks away, and while I love me some hearty comfort food during the winter, come warmer weather I start longing for fresh produce and lighter fare. 

Fortunately we bid a fond farewell to comfort food season in style with the ultimate pot roast recipe.  It starts out like any other pot roast—seared beef, sautéed onions and garlic braised in a mixture of beef broth and red wine. Pretty standard, right? You add some dried porcini mushrooms to the braising liquid and cook low and slow for about three hours. What makes this pot roast so completely awesome is what happens AFTER you remove the beef…you blend up everything left in the pot and it makes the most awesome gravy you’ve ever tasted. Seriously. SO.GOOD.

 Giving the meat a good sear...

2.5 hours later

Usually I serve this magnificent dish with roasted root vegetables (carrots, potatoes, butternut squash, etc) but since this is the last pot roast of the season I decided to go all out and make some roasted garlic mashed potatoes (aka another vehicle for eating the gravy).  Not a very healthy (or pretty) meal, but a darn good one. Just like comfort food should be.

Pot Roast with Porcini Mushrooms
Adapted from Giada di Laurentiis

Ingredients:
1 (3-5 lb) boneless beef chuck roast—size will depend on how many people you want to feed!
Salt and pepper
2 TBL olive oil
2 white or yellow onions, chopped
6 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 cup dry red wine
1 ¾ cups beef broth (I used 1 14 oz can of low sodium and that was perfect!)
½ ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1 large sprig of fresh rosemary

1.Preheat oven to 350. Pat beef dry and season generously with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear beef on each side (about 2 minutes per side). A piece of advice: don’t wear something nice as you are likely to get oil splattered on you during this step. Transfer beef to a plate.
2.Reduce heat to medium. Add the onions to the same pot and sauté until tender about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add the wine and scrape, scrape, scrape to get all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Boil wine for 1 minute and stir in broth and mushrooms. Return beef to the pan and bring liquids to a boil. Cover the pot and transfer to the oven.
3.Braise beef until fork-tender, about 2.5-3 hours. Turn the beef over halfway through and add the rosemary.
4.Transfer beef to a cutting board. Tent with foil and let stand for 15 minutes.  In the meantime, remove the woody rosemary stem (leaving as many of the leaves as possible in the juices). Puree the juices and vegetables until smooth either using a regular blender or an immersion blender. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste.
5.Slice the beef across the grain and spoon the gravy (I recommend in copious amounts) on top.

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes:
To roast the garlic, cut the top of a head of garlic and sit on a piece of foil. Drizzle with olive oil and wrap up tight. Place in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes or until cloves are soft. Wash and peel 4-5 Yukon gold potatoes. Cut into chunks (I do quarters or eighths depending on the size) and place in large saucepan. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes or until fork tender. Drain and place in a bowl. Heat 1 cup of milk with 1 TBL of butter and pour over potatoes. Add 5-6 roasted garlic cloves. Mix until fluffy.

A Very Merry Un-Birthday

My birthday is next week but since I am going to be spending the actual day of my birth traveling for work, we decided to do the “official” celebrating yesterday (although Jason has promised to make me French toast for breakfast on my actual bday…and even bought challah bread for it!).

Birthday French Toast Challah!

Birthdays have always been a big deal in my family which is why my parents drove down from PA to help me celebrate.  This year my “pretend birthday” (as Jason and I chose to call it all day) consisted of:

1) Glee-themed decorations (in honor of one of my fave TV shows). Backstory:  My mom loves holidays of any sort and she tends to go all out. To this day, she still likes to come up with a birthday “theme” every year and goes to great lengths to ensure that there are decorations to match.

2) Dinner at a restaurant of my choosing. As you might imagine, planning where to go for my birthday dinner is something I take very seriously these days (although for most of my childhood my restaurant of choice was always one of those Japanese steakhouses where they cook at your table …you can see I’ve been obsessed with food and cooking from an early age).  So it might surprise you to learn that I did not select a restaurant from my wish list. Instead we went to a place I have been many times before—The Liberty Tavern. Liberty happens to be my favorite all-around restaurant. It is the type of place where you could go for a nice meal out or for a pizza and a beer. The menu changes seasonally and the food is quite good. This year, my birthday dinner consisted of mussels in smoked tomato broth (so good I think I’d be happy to eat them every day) and scallops with a brown-butter sauce, fregola, and black trumpet mushrooms.

3) An ice cream cake (or frozen custard cake if you want to be precise about it) from The Dairy Godmother. This is another favorite of ours. They come up with the most interesting and delicious (and often seasonal) flavors of custard (which change every other day) and sorbets. Some of my favorite flavors include sweet potato pecan, cranberry crunch, salted caramel, and apple cider sorbet. This year, Jason got me a German chocolate custard cake and it was pretty darn good!

4) A number of food/cooking themed gifts. Although I have issued a "no kitchen items allowed" edict for gifts while we continue to live in our current apartment (where we are busting at the seams kitchen-wise...more on that at a later date), it does not currently apply to cookbooks (although perhaps not for much longer given that my cookbook shelf is about full now). Yesterday I received The Pioneer Woman Cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking (both very blog-y choices), as well as the Top Chef Quickfire cookbook. Lots of new recipes to try!


All in all I’d say I had a very merry un-birthday indeed!

Don't Drink the Water

Lately Jason has taken to compulsively using our Brita water filter. He, of course, drinks its filtered water (which makes sense). He uses it to water the plants.  And this morning he used it to fill a pot up with water to poach some eggs for breakfast.  As I watched him fill the coffee maker with freshly filtered water I said “I think we could probably use the tap water, you know.”

His reply?

“We have to get rid of the chlorine. And the fluoride. And the government mind control.”

I think he was kidding about that last part.

But I am not totally sure.

Confession: Chicken Marsala Edition

I’ll be honest. Work this week has kind of sucked.  I have been extremely busy as I attempted to simultaneously prepare for a project that will have me traveling to 7 states in the next 6 weeks and to get my regular work done as well.  And I had a 2+ hour conference call one day this week that didn’t start until 6:30pm (gotta love working with people on the west coast!) I’m exhausted. And I am more happy than I can say that tomorrow is Friday.

One of the side effects of this has been my not pulling my weight when it comes to cooking dinner. Here’s what has been on this week’s menu:
-Sunday: Mushroom soup and yeast rolls
-Monday: Penne with broccoli and green salad
-Tuesday (night of my late call): Leftover soup and crackers
-Wednesday: Lindsay ate out; Jason ate the remaining soup and whatever else he could find in the house
-Thursday: Lindsay ate out; Jason ate chicken marsala

I know what you are thinking. Chicken marsala? Does Jason know how to cook chicken marsala?

The answer is no.  (Although he could probably do a fine job if he tried.)

I made the chicken marsala. After work today.  For him to eat while I was having dinner with friends.  (And yes, that is my confession this week).

Before you rush to judgment, let me start by saying that I did not do it because I felt it was my job as the wife to make sure my husband was fed.  Ok, so I did feel slightly guilty about providing a whole host of lack luster meals this week (Monday’s pasta was only ok and as someone who does not particularly enjoy leftovers, I felt bad about making someone else eat the same thing three times in four days). But it was also because I originally planned to make chicken marsala on Wednesday and bought all the ingredients and then ended up accepting an invitation to have dinner with a friend. Since I/we have dinner plans with family and friends for the next three days, I worried that if it didn’t get made today, the food might go to waste. And I hate wasting food (ironic given than I don’t like leftovers, I know).

Plus, I have been tired, cranky, and irritable this week (another side effect of my more-hectic-than-usual work week) and decided that Jason deserved a little extra something for not only putting up with that but also for being supportive when I had a mini-meltdown last night. And in the spirit of appreciating what your partner does (even if it is part of being married/in a relationship) I thought this time, instead of a simple “thank you,” I’d make him dinner when I didn't have to.

But don’t worry….I left all the dishes for Jason to do!

 

  

  

Jason's dinner on the left and my lunch tomorrow on the right!

Chicken Marsala
Adapted from Everyday Food (not sure which one because I cut out the recipe from the magazine)

This serves 2; you’ll need to double the liquid ingredients (and amount of chicken-duh!) for dinner for four or if you want to have leftovers (if you are into that sort of thing).

Ingredients:
2 TBL flour
2 boneless/skinless chicken breast halves
1-2 TBL olive oil (depending on pan size…for a large pan like mine you need 2 TBL in order have a nice layer covering the bottom)
1 package cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 shallot, minced
1 tsp dried sage
¼ cup Marsala wine
2-3 TBL cream (I used half-and-half leftover from the mushroom soup)

1.Place flour in a shallow dish and season with salt and pepper. Dredge each piece of chicken in flour mixture.
2.Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken and cook 8-10 minutes per side, until golden on the outside and cooked through. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.
3.Add mushrooms, shallot, sage, and ¼ cup of water to skillet; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until mushroom as tender (about 5 minutes). Add wine and cream. Simmer over medium-high heat until slightly thickened, about 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and check seasoning.

I Want to Go to There*

*(30 Rock is awesome!)

For those of you living in the DC area, you have to check out iEatDC’s recap of her recent trip to Volt, the Bryan Voltaggio (of Top Chef fame) restaurant in Frederick, MD.  It looks so good, I want to go to there immediately!

Being someone who likes cooking and appreciates the finer things (especially when it comes to food), going to new restaurants is truly a form of entertainment for me.  I get really excited when special occasions roll around and we get to pick out a fun restaurant to celebrate with. I am fortunate that I have friends and family who recognize this about me and who indulge my foodie tendencies—Jason took me to Kinkead’s, a veritable institution in DC, right after he proposed and my bridesmaids kicked off my bachelorette party last summer with dinner at Eventide (a 2009 James Beard Award semi-finalist)!

Although we only make it to a couple of super foodie places a year (given that a lot of these places are pricey and we don’t have an unlimited budget), it is still fun for me to plot out the places I would like to visit. Here is what’s on my list for this year (in no particular order) with brief descriptions courtesy of the Washingtonian’s Top 100 restaurants issue:

-Volt: “Arguably Maryland’s best restaurant…seamlessly fuses rustic, seasonal cooking with hyper-modern techniques without overworking either”

-Restaurant Eve: Tasting menu carefully crafted by one of the area’s brightest stars (we might actually make it there this year thanks to an awesome off-registry wedding gift from fellow members of the Finer Things Club!)

-2941:  destination restaurant with “rich, rigorously executed French dishes” (we also seriously considered having our wedding here)

-Rasika: “Modern Indian cooking, exuberantly conceived and executed with precision” (I’ve actually eaten here before but Jason hasn’t; we tried to go in December but were foiled by the Snowpacalypse…..the first one)

-Proof: Wine bar with an “ambitious and interesting kitchen.”

-Trummer’s on Main:  “Ambitious newcomer…has emerged as a home of elegant rusticity”

Hopefully we’ll be able to make it to at least a few of these this year. Good thing someone’s birthday is just around the corner…. :)

Love is Never Having to Argue Over the Remote, or: How I Stopped Watching and Learned to Love the Calm

I don’t know about you, but in my house it was my dad who was almost always in charge of the remote.  Once it was in his hands, he would not let it go. It was so bad that if he dozed off while watching something no one else wanted to watch (usually golf), and you tried to quietly slip the remote out of his hand, he’d immediately snap “I’m watching that!” and tighten his grip. Seriously, it got to the point where if my mom or I somehow gained ownership of the thing we would guard it, even hide it, just to be able to hold on to it for an entire episode of whatever circa 1995 show we wanted to watch (because my dad also liked to watch about three shows at once which meant you always missed a key moment or awesome one-liner in any given episode when he’d inevitably flip back from the commercial break a minute or two late).

But isn’t that generally the (stereotypical) rule of thumb…man = remote-crazy? (Although I concede that my dad may have taken it a bit farther than that…)

Well mark this as yet another stereotype busted because Jason is pretty much the opposite. I am actually the one who is in possession of the remote more often than not in our family. This is largely due to the fact that I watch more TV during the week than Jason does (as you might recall).  But even on the weekend he pretty much avoids the TV unless there is something specific he wants to watch.  I think part of this also has to do with our differing abilities to focus and/or comfort level with noise. I have always been able to tune things out (TV, people talking around me, etc) when I am reading or doing other things that require attention.  In fact, I actually really like background noise…I find I get more distracted the quieter things are. In high school and college I always liked studying or writing papers with music in the background. And so today when I am cooking, surfing the internet, or even reading a magazine I often have the TV on too (usually on the Food Network which, not surprisingly, is my go-to when I need background noise or when there is nothing else on that interests me).

Jason is the exact opposite. He does not tolerate extraneous noise well and is easily distracted when the TV is on. So when he asks “are you watching that?” he is not usually asking because he wants to change the channel but because he wants to turn the TV off so he can focus on the latest issue of Wired or Kiplinger’s. This wasn’t always the case. While we were still dating Jason was more prone to turning the TV on, I think because he felt guilty pulling out the magazine or laptop when I was hanging out at his place and/or felt funny bringing it over when he was at mine. So it wasn’t until we got married that I realized how much extra TV (meaning stuff I don’t even like or care about) I actually watch during the week. 

But you know what they say about admitting a problem is the first step to recovery….lately I’ve been much more apt to turn the TV off if I am not watching something I actually care about. And I have to say, I am starting to enjoy the silence.

Pink Tasks/Blue Tasks

One of the most important conversations for newlyweds (or even for two people living together) to have is the one where you discuss/divvy up household chores.  This is a topic that can be fraught with frustration and tension and, if not handled properly, could possibly even lead to resentment for years to come.  In other words, YOU NEED TO DO IT.

As a modern woman, I have been brought up to believe that I can bring home the bacon AND fry it up in a pan (or something like that), that I can essentially have/do it all.  But the thing is, I don’t really want to do it all.  At least not all the time (and especially not when it comes to housework).  I am a firm believer that it is important for each member of a family to pull his/her own weight and for each person’s contribution to be recognized and respected.  Since Jason and I equally share the responsibility for generating income, it seems only natural that we also share other aspects of work that goes into building (and maintaining) a life together.

Deciding who is going to do what when it comes to household chores (the delineation of which Jason likes to call “Pink Tasks” and “Blue Tasks” for what I assume are obvious reasons :P) has been an evolving process, mostly because I didn’t make it easy on myself in the beginning. For all my talk about equality and partnership, I started things out on the opposite foot.  It was like the minute Jason moved in, this desire to be seen as some sort of domestic goddess and to make-a-nice-home-for-my-man kicked in and before I knew what was happening, I was doing the cooking, the cleaning, the laundry…and pretty much everything else.  And of course Jason didn’t complain because, let’s be honest, who doesn’t love to be taken care of?!  (Not me!) About two weeks into it, the honeymoon really was officially over and I realized we needed to change course IMMEDIATELY. 

Unfortunately, it took another month (and several discussions, passive aggressive comments and a handful of stupid fights) or so before I was able to completely undo the damage I had (inadvertently) done.  Today, however we have settled into a system of household tasks that pretty much works for us:

• My “Pink Tasks” include: Meal planning, cooking dinner, dusting, cleaning the kitchen and bathroom, unloading the dishwasher*, doing laundry*, going to the grocery store*,  folding/putting away MY clothes, taking care of my car, paying the rent, and handling any Christmas/bday/thank you cards (and gifts) for friends and family. I also (more often than not) serve as social chair.
• Jason’s “Blue Tasks” include: making breakfast on the weekend, doing the dishes, paying bills and managing finances (including doing the taxes), vacuuming, making the bed in the morning,* watering the plants, folding/putting away HIS clothes, taking care of his car, and taking out the trash. He also serves as our IT administrator and electronics guru.

* 8 times out of 10 I unload the dishwasher (because even though Jason has lived here for 6 months he still doesn’t know where everything goes) and do the laundry but Jason occasionally pitches in as well.  Likewise, Jason makes the bed most of the time with me pitching in on the weekends.  Lately we have been going to the grocery store together but otherwise I go by myself.

As I said, this is still a work in progress and things are likely to change as our life together evolves. If and when we get a house/adopt a dog/have children, all of this will have to be revisited and revised. I should also say that this is what works for us...obviously not every couple is going to do things in the same way. What is important (in my only-been-married-six-months opinion) is that you have the conversation early and often in order to make sure that no one feels overburdened in the relationship.

I also think it is equally important to acknowledge the work your significant other is doing on a regular basis. It is easy to take things like cooking dinner 4-5 nights a week for granted after the novelty has worn off, but as the one doing it I know it is a lot of hard work. So when Jason sincerely thanks me for making him such an “awesome meal” it makes my effort seem worthwhile and helps keep me going. Likewise, I know that doing a sink full of dishes/vacuuming the apartment/fixing my computer when all he wants to do is read the latest issue of The Economist sucks, so I try and go out of my way to say “thank you” as often as possible.  Hopefully we’ll be able to keep this up for the next 20 years! But if not, at least I’ll have this blog to remind me of the good old days.