Pot Roast and the Zombie Apocalypse

Yesterday, I mentioned that we should make some sort of stew or pot roast so the house was filled with the warm, inviting scent of roasting meat and vegetables for most of the day.  I didn’t think anything of it, and figured it would happen later in the week, but upon waking this morning, I heard grocery bags being unloaded and discovered the process had already begun to try a new pot roast recipe that included carrots, celery, potatoes, parsnips, beef broth, chicken broth, a finish of red wine, herbs, and a few other ingredients.  As I’ve sat here going through some work I need to finish, the fragrance keeps getting stronger; it feels like a home should.

Binding the roast, which has been simmering in an oven for 3-4 hours, surrounded by a broth of carrots, celery, potatoes, parsnips, herbs, beef stock, chicken stock, and later, red wine.

At this point, we had to remove the meat, simmer the vegetable mix and sauce down until it had reduced substantially, then reintroduce the beef to the main dish.

The finished pot roast was delicious, had no added butter or other fats as the meat itself provided more than enough, which was then skimmed off during the reduction process. The result was four enormous portions, costing approximately $5.00 in ingredients each, and coming in at roughly 850 calories.  Had you been a family on a tight budget, you could have introduced a cheap, green side, split the portions in half, and turned it into eight, good-sized plates at $2.50 per serving and 425 calories each plus the nominal cost and calories of the newly introduced side dish.

It’s been a really enjoyable day.  We picked up a couple of pounds of coffee from Starbucks, went running for a few miles on one of the scenic trails here in town, then parked under the stars and had hot fudge sundaes at Dairy Queen once it had grown dark.  After returning home,  I started The Last of Us on Playstation 3, which I bought back in July upon recommendation from one of you (hat tip to Andrew), and which Aaron has been relentlessly pressuring me to play since he beat it shortly after it arrived.  He was laughing so hard at my inability to spot the zombies (I would run right into them) that he couldn’t breathe.  It turns out, when faced with a life-threatening, anxiety-filled situation, I do not freeze like most people.  Instead, all of my common sense abandons me, I turn into Rambo, run full speed ahead, and shoot indiscriminately at any sort of movement while screaming two octaves above my baritone speaking voice.  Humans, I can handle.  Turning a corner to see a guy in a hospital gown chewing on the face of someone else?  My first response is, “kill it with fire!” rather than be calm and collected.

I have yet to reach the same zen-like mastery of the zombie apocalypse as Mr. Green.  He hands out more headshots than a high school photographer on picture day.