I am by no means a chef. As a matter of fact, my husband does the majority of the cooking in the family. Don’t get me wrong, I can cook a few things but I was not brought up in a “cooking family” per se, so I never really learned the fine art of cooking anything much that involves heat or doesn’t involve Ramen. Ha! So, this year, I have vowed to change all that! I am going to make an attempt to stray away from my staples of crock pot macaroni and cheese and chicken parmesan and learn how to cook something else. With my trusty cook books by my side, I will make an attempt not to make my family suffer too much – starting with slow cooker barbecued beef.

I did learn to can a couple of years ago and found that it was and is quite an enjoyable experience. My daughter painted the inside of our hall closet and my husband installed shelves. *Voila* a pantry was born! There aren’t many things that are quite as satisfying as seeing a stocked pantry and knowing that garden freshness can now be yours year round.

It is also very frugal to cook at home. We eat out entirely too much and it isn’t cheap. I would like to try to be more frugal this year and I think this will be a fun (and perhaps amusing for you, reader) way to save money. My family and I will rate these recipes as we try them, and if they are stinkers we will be sure to let you know – even if the fault lies completely with me. 🙂

I will post more about my canning experiences this summer. For right now, I will start with my first recipe *Slow Cooker Barbecued Beef*…

Slow Cooker Barbecued Beef Recipe

– excerpted from Best-Loved Slow Cooker Recipes – 1998 Publications International

You will need…
3 pounds boneless chuck roast
1 1/2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon Mustard
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon liquid smoke flavoring
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Preparation…
Place chuck roast in slow cooker. Combine remaining ingredients in mixing bowl. Pour barbecue sauce mixture over chuck roast. Cover and cook on low 8 to 10 hours or on high 4 to 5 hours. Remove chuck roast from slow cooker; shred meat with fork. Place shredded meat back in slow cooker. Stir meat to evenly coat with sauce. Spoon meat onto sandwich buns and top with additional barbecue sauce, if desired.

2 pm

I started the barbecued beef at about 1pm. I don’t care a whole lot for barbecue but my husband LOVES it, so much in fact that if it were a woman I think he would leave me for it. As far as barbecue beef goes, it smells really good. As a family, we like black pepper. A lot. So, I may be adding some more of that later…we will see how it goes. This recipe seems pretty simple so, if I mess this up…well, that will take talent! After I poured the mixture over the roast, my husband said that it reminded him of KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce! If I did all that work (which wasn’t much, but still) and it ends up tasting like something I poured out of a bottle I might throw a little fit.

Anyway, the slow cooker barbecued beef turned out really well. If you try this recipe, please let me know what you think.