Cooking is life for me, that’s why I cook (#wecook). I’ve loved cooking since I was little girl and my parents got me an Easy Bake Oven for my birthday one year and my dad had cakes and cookies everyday when he came home from work. Growing up I would cook the recipes out of my “Seventeen” magazine and I remember the first one I cooked was for an orange chicken dinner and ok my first try not great, but my dad ate everything I ever made.
As I got older and started working I wanted to go into the food service industry and I wanted to be a chef, in fact after meeting so many chefs during my early college years I wanted to be just like them a superstar. The one thing those chef’s didn’t tell me was the people that would dislike the food or complain or some other such nonsense and me I guess I was too thin skinned to be a chef so I stopped wanting to be a chef, but I still loved cooking and that’s why I’m here now.
I cook because it’s an art form for me, I’ll look through my cabinets and throw something together and for the most part it all turns out good and yes I will be sharing those on here. It got to the point were my daughter created a notebook for me to write down all my recipes to pass on to her. I had a tendency to not really write anything down…yeah I know.
It’s so funny but now that my kids are all grown-up they all love to cook also, they have their own different styles but its an art form for them and a way to express themselves and I couldn’t be prouder of all of them.
So that’s a little bit about why I cook, pleasure; art; and to feed the people I love.
The other week I posted about helping out our local restaurants and of course I started utilizing the weekly grocery service offered by Happy Gillis and I was thrilled with my bag so much that I’ve got my mom and sister turned on to it and I just ordered the Mother’s day meal for my mom.
With all the fresh veggies that I got in my bag I was wondering what should I make with the “yukon gold potato’s, fresh spinach, tri-colored carrots and the fresh rosemary. Oh and don’t let me forget about the awesome pound of bacon I ordered also. So what did I make I did a “Garden Bag Chuck Roast” with sautéed Spinach on the side. Next time I’m going to save a couple of more strips of the bacon to really cover the roast up. All in all I will be making this one again.
Garden Bag Pot Roast
Using all the yummy goodness I got from my farmers bag through Happy Gillis
- 1 Small Chuck Roast
- 3-4 slices Thick cut bacon
- 5 Yukon gold potatoes
- 6 peeled Tri-colored carrots
- Fresh Rosemary sprigs
- 1 cup of Red wine (I used a merlot)
- Garlic powder
- Salt
- Pepper
- Rinse roast off, pat dry and season with salt, pepper and garlic rubbed in
- Wrap bacon strips around roast and can use toothpicks or the rosemary stalks
- In heavy skillet brown bacon wrapped roast
- Remove from pan an place to the side
- In separate bowl toss quartered potatoes and whole baby carrots with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and chopped fresh rosemary
- Toss until well coated
- Place a layer of the potatoes and carrots on the bottom of the skillet, place roast on top and place the remaining potatoes and carrots on the sides
- Pour a glass of wine over everything
- Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until beef and vegetables are tender
So why do you guys out there cook? I would love to know what you’ve been cooking or your favorite places to eat.
Until next time, peace and all that jazz.
Life Food and Me 
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