slow cooker pot roast and baking bread a mile high (a Jess post)

Tonight I made a bison pot roast in the crock pot. There are about a billion ways to make pot roast and as long as you're starting with a good cut of meat, it will usually be excellent. Because of that, I wont post a detailed recipe or instructions, but I will point out how the way I make mine may be a bit different than the way you make yours.

First, I always season and brown my roast before putting it into the crock pot. I have skipped this step before and have payed dearly in flavor and texture. I start with about 3/4 c of plain flour and add whatever seasonings sound good at the time. In tonight's case, that was about 1/4 tsp each of garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, dried chives, seasoned pepper, hickory smoked sea salt, and all purpose seasoning. I blend the flour and spices and then dredge the roast in it. I then heat about 2 T of olive oil and I brown the roast on all sides.

While the roast is browning, I chop whatever veggies I'm using and throw them in the bottom of the crock pot. This selection varies every time I make it, but ALWAYS contains carrots, onions, and potatoes. I then blend whatever liquid and seasonings I am using during the cooking process. This always has beef stock, a tablespoon of the flour/ spice blend that you used for dredging, and Worcestershire sauce. Sometimes I will also use a soup base (french onion or cream of mushroom), a dash of steak sauce, and/or red wine. I pour the seasoned liquid over the vegetables, lay the browned roast on top, add a bay leaf, and then add the finishing touch- horseradish! I know that puts some people off, but it was the way my whole family always made it so it is the only way that seems right to me. I slather the top of the roast with a nice layer of horseradish and cook for about 6 hours.

right before turning on the crock pot

Like Cory, I also made bread to go with dinner tonight! Bread making has been a challenge for me living in Colorado. Our altitude usually makes the bread rise too quickly and then deflate which usually leads to very dense or hard breads. But I think I have finally found the perfect recipe! This is adapted from Joyful Abode's Honey Wheat bread machine recipe. Though mine has DEFINITELY been tweaked for flavor and altitude!

Ingredients:

1 cup plus 1 T hot (apprx 110 degree) water
1 T honey
4 T butter, cut into chunks
2 cups white flour (preferably bread flour, but I used all purpose)
1 c whole wheat bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vital wheat gluten
1 1/2 tsp yeast

Put the water and honey in the bottom of your bread maker's pan. Place butter chunks in all four corners. Dump in flours, salt, and vital wheat gluten. Create a well in the middle of your dry ingredients and pour in the yeast. Set the machine to either sandwich bread or wheat bread setting (I used wheat bread setting) and your color preference (I chose medium). Creates a 1 pound loaf.

Those of you at sea level should reduce the water by 1 T, increase the yeast by 1/2 tsp, and skip the vital wheat gluten.

The bread is amazing though- nice and soft, very flavorful, and the perfect sized loaf for sandwiches. I am beyond thrilled.

So this was Sunday dinner! Yum!