Delicious AND Easy, Part II -- Pot Roast!

I've had some good feedback from the Easy AND Delicious Honey Wheat Roll Recipe. (If you haven't tried it, you should!) Now, I'm going to give you an Easy AND Delicious main dish to go with the bread. This pot roast is OUT. OF. THIS. WORLD. My brother didn't even sit down to eat - he just stood over the meat, cutting pieces off and eating them until he was full. It's easy and delicious, good enough to serve to company, doesn't require any attention, AND the meat was incredibly cheap! I had never heard of a "Cross Rib Roast" before, but I would recommend using this cut of meat. I only bought it because it was on sale -- but I would definitely pay full price for it. There is something that makes food taste better when you saved more than you spent on it, though! I am sure using a different cut of meat would also be a success - the cross rib roast just has a large ribbon of fat running through it that helps keep it tender and moist. (As you are cutting it, be aware that one small end of the roast will be really marbled, rendering it almost inedible.)

I used a 3.5 lb roast and the 2-hour at 275* variation and it was absolutely delectable. I also cut up a bunch of veggies (carrots, potatoes, parsnips, onion) and threw it in the bottom of the pan. The potatoes soaked up all the juices and were incredibly tender and delicious without being mealy - my favorite!

Cross Rib Roast

2-lb. cross rib roast
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. salt
2 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. dried rosemary

Brush roast with vinegar. Make a paste with remaining ingredients (I used a mortar and pestle) and apply to meat. Roast meat at 450° F for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° and cook for 40-60 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 125° F. (Variation: Reduce heat to 275° F and roast for 75-90 minutes.) Remove from oven; cover loosely with foil and let stand 15-25 minutes.

Only I ....

Could make a Halloween costume that involves giving out food with it. And have a party just so I can make some adorable Halloween food.

Yes. Yes I did.

I'll post pictures later.

Happy Fright Night, everyone!

Greatest. Freaking. Bread. Ever.

Oatmeal Toasting Bread. Yeah, just the name sounds good. But the actual bread is SO incredible. I can't say enough about it. Slightly sweet, super moist, incredible texture. YUM! Try it. I got it from "A Year in Bread."

There are a few ingredients I bet you don't have lying around (vital wheat gluten?!) but it's SOOO worth it. If you're in the Provo/Orem area, you can purchase oat bran and nonfat dry milk in the bulk containers at Sunflower Market so you don't have to purchase large containers of it for the FIRST time you make this bread (I guarantee you'll be back for more!). You can purchase Vital Wheat Gluten and Steel-Cut Oats at Wal-Mart for a pretty reasonable price. (Do use the steel-cut oats for the fresh oatmeal, by the way - the texture produced by using two different kinds of oats is awesome.) I doubled the recipe and made one 2-lb loaf and 2 1-lb loaves (9x5 and 8x4, respectively). Also, just in case you didn't know, "instant yeast" is sold around here as "Rapid Rise" yeast. I had to do a little research and scour some food labels to figure it out. Finally, I could only knead this with my KitchenAid for about 5 minutes before it started smelling mechanically- I'd recommend kneading by hand. It's stiff so it takes some elbow grease, but I'd rather have a healthy kitchenaid than one good loaf of bread. :) Happy Baking!

Oatmeal Bread

2 oz. (4 Tbsp.) unsalted butter
2 oz. (1/4 c.) light brown sugar
5 oz. (1 1/2 c.) leftover oatmeal (see note), room temperature
1¼ tsp. salt
1 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
1/4 c. oat bran
10 oz. (2 c.) bread flour, plus more as needed
1/4 c. nonfat dry milk
2 Tbsp. vital wheat gluten
2 tsp. instant yeast (note: this is NOT a full pkg.)

Melt the butter and stir in the brown sugar and salt. Stir this into the leftover porridge. Put the rolled oats, oat bran, bread flour, dry milk, vital wheat gluten, and yeast in a large bowl. Stir the leftover oatmeal. Knead in KitchenAid for about 10 minutes. This is a very sticky dough. You may need to add more flour so that you can move from sticky towards tacky, which is desirable. Place the dough in a clean oiled bowl. Cover with a cloth, and let the dough rise for 1 hour.

Flour a work surface. Gently flour the dough and fold over about four times. Dust with flour if the dough is sticking to your hands. (If making multiple loaves, divide the dough now into equal pieces.) Fold the dough in half, pinch the seam, and gently roll into a loaf shape the length of your pan. The dough will be stiff. If needed, pinch the seam with moistened fingers. Place in greased loaf pans. (Either one 2-lb. loaf or two 1-lb. loaves.) You want the ends of the loaf to touch the short ends of your pan (so it will rise evenly.) Cover with oiled plastic wrap and a towel. Let dough rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size. Dust the top with oat bran, if you like. Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes.

Note: To make fresh oatmeal, bring 1½ cups (12 oz.) water to a simmer. Add 1/2 cup (3 oz.) steel-cut oats. Simmer on low, covered, for about 25 minutes. Stir in butter, brown sugar, and salt. Cool your oatmeal down to below 120°F (took about 45-60 minutes), before proceeding with the recipe.


Xoxo,
S

Honey Wheat Rolls - Delicious AND Easy!

So I don't really think there's anything better in the world than freshly baked bread. I'm still not terribly good at it. My baking skills are a work in progress. After two rounds of semi-decent and borderline terrible baking experiences this weekend (it's always worse when you put a ton of effort into it and it turns out less than incredible), I needed a baking pick-me-up. I remembered back to high school when one of the ladies in my ward taught me how to make honey wheat rolls, and how good they were... and oh, yes, remembered how I never wrote down ANY recipe back then! So it's off to Google, and I found the ultimate recipe for Honey Wheat Rolls. These are super super easy, come together quickly, don't required a lot of kneading, AND you don't have to roll them out! (You can if you want, but by the time I got to shaping the dough, it was a little too sticky to roll out so I just followed the directions.) Seriously, don't be afraid. Try this recipe. You will be so proud of yourself, and amazed at how little effort they require!

Honey Wheat Rolls

1 pkg. active dry yeast
1 c. warm water (100° -110° F)
2 c. all purpose flour, divided (I used more like 3 c. flour)
1 c. whole wheat flour
3 Tbsp. honey (I eyeballed it)
2½ Tbsp. butter, melted
1 tsp. salt
Cooking spray

Dissolve yeast in 1 c. warm water in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Add 1½ c. flour, whole wheat flour, honey, butter and salt to yeast mixture, stir until well blended. Add 1/4 c. flour and stir until a soft dough forms.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 8 minutes). Add enough remaining flour, 1 Tbsp. at a time, to keep it from sticking to hands.

Place dough in large bowl coated with cooking spray. Cover (with plastic wrap) and let rise in warm place free from drafts 1 hour, or until doubled.

Separate into golf ball size pieces and flatten slightly. (I got about 15 rolls.) Place on greased baking sheet. Cover and place in warm area free of drafts for about 45 minutes, until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 425° F. Bake rolls 12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Gone Public!

I've decided to make the blog public - there's not a lot in it that needs to be private. :) So if you have me in your favorites list, be sure you update it so it doesn't show me as private anymore! Thanks!

Xoxo,
S