Cold, Rainy Days and Crock Pots

Cold, rainy days and crock pots go together like bread and butter or coffee and donuts. The weather has been cold and drizzly including this morning when I woke up. I planned the menu the other day with the weather in mind (when it's in the 30's and 40's, I crave slow-cooked comfort foods). I made a classic pot roast in the crock pot and by this afternoon, it turned out to be about 65 and sunny. The pot roast was delicious and smelled heavenly all day even if it was positively balmy outside.

I seared the pot roast in a skillet on both sides and then put the meat in the crock pot. In the same skillet, I cooked flour for a minute before adding some tomato paste and cooking for another minute. I deglazed the pan with some white wine and cooked until it evaporated. I added some beef broth and Worcestershire sauce and brought the sauce to a boil before adding it to the crock pot to cover the beef. Lots of sliced onions, carrot chunks and celery chunks went in along with some chopped garlic, fresh thyme sprigs and a couple of bay leaves. It was left alone to simmer all day.

I served this with mashed potatoes which had peas added to them and were garnished with fresh chives.

It turned out to be a beautiful dinner of comfort food to enhance what became a beautiful day! Life is good.