What's for dinner? Slow cooked chuck roast and vegetables

The chuck roast went into the crock pot first thing Wednesday morning (Oliver was simultaneously grinding coffee beans and chopping onions ). By the time I got home from work (12 hours later) the house smelled UNREAL. On the stove were mushrooms a jus and fennel braising in a bit of butter and chicken stock. I could hardly wait for him to finish up so we could eat. Truly a delicious meal. Thursday we (happily) ate the same dinner. This time on the front porch (it was 70 degrees at 7pm) and with some roasted kale.

 

Home ground chuck roast burgers and collard greens

Oliver picked up this chuck roast from YDFM today. Rather then tossing it into the crock pot he ground it with the Kitchenaid attachment. The ground meat was then formed into very loose patties and grilled over charcoal in the backyard. 


He paired the burgers with collards greens; a choice prompted by a conversation we had last week about the "worthiness" of some leafy greens. It started when Oliver wanted to add cabbage to our kale soup. I objected explaining that I found cabbage on par with iceberg lettuce. (In my opinion iceberg lettuce is completely worthless; at best it's a vehicle for blue cheese and bacon). When it comes to leafy greens I'm only interested in the darkest leafy greens (hence why I wanted to make kale soup). Though we disagreed about where cabbage should fit into my ratings he ultimately convinced me that cabbage does have many nutritional benefits. That and it was actually good in the soup. 

With the home ground, loosely formed burgers and collard greens we enjoyed our first taste of the home brew Oliver and his sister made the day after Thanksgiving. Vanilla bourbon porter - delicious! We were even able to eat dinner on the back patio because it is still so unbelievably warm here in Atlanta. 

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It drives me nuts that I don't have more control over the type size, kerning and leading on this blog. My sincere apologies to all the other designers who are also irked by the occasional, awful spacing.

Kitchen sink soup - YUM! Filling too!

This soup started as a vague idea and came together much better then I anticipated. All I knew was that I wanted a kale soup. Oliver and I agreed a cream and vegetable soup was counter-intuitive so we used a box of low sodium chicken stock. Then Oliver wanted to add cabbage (which I resisted at first but ultimately really liked). It needed more then liquid and leaves so we added Italian sausage, carrots and a can of tomatoes. When some left over okra appeared in the fridge we decided to add that too. 

I seriously thought this soup had the potential to be gross - but it is so good! I had no idea the kale and cabbage would retain their crisp consistency. They're delicious! Even two days (three dinners) later they're still very good! We've both agreed the soup didn't even need the sausage. In fact, by comparison the sausage is a bit bland. I topped my soup with a bit of homemade hot pepper vinegar and ate it with chunk of baguette.