Not your mother.

It's "Look Inside!" week! Those familiar with Amazon (which, I'm assuming is every. single. person. on. the. planet) are probably familiar with the fact that you can peek at pages on books using their handy dandy "look inside!" feature. THEN, you can select "surprise me" and it'll pick a random page for you. So...that's exactly what I did. I mentioned that Santa brought me two new cookbooks. Well, the recipes for this week come from books Santa left for next year. Or something.

"Our Best Pot Roast With Roots" from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook (6 quart pot)

~2 T olive oil
~1/2 c finely diced carrot
~1/2 c finely diced celery with leaves
~1/2 c finely diced turnip
~1/2 c finely diced onion
~3 lb boneless chuck, fat removed
~1/2 t salt
~1/4 t fresh ground pepper
~1/2 c dry red wine (I used Gnarly Head's Old Vine Zinfandel.)
~1/2 c water
**(1 1/2 c frozen corn)

Heat 1 T oil over medium high.
Add veggies. Stir a few times until softened. About 5 minutes.
Heat remaining oil
Add pot roast and brown on both sides.
Season with salt and pepper
Place on top of veggies.
Pour wine in skillet and bring to boil scrape off brown bits.
When wine is syrupy, 1-2 min, pour over meat.
Add water to skillet and bring to boil.
Pour over meat.
Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours.
To serve, cut on cutting board.
Pour veggies and liquid through mesh strainer.
Extract as much liquid as possible.
Discard veggies.
Allow liquid to sit for a few minutes.
Skim fat off liquid.
Slice beef across the grain.
Serve with gravy.

6 servings.

I made some adjustments. I didn't discard the veggies. Why oh why would I discard perfectly good veggies? INSTEAD, I defrosted some frozen corn (about 1 1/2 cups, maybe) and tossed it in with the mixture just before serving. I also didn't get to defat the cut of meat as much as I would have liked to because my little helper was "helping".

This was really, really good (albiet, fatty). Neither one of us had had turnips before and I didn't tell my other half that they were in it until after we were done eating. Looks like we both like turnips! AND we found a red wine we both love. (A big thanks to Sandra for the "OLD vine" suggestion!) Drink up! Yum.