Lately, I've found that the least expensive place to buy decent vegetables is at the farmers market or at Aldi. Since there isn't a farmers market (that I know of) near my place that is open on a Sunday, I headed over to Aldi. The potatoes, celery and onions looked great. I already had a bag of baby carrots and the rest of the ingredients at the house.
What is more hearty and delicious than a good roast? Not much. Not much at all, I imagine. Maybe a nice soup, but that'll be saved for another post. decided to head to the grocery store to find things to make a roast for dinner. As luck would have it, Aldi's had some nice produce in stock and Giant Eagle had a buy one get one free special on some of their meats... including roasts! So, I got a little under 6 pounds of beef for $16.05 and plenty of vegetables to hold me (and a guest or 2) over for the next 2 weeks. Quite a nice score, I must say.
The Chuck Spencer Roast cut felt a bit tougher than usual when I took it out of the packaging to rinse and pat dry. As a result, I decided to give it a little massage with salt and pepper on both sides before placing it in the bottom of my 4qt crockpot.
My efforts were totally worth it because the roast came out tender as can be without disintegrating. I was even able to cut it into pieces instead of pulling it apart.
The cut used in the delightful roast pictured above was called a chuck spencer roast, the other was a shoulder roast. The shoulder roast looked kind of like a big steak and it was extremely tough even after extensive time in the slow cooker and a thorough "massage". Note to self: never buy a shoulder roast again unless there are no other options.
