It's been awhile. I know. But I've come equipped with excuses!!! So, here goes!
We got married!! Yay!! Our wedding was July 1st and it was one of the hottest days I've ever experienced. We had a really small wedding with only about 35 people including ourselves. It was amazing. It was the perfect wedding.
Three weeks later we moved from Wisconsin to Kentucky. Let me tell you...it was hectic!!! We packed all of our stuff into a rental truck on a Tuesday, drove all day Wednesday, and unpacked on Thursday. One short week later our house was completely unpacked. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are that good.
A few weeks after THAT, Jake started grad school (the reason we moved to Kentucky in the first place). He's studying to receive his PhD in Physics and is also working as a TA in the Physics Department at the University. I won't admit it to his face, but he really is as smart as you are all imagining he is. It's painful. He loves school and has made some friends that he invites over to dinner relatively regularly...which has inspired me to get back into more of the cooking!!
Since we moved we've been making a menu every few weeks, shopping for those meals, and then actually making them instead of letting them sit in the fridge/freezer and go bad before we get around to making said delicious meal. However, we've still had nights (like last night) where I beg for some kind of delivery pizza because it is soooo delicious. Enough of that. It's time to cook!!
Tonight I decided to venture into a part of the world I had never experienced: Meat. I've never really liked meat all that much. My mom says that when I was much younger I would just chew and chew and then spit it out telling her that I couldn't swallow it. I'm a vegetarian by no one's standards. I love a juicy burger as much as the next person, but steak, roast, pork chops, etc. have never been my cravings. Jake is, unfortunately, the opposite. If given the opportunity, I think he would have chicken or steak (or both!) at every meal. So, I've decided to bite the bullet and learn to make meat for his sake.
I decided to start with a roast. I knew I could do this in my crock pot and I've become quite fond of cooking in a crock pot recently. The idea that I can put a bunch of stuff that sounds good together into this magical kitchen appliance in the morning and have delicious dinner by the evening with little effort from me is fascinating. I knew I would need meat (of course). For this I brought Jake along with me to the grocery store. I don't eat a lot of meat. I've never cooked me that doesn't consist of browning ground turkey so I knew I would be unable to choose some kind of meat myself. With his patient help and discerning eye for meat we ended up with a beef chuck roast which means nothing to me. I knew we would need some kind of cooking liquid and Jake was partial to beef stock so we went with that. Next I decided on carrots, red potatoes, and yellow onions. So far so good.
This morning was prep time. Jake suggested searing the giant piece of meat in the frying pan with salt and pepper to make a crust before we put it into the crock pot. Meanwhile, I chopped up three carrots, four potatoes, one onion, and four cloves of garlic. I layered about a third of the vegetables on the bottom of the crock pot. Jake added the meat once it was reasonably cooked on the outside and I covered with the rest of the vegetables. The last step was to add three cans of beef stock (if I was really adventurous I suppose I could have made my own beef stock, but it seemed to me that simply attempting to cook some kind of meat was enough adventure for one day!). Then I turned the crock pot to low and left it there for seven hours.
All day I just kept checking the pot. The smell in my house was heavenly and kept drawing me back into the kitchen. It made me feel like I should don an apron and make some kind of pie from scratch while wearing my pearl necklace and heals and waiting for my husband to get home. It was very 1950s-Sunday-dinner feeling. Instead of all of that, I lit a pumpkin spice candle. Much easier.
Finally, after Jake got home, I took the roast out of the crock pot. Jake brought out a knife and I stood by waiting for the moment of truth to see if it actually cooked all of the way through. After a semi-labored slice (it wasn't as tender as I wanted it to be), and some breath-holding on my behalf...SUCCESS!!! The roast was cooked! As we started eating...it actually tasted good too!! DOUBLE SUCCESS!!! I was thrilled with myself. I had cooked meat and it tasted good.
Now onto my mishaps. The meat wasn't as tender as I wanted it to be and I'm wondering if that had something to do with the type of meat we used. I'm not entirely sure though. Also, the potatoes and carrots didn't seem like they were entirely cooked. I'm contemplating boiling those in the morning before I put them into the crock pot to ensure they actually get cooked and soft. Lastly, the meat was good, but I'm wishing it had a bit more of some kind of flavor. I'm thinking of using some spices next time, but I haven't pinned down what I would use or how I would use it. We'll see.
I'm thinking of cooking either ravioli lasagna or stuffed manicotti for dinner tomorrow night. I've never cooked either one and don't have an exact recipe for them (as is true of most of the meals I cook) so it'll be an adventure no matter which one I choose. For today though, I cooked meat, and that's enough to leave me satisfied!!
Until the next time!
-Kayla
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