Lisa’s Lazy Pot Roast

Fall Classic
My food calendar is totally confused, and I am blaming it on the start of college football. Here’s the deal: the season officially kicks off (ha ha ha) on Thursday night. Most people would take note of this and think “Cool. I wonder who’s playing on Saturday?” Not in my house. In my house, and the households of my relations, it’s a national holiday. Special meals are prepared. Phones are ignored because who could possibly be calling me now?!

So, back to the food confusion thing. To me, college football means fall.
Fall means cooler weather, colorful leaves, bulb planting, butternut squash, and generously sized meats slow roasting for hours while the Ducks put the smackdown on the Bears (Yep. I said it. Let the trash talking begin…). The problem is that it’s still August. It’s 90 degrees outside. Not exactly pot roast weather.

My mind and my appetite don’t seem to care, so I found myself in the kitchen last Sunday making pot roast with mashed potatoes and glazed carrots. Maybe it was because I had such a wild craving for it, but I gotta say it was the best pot roast I have had in forever. So worth a hot kitchen, though perhaps next time I will try it in the crockpot so it’s a little cooler…

For those brave souls who are willing to take the heat, I have listed the recipe I used below. It’s super easy, and nothing else is as easy to make as pot roast. It’s the ultimate comfort food. (Well, mac and cheese is probably the ultimate but, whatever.) Leftovers make great sandwiches for lunch the next day or even taste good re-heated which, in these days of Back to School can be a blessing. Read more…

Winning Chili & Cornbread Recipes

Max takes the lid off the winning chili recipe.

Chili Cook-Off Winners!

Over the weekend we had our inaugural Piedmont Grocery Chili Cook-Off. Wow, what fun! I had a blast, and the general consensus is the we should do it again next summer. I think we shall.

My life revolves around food. It is my passion as well as my hobby. It’s also what I do for a living which means I talk about food a lot. Talking about food or favorite recipes is a common enough experience in any work environment but it is even more so here at PG. It makes sense–people who work with and around food all day would have a pretty good idea of what ingredient would taste good with what other ingredient and what would be the best preparation for any ingredient. We also have our resident “experts”. These are the individuals who are known for (and sometimes share 🙂 ) their particular specialty, be it crab cakes (Josh) or to die for German Chocolate Cupcakes (Sarah) and, of course, we have a secret weapon in the deli (Phil).

Needless to say, all six of our Chili Cook-Off entries were made by people who knew what they were doing, and it showed. The best part, and what made it interesting, was that each chili was totally different than the others. We had spicy chili. We had chunky chili. We even had duck chili (with duck cracklin’ on top! Are you kidding me? So Good.)

The customers who came by to taste were awesome, and so culinary-aware, and so educated. It was really cool to stand there and talk to them about ingredients while using phrases like “nuance” and “depth of flavor”. Yes, I realize we were talking about chili but it felt like we were discussing the recipes of Thomas Keller.

All of the chili recipes were tasty, but since it was a chili cook-off there has to be a winner. So, without further ado, the winning chili as voted by our fabulous customers is…

Chili #5 by Max & Sarah
Anyone who has been through our checkout stands or had their groceries placed gently in their bag, has probably met one or both of our winning chefs. Their collaboration produced the most classic chili of the bunch, and tasted like what one would want on a cool fall day…preferably during a football game. Well, it’s what I would want in fall after or during a football game…or just about anytime, really. And don’t get me started on the corn bread! Read more…

Tagine Bil Kok (Moroccan Lamb Tangine)

So, have you heard the holidays are here? I gotta be honest, I’m just not in holiday mode yet. Thanksgiving came on us way to quick, as did the decorations, and Black Friday started on Thursday this year. I’m not yet ready to roast Jack Frost on an open fire…or whatever. So I’m staging a culinary protest this week. No peppermint, roasted birds or people sitting around wearing velvet and sipping eggnog. I’m going exotic and spicy.

Santa’s gonna need Tums!

First on the list, Moroccan food…and my favorite tagine. While it’s not actually spicy, it is darn good over couscous.
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Gam’s Cranberries

Of all the holidays, Thanksgiving is the one that reminds me of my Grandmother the most, and probably not for the reason you think. I don’t have visions of my Grandmother wearing a frilly apron rolling out pie dough, though she could make a mean crust. What I do have are Gam’s Rules of Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving dinner was always at our house and every year, and I do mean every year, my sister and I (and my poor mother who was actually doing the cooking) were subject to Gam’s lessons, rules, and commandments in cooking Thanksgiving dinner.

While we remember those lessons fondly now, at the time we just rolled our eyes. “For a good gravy, first you have to make a good roux. Did you make a good roux?” This lesson was the first in the Gospel According to Gam and has become a battle cry at any family dinner be it Thanksgiving or otherwise. (First You Need To Make a Good Roux became the title to the book of her recipes that I put together for the family.)

The first lesson was quickly followed by the mildly condescending, “If I were making this at home I would have some Kitchen Bouquet” to the gravy. This was a hotly contested addition, and I’m in the you don’t need it camp. We never had Kitchen Bouquet the house except at Thanksgiving, but we ran out and bought some every year, or never heard the end of it.

My favorite lesson, and the one that makes me smile as I write this, is her ritual warning of, “Don’t touch the plates! They’re hot!” And every time without fail my grandfather would touch the plates and say, “Wow that’s hot!” just to bug her.

By far Gam’s best contribution to the Thanksgiving feast was her cranberry sauce, though sauce may be a bit of a misnomer. Year after year it was one of the favorite things on our Thanksgiving table, and now that she’s gone it just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without her cranberries….as well as hot plates…and a really good roux…

Go ahead…Roll your eyes….
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