The last Saturday in September, I ventured to the farmer's market with Miriam. John had to go into work since it was fiscal year-end. His colleague joked that I'd go to the market and return with a car-load of goods. He was partially correct -- I ordered a quarter cow. That's 1/4 of a cow or about 100 lbs of grass-fed beef.
Fast-forward to yesterday. We invited friends over for dinner, presenting the perfect opportunity to cook a 4.5 pound chuck roast. After much searching, I came across this SUPER easy and REALLY delicious roast recipe I'm linking to here. It claims to be the Perfect Pot Roast and I won't argue. I cooked our 4.5 pound roast for 4-1/4 hours; I didn't use red wine but just canned beef stock; I did add liberal amounts of fresh rosemary and thyme. I've labored over roasts before and this one was so simple I will probably use it again (that's saying a lot because I don't like repeating recipes).
Our guests brought a fun kiwi spinach salad and I served the roast over mashed cauliflower (I added a little milk and used a hand-masher for a chunkier mash). For dessert, we had apple crisp that came out of the cookbook Paleo Comfort Foods. You'll find the recipe on this page if you search for apple crisp. I used 6 Granny Smith apples and honey for a little sweetness.
I appreciated these non-fussy, appeal-to-the-masses recipes since dinner parties are enough work, what with blood stains on the carpet and screaming babies!