Fool Proof Roast Beef and Right Living

Today at 11:30am I decided I was going to cook a big family dinner. My two close cousins were coming into town, I had a free afternoon and a roast thawed and ready in the fridge. It was super last minute but everything just worked!

(dinner for 9 please and thank-you)

I spent the morning at the Yarrow Plant Sale with my mom, sister and grandma and then invited them over for coffee and cake and cookies ( ahem yes at 10am) and to come look at my gardens. Also, my mom did my dishes and picked a bunch of pretty blooms from my garden for my kitchen! Lovely.

(These are all from my yard! So fun!)

(garden touring)

(Thank-you Momma!)

Until recently I have not had a green thumb. Not even close! I have actually killed everything I have tried to grow in my house except a Christmas cactus which can go a very long time without water and still come back to life. Early this spring I planted basil and lavender seeds in small containers in my house. To my surprise 99% of the seeds came up and are now living happily in bigger pots! The lavender will take a good year longer till I will ever see flowers. Talk about patience.
I also have spent hourssss weeding and pulling out buttercup ( ahh I HATE buttercup!) from my mostly overgrown rental house gardens. They are now looking pretty good and healthy! I just hope we get to stay here all summer so I can enjoy all my work! I actually am starting to feel knowledgeable in my gardens and really loving being out there on gorgeous, sunny days. I have planted a very small veggie garden of brussle sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, peas, sugar peas, swiss chard, tomatoes, dill, summer savory and mint. Ok that list doesn't make it seem small..but its like... four or six plants of each and the garden plot is verrry tiny. The herbs and tomatoes are in pots on my porch. Ohh yes and 12 strawberry plants!
Also, I am helping Jill plant her gardens (and to share in the harvest) at my mom and dads house. We expanded the previous garden so we could plant more potatoes and zucchini and cucumbers! Today we worked on weeding a insanely overgrown smaller garden where we hope to plant corn, pumpkins and squash.

Its great gardening with Jill because she knows sooo much and, as a bonus, I get to spend time with my sister. Jill went to UFV and got her horticulture certificate? diploma? I don't know...two year program thing. Anyways, she knows a lot about all sorts of gardening things so she it a great person to be learning from.

(Matching garden boots)

(Jam cat in the row of peas)

(Essie painted nails permanently caked with mud...also this is probably not good for my wedding rings)

After spending many hours in the gardens today, I made a super great dinner for my cousins, sisters and mom and dad! We had roast beef, roasted potatoes, roasted broccoli and zucchini chunks and a fresh salad. (wow so much roasting going on). It was a super easy dinner to feed so many people! (nine in fact). I did have help from everyone though. For dessert we had left over chocolate sheet cake, ice cream and vanilla sugar strawberries.

(easy, delish dessert)

(tossing broccoli and zucchini)

(medium- cooked roast)

  

Fool Proof Roast Beef

      While this does occupy your oven for quite some time, it also lead to a great, hands off dinner!

2-3lb Roast thawed and brought to room temperature

              (today I used a sirloin tip roast, but I have also used a prime rib roast and a rib roast with success!)

2 tsp Herbes de Provence
1 tsp Garlic Powder

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Pepper

3 tbsp Olive Oil

*any spice combo would do, this is my favourite right now* 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degree F. Mix together herbs in a small bowl.

2. Rub roast with olive oil then, while your hands are still slimy, rub herbs liberally into roast. Use all the herbs and cover the entire roast.

3. Place roast into a roasting pan fat side up ( if possible) and place in heated oven for 1 hour.

4. After an hour, turn heat off but leave roast in the oven for an additional hour this hour should end about 1 hour before dinner to be served.

5. If you do not need your oven, leave roast in oven till 30 min before serving time. Turn heat back on at 375 degrees F and heat till warmed through. Let sit on counter 10 minutes covered with foil, before slicing. With a three pound roast this should be about medium rare. If your roast is closer to two pounds decrease waiting in the oven time to 1- 1 1/2 hours.

6. If you do need your oven, remove roast from oven and immediately cover roasting pan. Wrap in a towel or place somewhere to keep it warm as long as possible. 30 minutes before serving place back in oven till headed through. Let sit on counter ten minutes covered with foil, slice and serve.

*cooking longer during the second heating time will result in a more well done cut of meat. Mine was in for 45 minutes and was medium-well done*

The Best Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Today I went to cycle fit (or some people call it spin class). I have been going since January once or twice a week. Its is a major cardio workout. Every time I tell Gary I have never sweat so much in my life. Except that one hot yoga class. That takes sweating to a whole new level. I was literally drenched.

I know. This is totally the best way to start a cookie post...talking about sweat. Appetizing.

The thing is, I need to work out. Often. Daily if possible.

I also bake daily. That means I eat baking daily. Spin Class is necessary.

True life.

I am soo tempted to make croissants right this moment. It is an all day commitment. And I don't even like croissants.

I just drank 20 ounces of chai tea and ate two of these cookies, and an apple dipped in natural peanut butter. I am a snacker. Speaking of snacking, I totally need to go to Trader Joes asap. They have the best snacks eveeerr.

The Best Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

(Based on Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip and Pecan Cookies from Smitten Kitchen)

1/2 cup softened butter or margarine

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oatmeal

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1) Cream butter and sugar together till light

2) Add salt, vanilla and eggs and mix for three minutes scraping down the sides of the bowl after one minutes

3) Mix flour and baking soda together. Add half the flour and mix till combined. When just combined, add the rest of the flour.

4) Stir in oats and chocolate chips.

5) Roll into heaping tablespoon sized balls and place on parchment lined cookie sheets.

6) Bake in a 350 degree oven. Bake for 10-15 minutes ( mine were perfect after 12 minutes) . Let cool 2-4 minutes on the cookie sheet then cool completely on wire racks.

Options: Add nuts (2cups, decrease oatmeal to 1 cup), Add orange zest ( 2 tsps), Add 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp cloves with the flour. Doing all these additions will create the same cookies found on Smitten Kitchen. I prefer mine much more plain so I didn't do any of them!



Happy Birthday to ME (and my sister)

Today, April 18, is my 22 birthday and because I am a twin... it is also my sisters birthday.

 Happy birthday Jill!

This is Jill (annddd me). She is so awesome and a great gardener and can bake like nobody's business. She also likes flower patterned shorts and to embrace messy hair and Harry Potter is totally her thing.

 Last night we went to see hunger games because I have been dyyyyinnngg to see it. This was her third time! What the heck! By the way, Jill told me we could only go see it Tuesday night. Why? Because that's cheap night and " there's no way I am paying full price when I can go on Tuesday for so much cheaper!" I have lost that extreme frugalness apparently. Thankgoodness she still has it!

Because I love food, specifically sweet, homemade food, I decided yesterday that on my birthday I am going to eat good food.

Last night I searched through the blog Joy The Baker  to find exactly what I was going to eat for breakfast. I chose joy's blog mostly because she shares my love of making dessert into breakfast. How can you go wrong eating chocolate cake for breakfast?
Answer- you can't.

 But because I am trying to eat better. ( ahem no cake for breakfast) I decided to go with orange and chocolate scones and rice pudding.... Totally healthy I know!

Some people really don't like rice pudding, I on the other hand love it.
I could eat it everyday.
Preferably with only a few raisins and maybe a touch if cinnamon here and there.
But, to be honest, I have never met a rice pudding I didn't like.
The newest way I have cooked it is kinda like risotto... The rice is cooked in milk with sugar. Ummm sooo good!! There are also crock pot variations, oven baked variations, left over rice variations, custard variations. The list goes on.

Anyways I am sure you don't really care about the numerous ways to make rice pudding... Especially because this blog post is actually about the chocolate orange scones.

Oh man.
They are just so good!

Orange Chocolate Scones
Recipe from Joy The Baker

1 1/2 cups Flour
2 tbsp Sugar
2 tsp Orange zest
2 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
6 tbsp cold Butter
1 large Egg Yolk
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp buttermilk (or soured milk)
1/2 cup Semi-sweet or dark Chocolate chips

Move oven rack To upper third of the oven. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Mix together flour, sugar, orange zest, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Cut butter into dry ingredients until butter chunks are very small and mixture looks coarse. I like to use my pastry blender, but you can use your fingers equally well.

In a small bowl combine egg yolk and buttermilk and beat till combined. Add to dry ingredients and stir with a fork till moistened. Add chocolate chips.

Use your hands to bring dough together, kneading a bit so it holds together easily.

Place dough onto a lightly floured counter. Flatten till 1 inch thick. Cut into four squares. I like to make eight smaller scones so I then cut the four large scones in half.

Bake immediately on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet at 425 for 12-15 minutes.

Best eaten the same day they are baked.

Also, after scones are shaped, you can place them on a cookie sheet and freeze until solid then transfer to a plastic bag and keep in the freezer for a quick breakfast treat!. Then when you are ready to bake them, preheat oven, place scones on a cookie sheet and bake from frozen. They may take just a few extra minutes to bake.

Freezing scones is always a good idea if you can not bake immediately. Even if your just waiting for room in the oven. Putting the scones in the freezer even for 15 minutes, helps to keep your butter cold (for flakier layers) and slows down the baking powders rising action (higher, more even rise of the scones in the oven) .

Sunday Morning Baked Oatmeal

Happy Tuesday!

Weekend breakfast in my house is generally nothing special. Almost always Gary has to milk and I stay in bed too long and then we are running around like crazy people to get to church on time. Once in a while though, I pull myself together and make bacon and eggs or french toast. There was even a few fantastic mornings when I would wake up to the smell of bacon and pancakes! Gary was actually cooking breakfast! Whhhaaatttt???

Yeah, that happened 3 Sundays in a row. I was impressed.

In actual fact, Gary loves breakfast, specifically bacon and eggs "sunny and runny" with toast and on a good day a few slices of french toast.

Well, this weekend I made baked oatmeal instead

This is baked oatmeal. If you haven't tried it, you should! Its great to prepare the night before and then throwing in the oven before you get in the shower. This is just a basic recipe that can be made even better by adding fruit, spices, nuts, or peanut butter. Yum!

Baked Oatmeal
Recipe adapted from Mennonite Girls Can Cook

3 1/2 cups Oatmeal
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Coconut (optional)
1/4 cup Oil
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Apple Sauce
1 cup Milk

Mix together ingredients in order given. Pour into a greased 8x8. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. This is also great reheated and eaten for many days! Top with milk and sugar.
To make this oatmeal even better try topping with fruit, nuts, coconut, peanut butter, and what ever else you can think of!
* You can also mix all the ingred togther and keep in the fridge then bake in the morning. I like to crumble up the cooked oatmeal in my bowl before warming up with milk and sugar.