Slow Cooker Roast and Veggies

My FiL is coming for dinner again tonight. A few weeks ago he cleaned out his freezer and gave me a 3 lb. boneless bottom round roast, so I am making it for him tonight. I found a slow cooker recipe on Allrecipes that had a ton of great reviews and since the weather is cool (high of 65 today and cloudy) I decided to use it now instead of waiting for the fall.

I don't know about you, but I really prefer to have roasts and casseroles in the fall and winter when the weather is cool or cold. I just can't get excited about a pot roast in July when the temp is 90, even if it is done in a slow cooker and I don't have to turn on my oven. It is one of the reasons I love living here, the seasons change dramatically.

Anyway, I decided yesterday to make this today because the weather is unseasonably cool and I didn't know if the meat would make it until fall in the freezer. I am lucky the roast appeared to be defrosted after only 24 hours. So after I dropped my daughter off at preschool this morning I had to stop and get the potatoes, carrots and 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup. Then I rushed home and seasoned the meat with salt and pepper and seared it in a skillet with olive oil. Then I peeled the carrots and cut the baby potatoes in half (unpeeled). Then I checked the recipe and found I was supposed to season the meat with pepper and garlic powder. Oops. The recipe said to mix the 2 cans of soup with a dry onion soup mix packet in the bottom of the slow cooker, then put the meat on top and then the veggies. I thought I had a Lipton Dry Onion Soup packet, but I only had vegetable. But I did have a Knorr Onion Chive Dip Mix packet, so I threw that in instead. I hope it works. And because I had not seasoned the meat with garlic powder, I mixed some into the soup mixture. I had read some of the reviews of the recipe and one lady said she deglazed her pan with red wine and added that, so I used some red cooking wine I had and did the same, only about a 1/4 of a cup. I don't like to cook things on high in the slow cooker, but I don't want to eat at 7pm either, so I turned it on high and away we go. I really hope this works.

Speaking of things that work, thank you Willoughby for the tortilla in the microwave with water tip; it really helped soften them enough so they didn't rip when I rolled them.

As some of you know, the reason my FiL cleaned out the freezer is because my MiL died in April. She had been sick for a long time and then in March she went into the hospital and never recovered. It was a long, hard month, but I am glad we all got to say goodbye. I miss her very much. And I keep thinking I see her everywhere; walking down the street or at the grocery store. I also miss the phone calls full of family gossip and the pop-in visits that used to drive me crazy. My own mother died 5 years ago in May, so I have been feeling very sad lately, missing them both. We also lost my uncle, suddenly to a heart attack, in March. I wish I had been able to see him one last time, he was a really great guy. I miss him too.

I was pretty close with both my grandmothers, who taught me so much, and who I was lucky enough to have in my life until my late 20's. They could not have been more different as people, and I loved that about them. I cannot believe my daughter will grow up without either of her grandmas teaching her and spoiling her and just being there for her. >sigh<

I will let you all know how the roast turned out tomorrow. Happy eating!