Originally posted by Jess March 1, 2015
Today we start into our third month of the Springdell Show and Tell, and tonight marks our 60th post in 60 days! Thank you to those who have been following our blog, and we hope you continue to enjoy this experience as much as we do.
Tonight has also marked another great Sunday dinner with good friends! With more snow on the horizon, we played hard for most of the day and I decided to let my slow cooker do the bulk of the cooking.
I usually save my biggest cuts of Springdell meat for Sunday dinners, and tonight was no exception. I had this top round roast thawing for a couple of days in the fridge in anticipation for tonight’s use.
I had read about slow cooking a top round roast on a bed of onions with no broth or liquid, and I was intrigued. Today, I decided to give it a try.
The improvised rub I used included 2 parts Springdell Winter Share coffee and brown sugar, 1 part chili and cocoa powder, and a little salt and pepper.
I rubbed the roast, placed it atop the onions, covered it with some minced Springdell garlic, and went off to have fun wth my kids.
10 hours later, this happened:
It came out pretty good. The only thing I would change is the cooking time. The original recipe calls for 10-12 hours, however when working with grass fed beef (such as Springdell’s) it often cooks much faster than industry beef. I forgot to take this into account with the recipe I used and it overcooked a little. Next time I’ll check the meat at 6 hours and go no more than 8. Like most crock pot things, and most Springdell things, it was still good!
As a dinner side, I went with a simple baked sweet potato chip. For those of you that have not made these, they are fabulous, and so much better than the ones from the store. I recommend making the “real” version (cooking the slices at 250 for a couple of hours) versus a quicker version (375 for 15-20 minutes or until crisp.) I find the slower cooking time creates a more consistent chip, whereas the faster version creates some that maybe burnt and some that may be chewy. Tonight time got away from me, however, and so I went with the speedier version.
If you have a mandolin slicer, I highly recommend using it as this also contributes greatly to the consistency of your chip. I find the thinnest setting you can get to be the best setting to use. Might I also recommend a pair of knuckle-saving gloves, such as these.
Be prepared to have the entire surface area of your oven covered in cookie sheets as each chip needs to be in a single layer for best consistency. I usually start the chips in the oven and as they start to shrink up, move them closer together while flipping them. Simultaneously, I add more to the sheet, kind of like creating an assembly line of sorts. As they crisp up, I remove them from the sheet to cool, and move those that are still cooking on the sheet to make room for more.
I thought that tonight’s sweet potato chips, sweet potato chowder and sweet potato pie might be a little too much of a good thing, but we all enjoyed the sweet potato loveliness in all its forms. The sweet potato pie and chips were surprisingly big hits with the kids as well! We also had some carrot sticks and carrot slaw for good measure. As usual, it was all Springdellicious!