Here I am!!!!

I know it's been a while! I guess I just lost my mojo there for a while. I certainly have been cooking but just not feeling anything was "noteworthy". I am sure my husband would disagree. Plus, it has been a long, cold winter up here in New England that even has ME in a funk. Normally, I like the snow but I can honestly say that I have had my fill this season and am ready for some non-turtleneck weather. Anyway, on to the food. A few weeks back our little local market had their annual "truckload meat sale". I had gone in with the intention of buying a half pound of bacon for burgers and walked out with that PLUS the most beautiful looking chuck roast I had ever seen - all 6 pounds of it. I couldn't help it - I see a good piece of meat and I am compelled to buy it. So, I brought it home and invited some people over for dinner and had at it! First I rubbed the roast with some Chicago Seasoning from Penzey's and browned it in oil on all sides in my "Le Creuset" knockoff dutch oven  then I deglazed the pan with a decent Cabernet. Back in went the roast along with a box of good beef broth, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 onion, 2 carrots and 2 stalks of celery. Finally, I added some thyme and some rosemary. I put that in the oven at 275 for 5 hours. It came out great! But even better were the French Dip Sandwiches that we had the next day. For that I pulled apart the leftover beef and put it in a saucepan with some of the leftover cooking liquid, a can of french onion soup and a few shakes of soy sauce. OH THE HORROR canned soup - What can I say, after a long day at work I don't have time to screw around - especially when my 4 year old grand daughter is tearing up the house. PLUS, I needed lots of extra liquid for dipping. You can certainly just use more beef broth seasoned up any way you like if you are one of those anti- canned soup people. Once all that was heated through I split some good crusty rolls and layered on the provolone cheese. I cannot stress enough the need for good rolls for these. Soft supermarket crap just will not do, so splurge a little here and go to a bonafide bakery and get the good stuff.   For my sandwich I even added some smooshed up cloves or roasted garlic (yum). Then on went the beef with a ramekin of the cooking liquid on the side. So good! Dip, bite, slurp and chew! Even the baby said it was delicious!