One roast, four recipes OR How much I love my new kitchen!

So I know I'm few and far between in the way of posts lately - but I am here and I am writing, just not as much as usual.  However, there are some things I must share.  This lovely story about one eventful evening at the grocery store (and it's wonderful outcomes) began on Thursday. 

Now usually, on payday, Mr. Dan and I will go to the store and get something yummy from the butcher.  This week we were late so we skipped the butcher and went straight to the meat cases and there it was - this beautiful, wonderful, ON SALE, sirloin roast beef.  Don't ask me how big it was, I say around 8 or 10 lbs.  It was BIG.  And it was on sale.  By a lot.  Now Mr. Dan wasn't too sure of my ginormous roast, he said it wasn't as pink as the rest of the roasts but being that I'm the cook and I said it was okay, he let me get it.  I gathered up some other essential stew supplies and we trotted home.  I decided to put the roast on all day Saturday so we could have a nice dinner before we both went out for the evening. So I put the roast in the crockpot, poured in my low-salt beef broth and some fresh ground pepper and let 'er rip.  It took 10 hours but once I was home I knew it was ready.  It smelled DEVINE.  So I cooked up some roasted potatoes and veggies (recipe below) and served it to Mr. Dan.  We were both thoroughly satisfied and put the left overs away for lunch.

Now the next day at lunch we wanted something good, so I hauled out the beef.  Trouble was, what were we going to make?  Well we had a brain wave and created BBQ beef sandwiches (recipe below).  They were a HIT (Mr. Dan had two).  And I STILL had roast left over.  So, time to wash the crock pot and create some beef stew (recipe below).  It was also a HIT.  Mr. Dan loved it (and a good thing too, my parents made beef stew for supper the next night!!)

So, now you're thinking - "wow Paige, you've given us some recipes and you've gotten a lot out of that roast.  Good job."  Well thanks, reader!

BUT WAIT......THERE'S MORE!!

I'm a big believer in reusing and recycling anything that I can, and when I made the stew I simply had too much broth for the amount of meat and veggies - so I saved it.  Today, at dinner I took my broth, some left over meat, some onions andddd we had our final meal from the roast, French Onion Soup.

So that's my story of the 4 meal roast, and why I love my new kitchen.

RECIPES!!

Paige's Simple Roast Veggies

What you'll need:
Potatoes, washed and cubed (peel optional)
Sweet potatoes, wash and cubed
Carrots and onions, washed and diced
Montreal Steak Spice
Garlic powder
Olive Oil

What you do:
Take your cubed veggies and toss them on a pan with 2-4 tbsp of olive oil.
Dust veggies lightly with garlic powder and Montreal steak spice. 
Pop in a pre-heated oven (325-375, depending on the oven) for 20 minutes.  Remove, flip, and cook for another 20 minutes.

BBQ Beef Sandwiches

What you'll need:
Left over roast beef
Sweet red peppers, thinly sliced
1 tsp olive oil
Onions, thinly sliced
1cup BBQ sauce (we used spicey brown sugar)
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup water
Pepper to taste
Bread/buns/etc

What you do:
Saute onions and pepper in olive oil until onions are translucent, add beef.
Add BBQ sauce, ketchup and water.  Stir. 
Add pepper to taste and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. 
Place beef on the bun and enjoy! Goes great with a salad:)

Beef Stew

What you need:
2 pounds of left over roast
A sprinkle or two of sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
Celery, chopped
Potatoes, peeled (or not) and chopped
Parsnips, peeled and chopped
Onions, peeled and chopped
1 turnip, peeled and chopped
28-ounce can of whole tomatoes
½ bottle red wine
3 or 4 cups of beef stock or water
A few bay leaves

What you do: 
Put in crock put on low setting for 4-6 hours or high for 2-4.


French Onion Soup

What you need:
2 onions, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, diced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp flour
3 cups beef broth
1/2 cup dry red wine (optional but SO good)
salt and pepper to taste
crusty bread
shredded cheese

What you do:
Saute the onions in olive oil on low heat.  Add the garlic about 3/4 the way through, the onions should be just slightly brown when you're finished. 
Add the flour and saute with onions and oil until brown.
In a separate pot, add beef broth and red wine, add salt and pepper to taste.  Allow to simmer for 10 - 15 minutes.
Place browned onions, and flour, into an oven safe bowl.
Pour broth/wine over onions.  Place crusty bread on top, with cheese.
Bake on 350F for 5-10 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.


Longest.post.ever.

YouTube Sensation!!

Have you ever dreamt of going viral?  No, not like H1N1 viral, I'm talking YouTube sensation viral!  Well, I always have.  Sadly, I'm camera shy.  But Mr. Dan and his friends are not!!  There has been this video floating around on YouTube since about 2004, of Mr. Dan and his two best friends (and cohorts in crime) Matt and Steve.  And this week, it hit a milestone.

Now Mr. Dan likes his pizza.  He likes his pizza a lot.  And when you get Mr. Dan, Steve and Matt together on a Saturday night there is quite often pizza involved.  And ALWAYS a camera, coursey of Matt.  Now, this certain Saturday night (unfortunately a few years before I met Mr. Dan) these gentlemen were quite hungry.  So hungry, in fact, that they ordered the LARGEST pizza  I have ever seen from Rassy's Pizza in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Now, I'm sure you're like "Oh yeah, Paige, big pizza...whoop de fuckin' doo." Well kids, this pizza was 38 inches.  Which is 3.16 feet, or 96.52 cm, which is a BIG EFFIN PIZZA!  So in honour of Mr. Dan, Steve and Matt reaching 4,000 hits please enjoy.

Mr. Dan - YouTube Sensation


 

Times, they are a'changin'!

It's been hectic around here.  I just wanted to pop in and tell my loyal reader that I am around and I will be back.  I got a job offer this week (and I accepted), we're moving next week AND Mr. Dan is job hunting.  The wedding planning is going well and we're running around like chickens with our heads cut off.  I will update soon, promise!

Monday...Monday...MONDAY!!!!

Does it sound like I'm excited?  Well, I'm not really but I figured I'd give it a try.  Sometimes, if I pretend that I'm excited or have energy about something then eventually I will feel that pretend excitement and it'll turn into something real - it really will become exciting.  However, that doesn't seem to be working today.  I'm tired and it's Monday.  Seems like this happens every week, eh?  Mr. Dan had trouble this morning - too tired he tells me.  The dogs didn't bother to move much.  Mol went from the bed to the couch and Mikey simply watched us get ready from the bed.  Seems like everyone is having some Monday maladies.  What do you do to get past the inevitable Monday blues?

A shameless plug

This year I've been privileged enough to be asked to join the Organizing Committee for the Scotiabank Blue Nose Marathon.  This will be my third year with the marathon and I'm so excited and honoured to be a part of it.

One of the biggest race events East of Montreal,  Blue Nose is a people's event - walk, run, job, skip in the kids event, 5k, 10k, half or full marathon.  It was started by the people of Halifax for the people of Halifax.  It's a catalyst for change.  It's a vision of a healthier tomorrow.  It's showing you that you can have a healthy and active lifestyle.  As many as 10,000 people will take to the streets of Halifax on Victoria Day Weekend (May 20-22, 2011) and it's going to be BIG.  www.bluenosemarathon.com for more info!

Batten down the hatches - storm's a comin'!!

It's on it's way.  The snow is almost here.  I've heard stories from the Mid-West, Ontario and the Eastern seaboard that this thing is going to be big.  Last night we got 10 cm of snow, today we're due for 25-45 cm.  With freezing rain tonight.  This should be a good one!!  With that in mind, Wedding Wednesday will not be seen this week, as I'm prepping for Snowmageddon!  Wish me luck!