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christmas dinner

Despite the fact that I had no warm feelings about Christmas at all this year, I did celebrate Christmas — three times! — with various members of my family. I don’t really think law school is wholly to blame for my bah-humbug-iness this year, but I’m sure it played a part. Anyway, it was bad. Really bad. Not only did I not put up a tree this year, I didn’t get out any Christmas decorations. At all. None. My poor, traumatized child. I fully expect that when she grows up and has kids of her own, her house at Christmastime will look something like this:

Except she’ll remaster the soundtrack to replace “Mr. Grinch” with “Momma Grinch” and she’ll have a plastic me in the yard instead of the Grinch in that video.

Anyway.

So I did cook, and it was pretty delicious, so I thought I’d share. Ninja Pops was here for a few days and I cooked a pot roast and mashed potatoes. Yep, that’s it. Meat and potatoes. What?

Newcastle Pot Roast
adapted slightly from Cooking Light

• 2 T butter
• 2 pounds sliced onion
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• cooking spray
• 5 lb roast (I used two chuck roasts, 2-1/2 lbs each)
• salt & pepper
• 1-1/2 to 2 cups beef broth
• 1 T fresh thyme leaves
• 12 oz dark beer (Newcastle)
• 3 T cornstarch

First, you melt the butter in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat.

Then, you put the chopped onions and garlic into the pot and sauté for about 12 minutes.

After that, you turn the heat down to medium-low and cook for about 40 minutes or until the onions and garlic are sortof carmelized. Remove the onions from heat and transfer to a bowl. Preheat your oven to 300°.

Next, season the roast with salt and pepper on both sides.

Then spray cooking spray on the bottom of the Dutch oven and turn the heat up to medium-high again. Brown the roast for about 5 minutes on each side.

Assemble your remaining ingredients: beer, broth, onion mixture, and thyme leaves. Add them to the pot with the roast.

Bring this to a simmer, then cover and bake at 300° for 2 hours, turning the meat over after 1 hour.

When the roast is finished baking, remove it from the pan. Over medium-high heat, add the cornstarch to the pot and stir constantly until boiling for 1 minute. Then serve over the roast.

And here’s the finished product:

Okay actually that looks kinda gross or something. Let’s try again:

Hmmm. Not much of an improvement. Maybe a shot from farther away?

That’s a little better. Anyway, regardless of how it looks on camera, it was delicious.

Trust.

Oh, and here are my best mashed potatoes of all time.

And when I say “best mashed potatoes of all time,” I do actually mean “best mashed potatoes of all time.”

Happy Holidays!!

Tags: beef, christmas, cooking, recipes