Cowboy Pot Roast with Mashed Potatoes

Cowboy Pot Roast

I found this recipe in an old Southern Living cookbook that I had inherited from my paternal grandmother many years ago. I think it came out pretty tasty, and Mark gave his seal of approval too.

2.5 – 3 lbs. beef pot roast, trimmed

1 (14.5 oz) can petite-cut diced tomatoes, drained

1 can Rotel tomatoes, undrained

1 onion, cut into large wedges

2 T. chili powder

2 (16 oz) cans pinto beans, drained

1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained

Salt & pepper to taste

Place roast in Crock Pot; salt generously. Pour tomatoes and onion wedges over the roast; add chili powder. Cover and cook on high temperature for about 5 hours. Remove roast from Crock Pot, cut into large chunks. Add beans in the Crock Pot and place the chunks of roast back into the Crock Pot as well. Lower temperature down to warm until ready to serve. This would be a nice dish for chilly autumn and winter days.

Mashed Potatoes

Everyone has their own unique way of making mashed potatoes, and this is mine.

5-6 large russet potatoes, washed, peeled & cut into cubes

1 stick of butter

1 small container of cream cheese with chives and onions

Milk

Salt & pepper

Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender; drain and return to pot. I use about 3/4 of a stick of butter, a few dashes of milk, generous salt and pepper, and 2-3 large dollops of the cream cheese. Mash well until smooth.

 I served the pot roast on top of the mashed potatoes. The natural gravy from the pot roast and beans was excellent on the taters. We also had a nice mixed greens salad with the roast.

Menu Monday

In my attempt to completely domesticate myself, I am forcing myself to publicly post what I plan to cook for the week. (In a feeble attempt at actually following through with it.)

The situation with me and cooking is that I need a plan. Mark (and my mom) can stand in front of the pantry and just invent a wonderful new dish. He is definitely an improv chef. I’m not. I need a recipe (that I’ve researched), I need a trip to the store to buy everything in that recipe, and I need a clean kitchen (I’m anal like that).

So that’s what I did yesterday. I picked some dishes I’ve wanted to try, I went to the store, and now I am ready to cook for the week. Here is this week’s selection:

• Cowboy Pot Roast with Mashed Potatoes (today)
• Chicken Verde (a family recipe) with Creamy Succotash
• One-Pot Pasta (a ravioli dish) with salad
• Chili Dogs with Green Beans (for the 4th of July)

We will have one or two days of leftovers at some point, Mark will cook on Sunday, and we might get take-out on one night.

It’s difficult finding things that Mark and I will both like. He does not like casseroles — or as he puts it, “Anything that has cream of something in it” (cream of mushroom, etc). Carson won’t eat potato items (tots, mashed potatoes, potato salads, etc), which I think he rather bizarre and I hope he grows out of it. Kate is the biggest challenge because she simply won’t eat unless you give her exactly what she wants — which is usually fruit, crackers or things that I consider junk food. (She is getting better though.) As for me, I know I need to explore beyond comfort foods and pastas.

Sunday Night Thoughts*

We had yet another nice-but-uneventful weekend.

I’ve decided that I need to change some things in my life. I’m bored. I’m isolated. I need to change that.

I don’t have a job outside of the home. Life has gone on auto-pilot as far as the twins are concerned — meaning, we have a great schedule, they sleep through the night, they play a lot on their own or with each other. I often feel like my main job is to feed them, keep them clean, give them hugs and kisses when they want them (and even when they don’t), and make sure they don’t kill themselves or each other. I know that’s rather simplistic, but life isn’t nearly as challenging as it was when we were dealing with infants (i.e., SLEEP DEPRIVATION). So now I am looking for new things to stimulate them, and always plotting future adventures.

But then there is me. Not the mom Shannon, but the adult Shannon. The 31-year old woman whose only adult interaction is with Mark, my nightly call to my mom, and Miss Jennifer (for 10 minutes twice a week). We never go out. All of our close friends live up in Dallas, and my local family is always busy with their own lives to do anything social with us.

Part of the problem is the weekend.

For me, I would like the weekend to full of outings, time with Mark, family time with the twins (trips to the zoo, park, swimming, etc), occasional date nights, visiting friends, etc. I am suck in the house all week, and so I want to go out and about on the weekends.

For Mark, the weekends are a time to rest. I completely understand where he is coming from because he works hard all week, has a job with a lot of stress, responsiblity, and hours, and he travels a bit for work too. So I know he wants (and needs) to spend his weekends napping, working around the house, watching TV…just chilling out and re-charging his battery for another busy work week.

 Those are polar opposites. We want different things.

I’ve looked into mom groups, but they are either already full or just not a group I would be interested in.

So, I am thinking that one nice compromise is to have one dinner party a month. Hmm, perhaps dinner party isn’t the right phrase. Nothing formal, but just invite another couple over to the house for dinner, wine, and adult conversation. Mark is a fantastic cook, I’ve worked hard to create a nice home, Mark’s co-workers and partners could see another side to him (which is always good on the career front), and I would get the adult interaction that I so desperately crave.

Of course, when I brought this up to Mark — and showed him my list of potential couples to invite — he chuckled and rolled his eyes. He is probably right. This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had a grand idea, and then it just doesn’t pan out or the excitement fizzles out and I drop the idea.

Does anyone else out there feel this way? Any suggestions?

#  #  #  #

Anyhoo, the twins had a great weekend, though they both were wild as hell today. They were so happy and in great moods, but they did everything possible to get into trouble (getting into the fireplace, climbing a baker’s rack, trying to eat dog food, pulling on the wood blinds, getting into the trash can, etc). All things that they know are no-nos, but they didn’t seem to care today. They would just smile, continue doing what they aren’t suppose to do, and then try to out run us when we came after them. They were just wild today! 🙂

Kate’s fat lip is pretty much all gone.

Carson is walking more, better, and faster! I would say he is walking about 30-40% (vs. crawling) of the time now. I’ve noticed that at some times of the day, he prefers to crawl instead of walk.

Kate has been practicing standing unsupported (not holding on to anything) all weekend.

#  #  #  # 

Oh how I wish I could put my feet in the ocean. We.need.a.vacation!

 

* Alternative title: Can I Get Some Cheese with That Whine!

Crab Cakes, Shrimp & Grilled Asparagus

Sunday dinners in our house usually involve steaks, a veggie and baked potato. We have both grown tired of that, so we tried something new tonight. This was Mark’s first attempt at crab cakes (which we both love), and they came out pretty good — though we both agreed it needed some heat. Next time he is going to add either red bell pepper or perhaps pimento.

As always, his asparagus and shrimp were heavenly.

Crab Cakes

1 lb. crab meat

Panko crumbs (Japanese crumbs)

2 T. fresh parsley

1/2 t. dry mustard

1/2 c. Ritz Crackers, crushed

2 t. mayo

2 eggs

1 t. Worcestershire

Salt & pepper to taste

Mix the parsley, dry mustard, Worcestershire, eggs and may together. Add the crab meat, crushed crackers, salt and pepper; mix well. Form patties — about 1/3 cup each,  1″ thick. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Coat with panko crumbs lightly. Fry in butter and oil over medium-high heat; 4 minutes per side.

 

Grilled Shrimp Sauce

1 T. oil

1 T. fresh lemon juice

1 sliced green onion

1 T. fresh parsley

1 garlic clove, minced

Dash of basil, dry mustard, thyme, and salt

1 t. Dijon mustard

Whisk all ingredients together, and pour over shrimp right off of the grill.

Mark used his yummy garlic vinaigrette over the asparagus he cooked on the grill.

A Step Towards Civility

Since this has been a bit of a crappy week, I thought I would end it on a happy, positive note.

The twins hit another milestone today…eating with utensils! I think this is probably a bigger moment for me than it is for them. I’d like to think this will cut back (at least a little) on my nightly routine of scrubbing food off of the floor under their high chairs.

Last night, on a whim, I decided to let them try eating off of some plastic plates (seen above) instead of dumping everything on the tray. The twins once again amazed me with how different they are from each other. Carson went from compartment to compartment; eating everything in the compartment before moving on to the next one (all of the chicken first, then cheese, then green beans, then fruit). Kate, on the other hand, essentially played with her food and the plate for a good 30 minutes before finally eating (in random order). Carson finished every bite and left a perfectly clean high chair tray underneath this plate; not so for Miss Kate.

Since they did so well with the concept of the plate, I thought I would let them try to eat with sporks. They immediately picked them up and started eating with them! As if they had done it a hundred times before! (Of course, they’ve been using sporks as their primary teething item for some time now, so they understood that it goes in the mouth.)

This was another fine example of me underestimating them, and them showing me up. 🙂

 

Ahh, Carson is using his spork as something other than a weapon!

 

Attempting proper spork usage.