First Post In Which I Make Pot Roast

Nothing sounds more housewifey than a pot roast, but don't let that scare you away. This is an experiment, which is pretty much how I cook nowadays. I used to follow recipes carefully and if I didn't have each and every ingredient, either the dish was abandoned or I made a trip to the store.

Today's pot roast began with a trip to Whole Foods, where they had chuck roast on sale. Since their meat is grass-fed and purports to be humane (the cows will love you for eating them!) I purchased a goodly chunk which turned out to be about 4 pounds. I wisely purchased onions, carrots, and potatoes since I know that is what I always want with my pot roast.

I also knew that I had on hand some horseradish cream and bay leaves. This morning, I perused the Internet for slow cooker pot roast and of course, was rewarded with an overwhelming number of recipes, most of them calling for either canned soup or dry soup mixes of various flavors, usually involving dry onions.

After reading through a number of recipes, I finally settled on the following procedure:

Heated oil on my gas range in the slow cooker pot. Brushed flour, salt and pepper on the meat and browned on both sides. Took meat out and slathered horseradish cream all over both sides. Placed sliced onions on the bottom of the pot (now off the burner.)

Put the meat back in the pot on top of the onions. Surprise ingredient: found a packet of swedish meatball sauce dry mix, so emptied it that into the pot. Added some low-sodium beef broth, enough to cover onions and come up to the bottom of the roast.

Put the roast on high, to bring it to a boil, then turned it down to medium. I might turn it to low later in the day, I'm expecting to serve this around six.

Last but not least, I peeled six large carrots, cut them in half and added them. Then put in ten small potatoes, unpeeled.

I have attempted pot roast in the past, several times, in my slow cooker and it has always come out bland. Tomorrow I will report the results.