Sunday Roast

Recently, we've been trying to appreciate the merits of a Sabbath. We like to think we are not over-committed and harried, yet we still find ourselves uttering phrases with words like "awfully busy" or "exhausted." If God rested on Sunday, perhaps we should too. With Saturdays allocated for events, projects, and errands, we've been settling down on Sundays to a little bit of churching, eating, loafing, napping, visiting, laughing, and playing. Quite nice!

While pondering how to make our Sabbath enjoyable, food inevitably came to mind. In our home, we do love a good meal, so maybe I should resurrect the ol' After-Church-Sunday-Dinner! This idea might turn out to be an unsustainable flash in the pan, but for the past few weeks, we've really been enjoying it. I toss some sort of roast in the oven before church and plan a couple easy sides. We all then scamper back home after church, eager for a tasty, lingering meal together. (Added bonus: very easy to invite guests over to share a meal after church!)

After a horrible crock-pot chicken incident from last Sunday (I can't bear to describe how dreadful it truly was and have pledged to never cook chicken in a crock-pot again), I attempted to redeem myself with a farm-house style pot roast. My carnivores were very happy.

•Sunday Pot Roast•

1 3-5 lb. beef roast (ask the butcher for a good pot roast cut)
1 lg. onion

Sunday morning, 8:00ish: Slice onion and place a on bottom of roaster or pan. Set meat on top of onion. Convection Roast (if you have it) at 400 degrees for a half-hour. (This will sear the outer layer and lock in those juices.) Go take shower! (Of course, if you have the time, you can sear all sides in oil and skip this former step altogether.)

5 med. potatoes
5 carrots
1 lg. onion
**Add turnips, yams, additional onions, or any other tasty item too!

Peel and chop into large chunks. Place around roast in pan.

1 c. water
seasoning salt, herbs, spices

Mix any seasoning salts, herbs, or spices you'd like (about 2-3 T.), adding some to the water and sprinkling the remaining directly onto the roast. Pour the water mixture around roast, over the veggies. Cover tightly with lid or aluminum foil. Lower temperature to 250 degrees and place in oven. After church your house will smell divine and the roast will be done! (Internal temp. of beef roast should be about 160 degrees).

Take roast out, cover with foil and let rest while removing veggies from pan. Make gravy from pan liquid with a little cornstarch mixed with water. Salt to taste.

*Buy meat on sale and freeze. Place in fridge to defrost on Friday and it should be ready on Sunday to cook.
*For the evening meal, plan something very easy and light. Tonight we had bread, cheese, olives, carrots, and Irish Breakfast (Decaf) tea.
*Have cute daughters help set the dining room table the night before. Cute daughters get to use fancy cups.