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The heat came on this week. I heard it click on, and that was it. That’s my sign that the season has really turned.
It’s getting dark so early now. By late afternoon, I’m already turning on lamps. And when I step outside first thing in the morning, I can see my breath.
So I’m doing what I always do this time of year. I’m staying in, turning the oven on, and leaving it on all afternoon.
This weekend has a little of everything. Saturday is Halloween, and Sunday morning the clocks fall back. We get an hour back, and I already know where mine is going. Into a pot roast.
Braising season is here. Let’s get cozy.
Farm Stand Report
Not much has changed at the stand since last time. Mums, pumpkins, and gourds out front, bins of apples, Halloween decorations everywhere you look, and the shelves of prepared goods inside.
My own garden is retired for the season. Whatever was left went into the compost, and the pots are cleaned out and stacked in the garage until spring.
And the lime tree? It’s not coming inside. I don’t have the right light for it, and more to the point, I have a cat who would dig in that planter relentlessly. So I’m looking for someone to adopt it. And if nobody does... don’t be a hater, but I may have to let it go.
Weekend Menu
Friday: Straight From the Pantry
Sausage & White Beans with Tomatoes
Crusty bread from the freezer, warmed in the oven
Parmesan for grating at the table
Saturday: Halloween
The pot roast goes in the oven after lunch (it’s for tomorrow)
Pantry Beef & Black Bean Chili, ready before the first doorbell
Shredded sharp cheddar on top
Yellow layer cake with chocolate frosting, baked and frosted for Sunday
Sunday: The All-Oven Sunday
Irish Stout-Braised Pot Roast with Carrots
Crispy Oven-Roasted Potatoes
Roasted Green Beans
Irish Soda Bread (baked Saturday)
Yellow Layer Cake with Chocolate Frosting
The cake is the same one I grew up with, box and tub. Some things you just don’t improve on.
Featured Recipe: Irish Stout-Braised Pot Roast
Every Sunday when I was growing up, there was pot roast. My mother made hers the way a lot of mothers did back then, with a can of soup, a packet of soup mix and a sheet of foil (more on that in Nonna’s Notebook). This is my version. Same rump roast, but braised low and slow with a bottle of Irish stout. It gives you a deep, dark gravy with just a little sweetness. Make it Saturday. It’s better on Sunday.
Serves 6 | Prep: 25 minutes | Cook: about 3 to 3½ hours, mostly hands-off
Ingredients
1 beef rump roast, 3½ to 4 lb (or a chuck roast; see Notes)
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp neutral oil
2 large yellow onions, cut into thick wedges
4 garlic cloves, smashed
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 bottle (about 12 oz) Guinness or another dry Irish stout
2 cups low-sodium beef broth
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme
1½ lb carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
Optional, for thicker gravy: 2 tbsp softened butter mashed together with 2 tbsp flour
Directions
Season ahead. The night before (or at least an hour before), pat the roast dry and rub it all over with the salt and pepper. If you have time, leave it uncovered in the fridge overnight. Take it out 30 minutes before searing.
Heat the oven to 300°F (325°F is fine too) with a rack in the lower third.
Sear the beef. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or braiser over medium-high heat. Brown the roast well on every side, 4 to 5 minutes per side, about 15 minutes in all. Move it to a plate. I use my Le Creuset braiser for this. Any heavy pot with a tight lid that can go in the oven will do the job.
Build the base. Turn the heat to medium. Cook the onions for 5 minutes, until they start to soften. Add the garlic for 1 minute, then the tomato paste, stirring for 1 to 2 minutes until it darkens. Sprinkle in the flour and stir for 1 minute.
Add the liquid. Pour in the stout and scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Let it bubble for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the broth, Worcestershire, brown sugar, bay leaves, and thyme, and bring it to a simmer.
Braise. Put the roast back in, along with any juices from the plate. The liquid should come about halfway up the meat. Cover and put it in the oven for 2 hours.
Add the carrots. Turn the roast over, tuck the carrots in around it, cover, and return it to the oven for another 1 to 1½ hours, until a fork slides into the meat easily. You want it fall-apart tender. Start checking right around the 3-hour mark.
If you’re serving it today: Move the roast and carrots to a platter and cover loosely with foil for 20 minutes. Skim the fat off the liquid, take out the bay leaves, and simmer the liquid on the stove for 5 to 10 minutes to thicken. For a thicker gravy, whisk in the butter-flour paste a little at a time. Slice the meat thin, across the grain.
If you’re serving it tomorrow (my way): Let the pot cool on the counter for about an hour, then cover it and refrigerate it overnight. The next day, lift the hardened fat off the top with a spoon. Take out the roast, slice it cold across the grain, and lay the slices back in the liquid with the carrots. Cover and reheat at 325°F for 40 to 45 minutes, until it’s hot all the way through. Thicken the gravy on the stove as in step 8.
Notes
No stout? Skip the stout and the brown sugar, and use 3½ cups of beef broth in all.
Rump or chuck? Either one works. Rump is what I grew up with, and it’s still my go-to. Cooked low and slow, it falls apart, and the gravy isn’t as greasy. Chuck is the best-marbled cut for braising, so it’s very forgiving, but it gives off more fat. With either one, pour off the fat (or chill the pot and lift it off), and you’re left with a really nice gravy.
Don’t rush it. If the meat is tough, it needs more time, not more heat. Put the lid back on and give it another 30 minutes.
Leftovers: Pile the slices on a roll with some gravy for the best sandwich of the week.
Bonus Card: Quick Irish Soda Bread Four ingredients and no yeast. Bake it Saturday morning.
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
1¾ cups buttermilk, plus a splash more if needed
Heat the oven to 425°F. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle, pour in the buttermilk, and stir with a fork until a shaggy dough forms, adding a splash more buttermilk if it’s dry. Don’t overwork it. Turn it onto a floured counter, pat it into a round about 2 inches high, and set it on a floured baking sheet or in a cast-iron skillet. Cut a deep X across the top. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until it’s deep golden and sounds hollow when you tap the bottom.
Shoppable List
This week’s list is in two parts. If you keep the On-the-Fly Pantry stocked, you probably have most of the first part already.
From the pantry
1 lb Italian sausage, sweet or hot
1 lb ground beef
4 yellow onions
2 heads garlic
2 cans (28 oz) whole tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
2 cans cannellini beans
2 cans black beans
Chicken broth
All-purpose flour
Brown sugar
Baking soda
Neutral oil and olive oil
Butter
Eggs (for the cake mix)
Sharp cheddar
Parmesan
A loaf of crusty bread from the freezer
Kosher salt and black pepper
Bay leaves
Dried thyme and oregano
Cumin
Smoked paprika
Red pepper flakes
To buy
1 beef rump roast, 3½ to 4 lb (or chuck)
1 bottle (12 oz) Guinness or another dry Irish stout
1 carton (32 oz) low-sodium beef broth
Worcestershire sauce
1½ lb carrots
3 lb Yukon Gold potatoes
1½ lb green beans
1 box yellow cake mix
1 tub chocolate frosting
1 quart buttermilk (for the soda bread)
From Nonna’s Shop
Thanksgiving is four weeks from today. If the thought of one oven and six dishes is already keeping you up at night, my Thanksgiving Hosting Planner for One Oven walks you through a kitchen audit, a cooking timeline, and which dishes to hand off to your guests, so everything comes out hot at the same time.
Nonna’s Notebook
Dinner was at 5:30. That was the plan, every Sunday.
It never once happened at 5:30. We sat down closer to 6:30, and that was the family joke. Nobody was ever late for Sunday dinner, because Sunday dinner was always late.
But when it came, it was done right. The tablecloth went on. The china came out. The candles got lit. In a regular house, on a regular Sunday, for no reason except that it was Sunday.
Everybody was there. The whole family, plus whoever we were dating at the time. If you were going with somebody, they came to Sunday dinner. That’s just how it worked. Every so often a bachelor uncle would show up too, and somebody would set another place.
The menu never changed. Pot roast, the way my mother made it: a rump roast, seasoned, covered with a can of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup and a packet of Lipton onion soup mix, sealed up tight in foil, and into the oven. Mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and carrots. For dessert, a yellow layer cake from a box with chocolate frosting from a tub. Every single week. You could count on it, and I think that was the point.
The only complaint anybody ever had was the icing. There was never enough. We kids teased about it every single week. It was a given. And every one of us went back for seconds.
Honestly, if she’d ever put more icing on that cake, I think we would have been disappointed.
I wanted that for my own family. But my kids were so much more involved in sports than my siblings and I ever were. Sundays filled up with games and practices, and somewhere along the way the Sunday dinner just stopped happening.
I think that’s sad. I do. But it was our reality, and we went with it.
This weekend I’m making pot roast anyway. Mine has a bottle of stout in the pot instead of a can of soup. But the cake stays exactly the same. One box, one tub, and not a smear more.
Around the House: Fewer Ingredients, Better Pantry
A reader mentioned after a recent issue that my menus have a lot of ingredients. That’s fair, and I’m glad it came up.
The menu was never meant to be a shopping list. Think of it as a buffet of ideas. Pick one dinner, pick two, skip the rest. I won’t be hurt.
But that comment got me thinking about how I actually cook. Most nights I’m not following a menu. I’m opening the cupboard to see what’s there. And that only works because I keep the same basics on hand all the time. When the pantry’s stocked, I only shop for the fresh stuff.
You might notice this week’s menu is shorter. Friday and Saturday dinners come straight off my pantry list.
So I put that list together for you. It’s free, it’s one page, and it goes right on the fridge. Grab Nonna’s On-the-Fly Pantry →
At the bottom of the list are five dinners you can make without going to the store:
Pasta with garlic, oil and red pepper flakes. Warm sliced garlic slowly in olive oil with a pinch of flakes, toss it with spaghetti and a splash of the pasta water, and grate cheese over the top.
A cheese-and-potato frittata. Brown thin-sliced potatoes and onion in an oven-safe skillet, pour beaten eggs over them, scatter on cheddar, and finish it under the broiler.
Sausage and white beans with tomatoes. That’s Friday this week.
Lemon-garlic chicken thighs over rice. Roast the thighs with lemon, garlic and oregano, and spoon the pan juices over the rice.
Beef and black bean chili. That’s Saturday.
Two more things I’ve changed in my own pantry this year.
I’m getting the plastic out, starting with the spices. I always try to buy spices in glass. When I can’t find them that way, I buy the plastic jar and move the spice into a glass jar as soon as I get home from the store. Glass seals better, doesn’t hold onto smells, and all the jars match, so I can actually see what I have. (These are the jars I’m using → glass spice jars)
I’ve also stopped buying the big containers. I buy the smallest size I can find. Spices don’t really go bad, but they lose their flavor sitting around. That giant jar of cumin was costing me more in flavor than it ever saved me at the register.
While I was at it, I started writing the date on a little label on the bottom of every jar, and I moved the whole collection away from the stove. Heat and light fade spices fast.
Where “Braise” Comes From
“Braise” comes from the French word braise. It means live coals.
That’s how it started. A heavy pot sat right in the embers of the fire, with more hot coals piled on the lid. Heat from below, heat from above, and a long, slow wait.
The word first shows up in English print in 1797, spelled “braze.”
The pot got an upgrade around then, too. In 1707, an Englishman named Abraham Darby patented a way to cast iron pots in sand. He’d picked up the method from Dutch brass makers. It’s one of the stories behind the name “Dutch oven.”
Why does it work? Tough, cheap cuts of meat are full of connective tissue. Low heat and liquid, over a few hours, melt that tissue into gelatin.
That’s what makes a pot roast tender enough to cut with a fork. It’s also what gives the gravy that rich, silky body.
So the cheapest cut in the case is the right one for the job.
Worth Knowing: Make It Saturday, Serve It Sunday
A pot roast is better the second day. Overnight the flavors settle in, and the meat soaks up more of that braising liquid.
There’s a bonus, too. When the pot sits in the fridge overnight, the fat rises to the top and turns solid. In the morning, you just lift it off with a spoon. No skimming, no greasy gravy.
And even a roast that falls apart when it’s hot slices neatly when it’s cold. Slice it, lay it back in the gravy, cover it, and warm it in the oven.
One rule: don’t leave the hot pot sitting out all evening. Let it cool for about an hour, then get it into the fridge.
Weekend Kitchen Planner
Thursday
Shop, using the two-part list.
Season the roast with salt and pepper and leave it uncovered in the fridge overnight.
Friday
Sausage & White Beans (about 30 minutes): Brown the sausage in a deep skillet, then soften an onion and some garlic in the drippings with a pinch of red pepper flakes. Add the whole tomatoes, crushing them by hand, plus both cans of cannellini (drained) and a splash of chicken broth. Simmer 15 minutes. Warm the bread in the oven.
Saturday (Halloween)
Morning: Bake the cake following the box directions. Cool it completely, then frost it. Bake the soda bread next, at 425°F.
12:30: Sear the roast and build the pot. In the oven at 300°F by 1:00.
3:00: Turn the roast and add the carrots.
4:00 to 4:30: Check for tenderness. When it’s done, let the pot cool on the counter.
4:30: Start the chili. Brown the ground beef with an onion and garlic, then stir in 2 tbsp tomato paste, 1 tbsp cumin, 1 tbsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp oregano and ½ tsp red pepper flakes for a minute. Add the whole tomatoes (crushed by hand), both cans of black beans (drained) and about a cup of chicken broth. Simmer 30 minutes.
5:30: Put the cooled pot roast in the fridge. Chili’s on the table before the trick-or-treaters show up.
Sunday (clocks fall back, so enjoy the extra hour)
Lift the hardened fat off the pot. Take out the roast, slice it cold across the grain, and lay the slices back in the liquid with the carrots.
4:45: Heat the oven to 400°F. Cut the potatoes into chunks, toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper on a sheet pan, and roast 45 to 50 minutes, turning once.
5:00: Slide the covered pot roast onto the lower rack to reheat, 40 to 45 minutes.
5:20: Toss the green beans with olive oil and salt on a second sheet pan and roast 15 to 18 minutes.
5:40: Everything comes out together. The braising liquid is your gravy. If you like it thicker, give it 5 minutes on the stove, the only burner you’ll touch all day.
Slice the soda bread and set out the butter.
Light the candles. Dinner’s at 5:30 (sort of).
Worth Keeping
“Nobody was ever late for Sunday dinner, because Sunday dinner was always late.”
Before You Go
Did your family have a Sunday dinner? What was on the table? And do you still do it, or did it slip away like ours did?
Hit reply and tell me. I’d love to share a few next week.
And since it’s Halloween weekend, yes, I’ll have candy in the house. Not that I’m expecting a crowd. Most of the kids around here dress up and go to the Trunk or Treat events now, so I’ll be lucky if a handful knock on my door.
So you know what that means. I’m buying the candy I like. Milky Ways, Kit Kats, Junior Mints, and Butterfingers. And if there happen to be leftovers... well. Somebody has to eat them. (Wink, wink.)
Happy Halloween, and enjoy that extra hour on Sunday. I know what I’m doing with mine.
See you next week. Bring your appetite.
— The Jersey Nonna
Living with grandma Sunday diner never varied. Chicken soup with rock hard matzo balls, roasted chicken with roast potatoes and green peas