Beer Mushroom Roast

Food for thought:
One of my favorite books of the Bible to read is Ephesians because it constantly reminds me of why I believe the Bible, believe Jesus is Lord and follow Him.  This morning I was reading from Chapter 2 and was overwhelmed by these verses as usual.  I know I don't often post much scripture or information about my faith on here but I had to share these verses.  Today I am making a point to take some time to pray for anyone who reads this blog.  If you have a specific prayer request feel free to leave it in the comments below and I will pray for that also.  As for the verse, here it is.  A better testimony of God's love for me (and you) than I could ever write myself.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,  so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Ephesians 2:1-8

Now on to the recipe.  Last summer my husband and I went to Savannah, Ga and ate at a British pub.  It was a fun little place and had some great food.  My husband ordered bangers and mash, which basically is the British way of saying sausage and potatoes.  I am not a fan of sausage (the idea of how it is made honestly grosses me out sometimes) but I decided to try a bite.  The gravy on the meal was AMAZING!!!!  I asked the waiter about it and he said it was made with Guinness beer.  Since then I've been wanting to try to recreate the taste of that gravy and last night I did!  This was a great recipe that was extremely easy (needed now as I don't have much time with the new baby).  I hope you enjoy it!!!




Beer Mushroom RoastBeer Mushroom Roast
Ingredients:
1 bottom round roast of beef
1 container of sliced mushrooms (I just used sliced white but baby bella mushrooms would give a meatier taste to your gravy)
1 sweet onion (I used vidalia because we have a lot in Florida right now)
2 cups vegetable broth (I always use kitchen basics because it does't have added sugar and preservatives)
1 bottle of beer (any kind I used a pale brew beer but I think the Guinness would have been a dark brew - clearly I don't know about beer)
salt
pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp basil
1/4 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp ground sage
5 cloves of garlic peeled and sliced in half

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cut 10 slits in roast and insert 1/2 a clove of garlic in each slit

Salt and pepper bottom round roast liberally
Mix together thyme, basil, oregano, crushed red pepper, and sage and press onto sides of roast
Slice onions place a layer of onions on the bottom of a roasting pan and place roast on top
Sprinkle mushrooms on top
Pour bottle of beer and 2 cups of vegetable broth on top (*you could use beef broth but my grocery store only had vegetable or chicken)
Cook in oven for 2 hours
Remove from oven
In a small pan on stove melt 2 tbs of butter
Add 2 tbsp of flour and make a roux (like making the starting point for gravy)
Cook until golden whisking constantly
Add roux to the pan juices and stir to combine
Allow to sit for at least 10 minutes more.  I allowed mine to sit for 30 minutes just to cool down (it was still very hot when we ate it) and to allow the gravy to thicken.
Slice and serve with gravy on top!It is so good!!!  The beer adds a tangy wheaty taste to the gravy that is just to die for and just so you know all the alcohol does cook off so this is a safe recipe for kids.  

Enjoy your weekend!  I know I will be enjoying mine with my two favorite boys!

Tuesdays Tip - Cutting Meat

“Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans”

John Lennon

Beautiful Etsy Turquoise Platter

What a perfect quote for me right now.  I haven't been blogging as much lately because I have been incredibly busy.  For those of you who don't know me personally I work full time as an event coordinator for a student ministry at a local church.  Seems simple enough right? Until you take into consideration that our church student ministry is so large that we have to put on our own camps during the summer.  Due to this I am pretty much in non-stop work mode from mid-May through the middle of July.  Unfortunately this means I come home from work and either finish more work, like I'll be doing tonight after I finish this post, or I'm so mentally drained I don't get around to sharing my thoughts and recipes on here.  However, I do still cook during this time.  For me cooking is almost a calming ritual of sorts.  I drive home, feed and walk the dogs, and then immediately start working on dinner while watching some of my favorite TV shows (yes I'm lucky enough to be able to see my TV from my kitchen).  However, tonight I am catching up with one of my girlfriends at my favorite local coffee shop.  She's the overachiever who is sitting here studying for grad school while I type a quick blog before I start working on camp expectation manuals (sounds fun huh?).  So needless to say I'm not cooking tonight, instead I'm writing about something that I really feel makes a difference in your cooking... cutting your meat.  I know seems simple enough but so many of us get it wrong all the time and ruin what would have been a tender, juicy cut of meat.  

10 Recipes Every Newlywed Needs to Know

Love seems the swiftest but it is the slowest of all growths.  No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century. 

Mark Twain

I love this turquoise/yellow wedding

I'm celebrating my first anniversary today!  It is so crazy to think how fast a year flew by.  Before getting married I had this thought (actually we should probably call it an illusion) that I would cook a new dish for dinner every night, keep an immaculate house, decorate, spend time with the husband and still have time for things like running, working, friends, etc...  Sadly in about month 6 of our marriage I realized this was definitely not going to happen.  At that point I had a basket of laundry to do, the floor needed to be vacuumed, I didn't feel like cooking and couldn't remember the last time I had ran.  It was then that I realized married life wasn't the clean houses I saw when I went over to visit someone (because they shoved everything in the closet before hand), it wasn't the elaborate dinners (because really they had picked it up at the local restaurant before hand), it wasn't a perfectly designed house (because they had hired an interior decorator for that) or the relaxed feeling I felt when around the couple.  Actually it may have been the relaxed feeling but that was mainly because the wife (or husband) had taken the advice in the parenthesis above so really they were just chilling.

Turquoise/Orange Inspiration

Joking aside though I did come to realize that marriage is more than living up to these standards I had set in my head.  Marriage was loving someone, serving together, standing side by side, and (for those who are a Christian like me) bringing God glory in all you do.  I quickly learned that in reality the laundry could wait until tomorrow, the house would always need something else dusted, decorating is a lifetime project, and some nights it's ok to order in.  I do have to say though in regards to cooking there were a few amazing dishes that really helped me get through this first year of marriage.  If you know me you know I love experimenting with different dishes but every now and then even I have to have those standby recipes to fall back on when everything else fails.  So for those of you who are newlyweds, write these down! For the rest of you who already have your recipe "repertoire" why not consider adding some of these.  I promise they are delicious, filling and always seem to please both the husband, guests, and myself.

Greek dinner with friends

“I bought a doughnut and they gave me a receipt for the doughnut... I don't need a receipt for the doughnut. I give you money and you give me the doughnut, end of transaction. We don't need to bring ink and paper into this. I can't imagine a scenario that I would have to prove that I bought a doughnut. To some skeptical friend, 'Don't even act like I didn't get that doughnut, I've got the documentation right here... It's in my file at home. ...Under "D".”

 - Mitch Hedberg

Ok so the quote has absolutely nothing to do with this post but it made me laugh so hard that I had to use it!  Yesterday we had two good friends come over for dinner, Kaylee and Jay.  We've been planning to get together with them for a while but never got around to it until now.  We decided the best thing to do would be to hang out at our house for dinner and walk over to this cute little gelato shop after for a sweet ending.  

Sara's Pot Roast

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.
Harriet Van Horne

Super Cute Etsy Towel

Oh how I love the quote above.  It really does capture how I feel about cooking!  On another note as I promised I was going to share a recipe that didn't have to do with oatmeal and boy do I have a great recipe to share.For those who don't know I teach a college age girls Bible study on Sunday mornings.  I have about 18 girls and they are all amazing. They are so passionate about the word of God and really challenge me probably more than I challenge them.  There is a girl in my class named Sarah, she's one of those fun outgoing girls who never seems to have a negative care in the world and she is so much fun to be around.  This past Sunday the two of us got to talking about her cooking adventures lately.  Apparently her family subscribed to the new cooking channel (sponsored by food network) and she loved it.  I admit I'm quite jealous as I don't think I can convince the husband to pay extra for a cooking channel.  She started to tell me about some of the recipes she had tried out but then mentioned that even though these were great they still weren't her favorite.  When I asked what her favorite was she began to tell me a pot roast recipe involving A1 steak sauce, onion soup mix and cream of celery soup.  I have to tell you, I don't like pot roast, never have and definitely never thought I would.  To me pot roast always seemed to be fatty and swimming in some kind of brownish floury gravy.  However, I knew my husband loved pot roast.  He is definitely a meat kind of guy. While I'd prefer for something else to be the main course, he would get offended if meat was not the main course.  So I asked her to send me the recipe and Monday evening I made this and it was delicious! I do have to tell you that I got center cut chuck roast instead of the typical rump roast and I really think that cut down on the "fatty" taste.  So I knew I had to share.  This one is made in the crockpot and really is a "visual" measuring technique in the beginning so this will be a step-by-step picture recipe.  Sarah - thanks so much for making our day better with a great recipe!!!

A baker, a chef, an artist and 2 cooks

A family is a unit composed not only of children but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold. ~Ogden Nash 

This weekend I am home at my parents house and there is no better description than the title of this post.  A baker, a chef, an artist and 2 cooks.  These are the people who led me to be passionate about cooking.

My mom is the baker.  Growing up she was always baking amazing things.  From my great grandmothers sour-cream pound cake for our teachers at school, to cookies for the boys basketball team, and "pluck it cake" for our breakfast; my mom could bake up some amazing things.  There was constantly some goodie in our house (which probably led to my being very overweight in middle school ;-) that she had just made.  She taught me you always have to take the time to measure when you're baking and you always keep an eye on the oven regardless of the timer.  Don't get me wrong my mom could cook amazing meals but no-one in the family measured up to her baking.