Sunday Dinners

Every Sunday my Mum would make a roast dinner. We usually had our main meal in the evening, but on Sunday, it was noonish when we had our main meal. Just to confuse things all the more, in Australia we call dinner - tea. Lunch is called dinner. At least, that is how it was for me growing up. Just like here in the USA, different regions call things by a different name at times.

We usually had either roast chicken, roast lamb or roast beef. For special occasions, we had roast turkey. We always had a LOT of vegetables with any meal, but Mum outdid herself for Sunday dinner. Always, roast potato, roast pumpkin, peas and carrots. The other vegetables she would choose from are - parsnip, brussel sprouts (yuck), green beans, broad beans, cauliflower, broccoli.........just about any vegetable that you could possibly think of.

My Dad had a huge vegetable garden, so the vegetables were always fresh and home grown. What wasn't used up or given away was frozen or bottled for future use. I was always pleased if the brussel sprouts were all used up, that was not a vegetable I wanted hanging around to be eaten all year.

I try to carry on my family tradition of a Sunday dinner. I had never had pot roast before I came to the USA. I have embraced the pot roast and it is one of our favorite dinners. I have experimented with my pot roasts over the year. The simplest being, throw the chuck roast into the crock pot, sprinkle with a dry onion soup mix, pour in some water, cook the heck out of it until it is fall apart tender.

My favorite is a recipe from Paula Deen. I tweek the recipe a little from her original, but stick pretty close.

INGREDIENTS
1 (3 to 4-pound) boneless chuck roast

sprinkle of garlic powder

sprinkle of Lawry's Seasoning Salt

1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large onion cut into thin wedges

2 bay leaves

1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup

1/4 cup red cooking wine OR beef stock

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon beef bouillon granules

3/4 cup water

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Add the garlic powder, Lawry's seasoning salt, beef bouillon, salt and pepper to a small bowl.

Rub seasoning into the roast on both sides.

Heat oil in a large skillet and brown the roast, searing it on both sides.

Place the meat in a roaster pan.

Add onions and garlic to skillet for 1 to 2 minutes to absorb leftover roast juice.

Place into roaster pan with meat and bay leaves.

Combine the mushroom soup, wine and Worcestershire sauce into a bowl.

Pour over the roast.

Add water.

*If the gravy is not thick enough, remove the meat from the pan and pour the gravy into a saucepan. Bring to a boil and thicken it by adding 2 tablespoons of cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup cold water, stirring constantly.

Cook Time 3 hr 20 minutes

Most of the time I use a crock pot, then I just leave out the water.

Enjoy

Sally-Ann