Summer Cooking Experiment #1: Pot Roast

 Yesterday was my first day of my summer cooking experiment for my parents.  I made Pot Roast and Brown Gravy using Everydayhomecook.com's recipe for both.  I went over to the house in the morning, put on the pot roast, and returned in the evening just before dinner to make the gravy.  The only change I made to the original recipe was to cut an onion in half and shove the halves down in the broth as the roast cooked.  (Good call, Mom!)  We also leave the skin on the potatoes at our house.  I read somewhere that the skin of potatoes is good for you, and being someone who used to eat potatoes raw as a kid, I kind of like the skin.  All four of us sat down to this (sorry - I know the picture quality is low!):

I figured we would have leftovers.  My plan was to take the advice of a good friend and seasoned cook and turn the leftovers into quesadillas.  (She says to shred what is left and heat in a saucepan with rotel before putting the quesadillas together.  I had these at her house and they were DELICIOUS!)  As it turned out, the entire roast was devoured, and I didn't even eat an entire piece!  Everyone thought it was good - including my dad, who can be hard to please when it comes to this type of thing.  The gravy also got rave reviews.  However, it was expensive:

Price:

• Roast -  from Dillons, bottom round, 3.25 lbs, $14
• Potatoes - from the farmer's market, $2 (and these golden potatoes were PERFECT for this!)
• Carrots - free! My classroom at school is across the hall from the foods teacher and she was emptying her fridge at the end of the year and gave me these, along with about $25 worth of other groceries!
• Beef Broth - from Aldi, 32 oz, $2 (I think...)

Total Price = $18

Take aways:

• Next time, I need to make double the amount of gravy the recipe calls for.  Everyone was very politely taking only a bit because they didn't want to take the last of it (except me - not a gravy fan).  I will make sure to double the recipe so no one has to do this next time!
• I cooked from 9:00 AM to about 5:30 PM and added the potatoes at about 2:30.  The potatoes were cooked, but I like them just a little more done than they were.  Next time I'll add them a little earlier.
• This meal is much too pricy for us to have on any type of regular basis.  However, if it is a special occasion, if we have company, or if someone else is paying ;), this is definitely one we will use again!