Accidental Yumminess

So I made a pot roast yesterday and it was accidentally good.  My man started it and I finished it (and there's a whole other story behind that!), so there was no rhyme or reason to the recipe, but I really liked the flavor.  He rubbed it with steak seasoning; I covered it in flour and seared it in lots of butter.  Put it in a roasting pan, surrounded with potatoes, carrots, and onions, then doused it with Worcestershire sauce and topped it with a couple of pressed garlic cloves.  Baked at 350 for a couple of hours, till it temped at 160 degrees.

But that's not the accidental yumminess I wanted to write about.

Today I was going to make beef stew from the left-overs but I didn't have anymore onions (which is a critical ingredient in my opinion).  So, I was trying to figure out what I could do quickly (for lunch, after church) with my left-overs.  I had very little beef and even fewer onions in my left-overs, but I had a good thick broth--really gravy-- and lots of potatoes and carrots left-over.  And I had egg noodles.  Beef stroganoff?  I had never made it, but I figured I could use the noodles and gravy to come up with something close to stroganoff.  And I googled it.

Every recipe called for seasonings I didn't have, or a lot of onions, or...cream of mushroom soup.  BLAH!

So, as usual, I improvised...

3 Tbs butter into a hot pan...
about a cup of gravy and the few bits of meat and onions from the left-overs, thrown in...
a jar of mushrooms, drained and rinsed and thrown in...
since i was out of onions, i added onion powder and garlic powder...
brought to a boil then reduced...
added about a half cup of sour cream...
meanwhile, boiled the noodles...
drained noodles and added to the gravy/mushroom/cream sauce...
served up with a side of carrots...

Voila!

Easy yumminess.  This is my new routine from now on:  pot roast, stroganoff, then soup/stew.  Seriously, who knew this stuff could be good?


Oh!  the background story on the roast?  well, i put the girls down for a nap yesterday at one.  at two, baby girl still was not asleep and big girl was already waking up.  sent big girl out to play in living room, lay down beside baby girl, thinking if she could play with my hair, she would drift off.  about two-thirty, sent text to my man telling him i was starting to stress.  we had company coming at three and i still had not showered, the girls needed baths, and the roast needed to go in the oven.

my man.  he cut short his task of organizing the garage to come in and help.  i asked him (via text from the bedroom) to cut the pots and onions.  he went above and beyond my request and seasoned the meat and added the carrots.  you know my control issues, right?  i was lying in that bed thinking i needed to get out of there before he did something crazy like season the meat.  because i had a new recipe i wanted to try.  well, i came out to find the meat seasoned and instead of being grateful for his help, i was like, "i had a new recipe i was going to try!!!!"  with attitude.

why in the world i didn't just let him do his thing, i don't know.  he's a better cook than i am and had i left him to his own devices, the roast prob would have been much better than it was.  but as it turned out, it was still good...our own creation produced by our collaborative, if not cooperative, effort.  

and i apologized later about my lack of gratitude.  and he was gracious, as he always is, to forgive me.  here's hoping next time i can just be grateful FIRST so no apologies are needed later.

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Attitude of Gratitude:

139. forgiveness
140. a man who can cook
141. help with the dishes
142. God's gift of creativity--may our taste buds never be bored  =)