On The Menu: Classic Slow Cooker Pot Roast

It's that time of year where you want to come home to the smell of something warm and delicious filling your house. Something where you don't have to do practically anything to prepare dinner once you've had a long day at work. Enter: The Classic Slower Cooker Pot Roast.

This is something we had all the time growing up, but something I have never managed to make until now. Also, I just discovered Crock Pot liners. I am stupid for not using these before..seriously made our clean up SO EASY. I'm a convert and will use them from now on! So let's get to it...



This recipe adapted from Linda Larson at about.com

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. flour

1 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves

1-1/2 lb. boneless beef top round (The smallest one I could find was 1.75 lbs)

4 potatoes, peeled, cut into chunks

16 oz. pkg. baby carrots (you could probably get away with half this amount)

1 onion, chopped

14 oz. can ready to serve beef broth

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

2 Tbsp. cornstarch

1/4 cup water

Directions:

1. Make a mixture of your flour, salt, pepper and thyme. Make slices in your beef top round and rub the flour and thyme mixture on your beef. Set aside.

2. Layer your peeled potatoes, carrots and onion in your slow cooker.

3. Set the beef top round coated in your flour mixture on top of your vegetables. Our beef sat in the fridge overnight in the mixture and our veggies sat in the crock pot so I would have less steps to do in the morning.

4. Pour the Worcestershire sauce and can of beef broth over your beef and veggies.

5. Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours depending on the size of your beef round (we cooked the full 10 hours and it was perfect).

6. If you like a thicker gravy than just the normal drippings, remove the beef and vegetables after cooking and place in an over-safe serving dish. Cover with foil and keep warm in the oven. Meanwhile, add 2 Tbsp. cornstarch and 1/4 cup water to your drippings still in the crock pot and heat on high for 15 minutes. You may have to add more or less cornstarch to get the gravy thickness you desire.

This recipe makes great leftovers as well - you can do beef stew, hot roast beef and swiss French dip sandwiches, or with barbecue sauce on a wheat bun. Enjoy this classic dish and the way your house smells when you get home!

Quirks

Our dog Indy, a 2 year old Siberian Husky, is seriously weird, but endlessly entertaining. Here he is laying in his kennel, because apparently this is comfortable. We don't make him go in there when we're home and have been slowly weaning him off the kennel when we leave the house. We've left him out in the open for the past two days for the entire work day and he has done so well. The goal is to get this giant kennel out of our house by the time Baby Reece is born, because this thing takes up some major space real estate. And it's ugly. I'm a little worried that he'll feel like he doesn't have a safe haven anymore if we get rid of his "den."

He has another funny quirk that has just started fairly recently. Apparently huskies are pretty good at regulating what they eat. We could free feed him if we really wanted to because he only eats if he's hungry. But we can't do this because our other dog, Dotty, a 6 year old rescue, would zip line across the room and eat anything left untouched. It's a throwback to what her mental state must have been like when she was a stray. She'll always have that scavenger mentality.

Anyways, in the mornings, I get up first and let Indy outside, then he comes in and I set his bowl of food in front of him. He tends to look at me like, "Is this the best you have to offer?" before wandering around the house for ten minutes looking for a better alternative. Perhaps a used kleenex or an apple core. Sometimes he grudgingly comes back to the bowl and eats the food one tiny kibble bite at a time. Other times he just lays in front of it and stares at it like maybe it will morph into steak, or more preferably to his taste: some fruit. Well Indy, I'm sorry that we spend the big bucks on Blue Buffalo food for you, but it's the best you're going to get out of us. Anyone else's pets have weird habits like this?

New Nursery Art

I want the baby to have some piece of art on his wall that was created just for him by me. I did these 3 illustrations of red foxes that I'm so excited to hang once the room is painted and we get the furniture layout figured out. I can't decide if I want them hung vertically in a column or horizontally in a row of three. What do you think?

I painted them on white 140lb watercolor paper with watercolors and gouache paint and detailed them with Prismacolor colored pencils. The "mattes" are actually fake - I just painted them in. The frames I already had from way back in college to decorate our apartment, but they were black so I painted them white. Whoohoo for art that was completely free!  Here's a close up of my favorite one:

And here's Scott's favorite:

Just an FYI - if you want some custom art of your own for yourself or your baby, feel free to contact me. You can send me an email or visit my Etsy shop (button on my sidebar) and send me a request. I really enjoy creating art for people, and would love to create some for you, too!

Nesting

As you can see I'm in the process of cleaning up the look of the blog. More breathing room. Not sure if this is final or if I'm just nesting...

Baby Reece Is A...

BOY! And so begins years of therapy because his mother put his boy parts online for the world to see before he was born...

Profile

Feet

Face - and an eyeball. Kind of scary and appropriate for Halloween :)

We're just so happy he's healthy and everything seems to be ok. Isn't technology amazing? We did find out that apparently he's a giant already. 1 lb. 1 oz at 21 weeks. My due date is correct...we're just destined to have giant children.

Nursery Plans

Full disclosure: I am not an interior designer. These idea boards are ones I just threw together after seeing an inspiring color palette on the Home Depot website. Feel free to help me out. Just don't tell me that my taste sucks or I'll cry. 

I'm thinking of using the same wall color regardless if it's a boy or a girl with the same white crib and glider. These boards are just a jumping off point, and will probably evolve over time and actually putting the nursery together. For a girl...

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Robin's egg blue, chocolate and soft yellow with accents of brighter blue and coral. That picture in the top left is the one from the Home Depot fall style guide and kicked off my inspiration.  The wall color (background) is Behr Cloudburst. Some other sources:
1. Crib - Graco Somerset Convertible Crib available at Target
2. Glider - Graco Avalon Glider also available at Target
3. Curtains - World Market Suzani Panels
4. Lamp - Lampworks Recycled Blue Glass Cylinder from Amazon.
5. Round Storage Baskets - Perfect for storing toys, blankets, etc, available from AGKs on Etsy.
6. Pretty Throw Pillow Cover - Also available on Etsy from seller DesertDaze.
7. Handmade Plush Birdie Mobile - Another Etsy Find. Seller PrettyPlush.

Now for a boy, I'm keeping the same general thing but switching out the pops of coral to more of a focus on the soft creams, yellows and chocolates with pops of bright aqua. Also I like the idea of the accessories being more "manly" with lots of wood and wicker.

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1. Curtains - again from World Market. They have such an awesome array of styles!
2. Wicker Baskets - found this set on Amazon.com
3. Modern Wood Mobile on Etsy from seller babydarling.
4. Wooden Stacking Rings on Etsy from seller TheWoodGarden.
5. Birch Robins Egg Blue Pillow from Etsy seller buttongrass.
6. Baby Blanket - I found this baby blanket in the same fabric as the pillow from Etsy seller SewnNatural. It must be meant to be!

Feel free to leave comments and suggestions. Like I said, I'm no designer, so I welcome helpful hints!

Fall Decorations Part Deux

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Alright, I think I'm done with my fall decorating. There's no real theme, just lots of projects I thought would be fun. I've shown you previously my candy corn wreath, spooky bunting and leaf inital for the front door. Other than that:

1. I moved in a small black cabinet that needs to be repainted underneath our mirror and will use it for holiday displays for the next month until I can repaint. On top is a cluster of mosaic candle holders in fall colors and the remainders of the candy corn.

2. How pretty are these giant fall nested glass leaves I got from Marshalls? They're irridescent, heavy-duty glass and I got all three in a bundle for $16.99. Plus they already matched my decor. I also got the glittery pumpkin and reed diffuser at Marshalls as well. I've displayed them on our never-used dining room table and the coffee table.

3. I didn't go crazy outside, just a couple of white pumpkins with the same leaves on top I used to make our "R" leaf initial. I can never find good white pumpkins, so I just bought these and painted them white.

We also have a little halloween countdown on our chalkboard in the kitchen. Is it just me, or does anyone else get a little sad when the decorating is over? Now that I have no more fall projects I kind of want to start decorating for winter.  One season at a time...I know.