The ROAST that didn't go as planned

You know when you have this reputation set up that you are a good cook and people start thinking that you don't ever make mistakes? First of all - that is laughable since I make mistakes all the time - ask the family! But, anyhoo.........And, then you invite some newer friends over for a nice home-cooked meal for the VERY FIRST time and they are all excited to try it? You know when you start to panic because you are worried it won't taste as good as they hope it will?

This was Monday night. Our new friends, Meredith and Jason, came over for dinner expecting culinary goodness (poor guys).

I know BETTER than to try out a new recipe when guests come to visit, but I was craving ROAST and I thought it sounded not only delicious but fairly easy. Plus - I had found a recipe that called for red wine in it and, well, you usually can't go wrong with that ingredient in my book. I went to the grocery store and asked the butcher to verify that the cut of meat I was getting was the kind that would fall apart - not the kind that you end up having to slice. I told him how I was cooking it (on 225 degrees for 4 hours in the oven) and what I was expecting. He confirmed my choices and I was on my way. Many dollars later, but I wanted a good roast.

I seared my meat. I added my seasonings. I poured in the red wine, and I added my carrots and potatoes (my favorite part of a roast meal actually). I popped it in the oven and enjoyed the beautiful smells all day long.

I held great anticipation waiting to taste and see what had been cooking all afternoon. I started to sweat when I opened the lid at 6:30 with guests looking onward and I stuck my fork in it.

It didn't budge much when I did this. There certainly was NO falling apart. I started to use my knife and it didn't cut real well either. I tasted a piece and it was tough and flavorless.

I was MORTIFIED!!

Now, listen, if it had been a family member or a friend that I had cooked for many other times, than I wouldn't have been all that bothered, but seriously - they had never been here before!

Plus she knows I have this recipe blog thing! Not that I know what that is supposed to mean! :-)

Again, MORTIFIED!

After I pulled out this slab of meat and couldn't determine if it was undercooked or way overcooked or I don't know what.


We ultimately ordered one of these.


And I know that our friends were super impressed with how Rosati's made their gourmet pizza.

My only redeeming factor was that I had made up some dough earlier that day for chocolate peanut butter cookies and I baked them up fresh and warm and scooped some "Moose Tracks" ice cream over the top for dessert.

The other thing that was good was that my MIL told me that some stores will actually refund your money if you have a bad experience with their meat and I called Price Cutter and told them my sob story of how I followed the directions and I really do know how to cook and I have no idea what happened and blah, blah, blah, and guess what?

I took my receipt in the next day and they gave me my money back! Can you believe it?

So, see there? It looks like it wasn't me after all. It was just a really bad piece of meat.

:-)

Yeah.

Here's the recipe I used. Anybody have a clue what I might have done wrong? I'm officially scared to ever make a roast again.

I won't even bother with Parents Review/Kids Review: We didn't eat it.

The pizza was 2 thumbs up though!!

Check back tomorrow and I will be posting a recipe for cake balls that you may want to whip up for your holiday goodies this year!