Finally Friday

I was still fixated on having a pot roast, so at lunchtime, I went to Westborn. Unfortunately, the only ones they had were eye of round roasts, which are boneless and almost no fat (I think bone-in and some fat marbling add to the finished flavor). I also grabbed a bunch of rosemary.

When I got home, I immediately peeled some carrots and put them in the bottom of the smaller round slow cooker. I added a peeled yellow cooking onion, cut in half, and a clove of smashed garlic. I then cut some unpeeled Yukon gold potatoes into chunks and threw those in.

I seasoned the roast with kosher salt, black pepper and dried parsley. I rubbed that into all the sides and put the roast in the cooker. I laid half an onion cut into rings on top, along with a minced clove of garlic. I put four sprigs of rosemary on that and then topped everything with button mushrooms cut into quarters.

I added about 1/2 cup of water and a good slug of Worcestershire sauce, plugged it in and turned it on high. Then it was time to go back to work! So much for eating lunch. But I took in a peach and a plum and figured I could survive on that.

It was a long afternoon, as are most Friday afternoons, but finally I was headed home, “Banging on that Drum!”

I could smell the roast when I got out of the car in the garage. I immediately started to drool, but forced myself to wait until 8:00 PM when it’s technically “done.”

In the interim, I watched the evening news and then watered the container gardens. One of the hanging plants never revived and if it doesn’t this time, I’ll pitch it. Somebody please remind me never, EVER to buy Impatiens for a hanging plant. They suck!

My friend B___ called and we discussed weekend plans. His (going out on the boat) were better than mine (cleaning the house, cutting the grass). Sadly, he told me he just learned that a dear friend of mine, (they always called her “Bunny”) had died eight years ago (eight years!) from cancer up in Alaska. I knew she was living in British Columbia with her second husband who was a lumberjack years ago, but how she got to Alaska is a mystery to me.

I could tell you a hundred stories about Bunny (especially the way she used to answer the phone), but I won’t. I’m too bummed.

Finally, it was 8:00 PM, so I pulled the roast out with a meat fork. Then I took out all the veggies with a slotted spoon, I put everything on a platter and covered it with tin foil to keep warm.

I ran the au jus through a strainer and into a saucepan. I brought that up to a boil while I tried a trick my British friends’ use (I’ve seen it in both Jamie Oliver’s show and the Two Fat Ladies show). You take what they call a “knob” of butter (I’m guessing about a tablespoon) and, using a fork, mix in a couple of tablespoons of flour (I used to know what this was called, BTW). Once that’s all incorporated, you add that to the au jus and whisk the hell out of it. Once it thickens, you had the most marvelous gravy.

So, I cut off two slices of the roast beef and added the veggies to the plate. I topped it all with the gravy and went in to watch some TV.

In spite of my misgivings, the pot roast was excellent! The gravy and the veggies were perfect and I ate the best damn dinner I’ve had in a long, long time.

There was literally nothing interesting on TV, so I stuck in the DVD “We were soldiers, once” and started watching that (for the hundredth time). I fell asleep about half way through, so I don’t really know how the Vietnam War ended up.

Did we win?