Feast your eyes ladies and gents! I made this. ME. I made a freaking roast beef!
Let me explain as I clear the tears from my eyes what an accomplishment this is for me.
I saw this on Cook's Country (NPT on Saturday mornings) and it looked so amazing that I had to try it. The episode was classic roast beef and gravy....... I drooled so much during that show that I had to do it.
So, I took notes and signed up online for access to their recipes and set out looking for the perfect piece of meat for my roast beef.
I found the closest thing I could to the beef I needed and could afford (top sirloin was recommended but is like a gagillion dollars a pound- so I opted for a sirloin shoulder roast- who knew such a thing even existed?) and followed the directions.
I followed the directions, people- do you hear me?!?! All of them- even the ones that I don't normally follow cuz I feel like they are dumb- because I am much smarter than any damn professional t.v. chef.
So, I took my raw meat, patted it dry and then tenderly rubbed in 2 tsp of salt all over. ( #1 I have never before rubbed raw meat with anything and quite frankly find it disgusting.)
Then I had to let the meat marinade for 12-24 hours. (#2 any recipe that involves me having to wait for any crazy amount of time like um say, over 5 minutes, really annoys me- I'm trying to make this food now- not next week!)
Then today I turned up my Paula Deen skillet, dribbled in olive oil and waited for smoke. Then braised the meat on all sides. (#3 another dirty dish for 8 minutes of cooking.... ugh. perhaps this wasn't a good idea.)
Finally, I took my little braised meat and put in on a rack at 275 for 1.5-2.0 hours. (#4 i cooked it the full 2 hours because i didn't want mine to be as pink as Cook's Country showed)
When the oven opened I was disappointed because mine didn't look as beautiful as theirs but I stayed on track and let the meat rest for 30 min under tin foil. (#5 more waiting- yeash!)
I had no idea what the hell "cutting against the grain of the meat" meant so I just picked a point and went at it.........
AMAZING, PEOPLE, AMAZING!
So good.....and I made it.
Had to share.
And in other, non beef related, news..........
I didn't realize that I hadn't given an update on Dwayne since I talked to KB today.
Dwayne is doing much better but is still not 100% or back to work.
During the seizure he injured his back and now can't walk or sit too long without back pain.
So, he is starting physical therapy tomorrow to help heal/strengthen his back to get him back to normal.
He has also been officially diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea. (I told him so!)
Apparently, he stopped breathing 33 times and hour in his sleep study.
So, we went back for another and tested out a CPAP machine and are picking it up tomorrow.
They are pretty sure that is the root cause of all of this because not breathing for 33 minutes out of an hour causes your brain to wake up and send signals to your throat to relax which keeps it active all night which means no rest/restorative energy which leads to all kinds of bad things.
He is on blood pressure meds and a low salt diet and is enjoying having all 3 meals cooked and delivered to him on his couch. I have purchased 3 different low salt, low fat, light, etc cookbooks and have been trying to completely eliminate some things and adjust others.
He has been doing extremely well on his diet and has lost almost 8 pounds so far just with diet. The Dr. thinks that when he is able to walk for longer periods of time it will just fly off.
He does miss sausage though....in fact he told me just yesterday that he has a "desire for sausage" which caught me off guard but that is the man I love.
We have been working, going to appointments, calling about benefits, arranging camps for the kids, booking tickets, etc..... and things seem to be back on track.
Busy as always but things are returning to normal.
More later.......
amazing!
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