sunday dinner {insert contented sigh}

For Sunday dinner this week, I decided to make my sister's pot roast. Delish, fall-apart roast beef that you just can't beat. Ahhh, thanks, Lis, for teaching me how to cook a good roast.

Slow-cooker pot roast
1 2.5~3.5lb roast
3 medium sized carrots, peeled (or scrubbed really well) and cut diagonally into 1 inch pieces
2~3 medium sized potatoes (I prefer the waxy yukon gold potatoes, but I used russet today and it was ok. Just doesn't cook as well), peeled and cut into 1.5~2 inch chunks
1 large onion, peeled and cut in half and then into quarters
3 cloves garlic, peeled and ends trimmed
1 can diced tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
oil (such as canola or olive) to coat the pan for searing the meat

1. Pat the roast dry of any excess moisture on the surface with a paper towel. (Otherwise it won't brown) Season it generously on all sides with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until slightly smoking. Add the roast and sear the meat on all sides.
2. Toss all the ingredients in the bowl of a slow-cooker, set to low and let cook for 6~8 hours. The longer the more tender your meat will be. The meat should just fall apart so don't bother slicing when you serve it.

I was planning on making my aunt Carolyn's famous dinner rolls, but alas, I was too lazy. But we needed bread with our roast, so I remembered a fancy and easy looking bread recipe by Pastor Ryan on The Pioneer Woman's blog, and thought I'd give it a try. I've noticed that it's kinda trendy to bake bread in an enameled cast iron pot, so it was time I joined the cool foodie club, right? Anyway, I gotta tell you, this was the easiest bread I've ever made. And super fast and very low-maintenance. And SO DELICIOUS! Honestly, I thought it would turn out more like Irish Soda bread, but it was chewy and dense and aromatic and PERFECT! The crust was super crusty, but really yummy. Not distractingly crusty at all. Honestly, if you have a cast iron pot, you have to try this. And if you don't, go buy one. You deserve to have one of the most important kitchen items anyway.