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The meat cooked to 150F in one hour and 45 minutes. Mike is correct: the vegetables were a tad underdone with the potatoes a little firmer than I would have liked, and the carrots more so. However, it was the best top round roast that I've done. Perhaps this cut just does not lend itself to being cooked with vegetables. Perhaps the vegetables should be started earlier at a higher heat.
I seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and rosemary. I rubbed a bit of grapeseed oil on the roast, then sprinkled the spices on each side. I also rubbed the vegetables with grapeseed oil. I used mini-carrots and small gold potatoes.
I have a 1.87 pound top round roast. I've told my husband that I am not going to do this one as pot roast. (You may recall that he won't let me buy a chuck roast because of the fat.) I've been scouring the internet for recipes. While some recipes imply it can be braised, most say that it should be roasted. I am thinking of roasting it on top of small yellow potatoes and carrots, after rubbing it with seasoning. There are some disagreements about temperature and time, and almost no one is doing such a small roast. I'm thinking perhaps at 400F for about an hour? I had read to multiply the weight by 30 minutes for medium well done.
Cwcdesign--I never use the baking soda with buttermilk substitutions in yeast breads. You should be fine using buttermilk. It will separate a bit when heated, but just stir it all back together.
I seem to recall that KAF recipes did allow for the switching of honey and maple syrup without making any changes in amounts, but I cannot recall a specific recipe right now.
I am baking Ellen's (formerly Moonie) buns as rolls. They are on their first rise. The idea was to have them for a picnic lunch tomorrow. We are supposed to go to the Indiana Dune's State and National Parks for a talk on invasive plants at the visitors' center and then some hiking on our own. I'm having my doubts as to whether we will be going, as a snowstorm--not predicted--has moved in and is dropping a lot of heavy wet snow. We may be picnicking at home.
Tonight, I made Pork Loin Roast with Barley, Butternut Squash, and Swiss Chard, from the special issue of Cook's Illustrated Fall Harvest Recipes, that I bought in the autumn (p. 22). It's the third time I've made the recipe, and the first time that I've had all the specified ingredients. The first time, I did not have pearl barley or Swiss chard, the second time I did not have Swiss Chard. When we made our run to the next town on Wednesday and went by three of the four grocery stores (Aldi's, Walmart, and Kroger), I found Rainbow Swiss Chard at the Kroger, organic at that, from Salinas, CA. (I really do not understand how anyone can hope to shop locally.)
The recipe is delicious. It does seem to take about 2 1/2 hours from start to finish, so I'll make a note of that. However, we should get about four meals out of it. I used my 5 1/2-quart Le Creuset Dutch oven. My only modification for the recipe, is that I think the roast needs to be turned half-way through in order to get even cooking. I also use the whole butternut squash. I did not notice a great deal of difference with the Swiss chard as opposed to the frozen mustard greens I used the first two times, although to my taste, the Swiss chard is somewhat milder and preferable.
I had a bit of leftover ground turkey from last night's pizza, and I had the drippings from last week's roasted chicken legs with sweet potatoes, maple, and rosemary. I sautéed onion, celery, sliced carrots, and mushrooms in the drippings, then added the cooked ground turkey. I added 4 cups of turkey broth from the freezer, 3/4 cup mixed dried lentils, and 1/2 cup pearl barley. I seasoned with 1/2 tsp. dried sage. After bringing it to a boil on the regular stove, I let it simmer for an hour on the wood stove for a late lunch.
Addendum: The flavor was delightfully tinged with the sweet potato and maple syrup from the drippings.
For Valentine's Dinner, I made the KAF Ultra-Thin Crust Pizza, and we each topped it according to taste.
I also baked the Vanilla Pound Cake from KAF's Whole Grain Baking (pp. 384-385). (I reduced the salt to 3/4 tsp.) As I do not have access to my 12-cup Bundt Pan, I tried baking it in one of the Quartet pans and a 3 cup Kaiser Pan. I may have overbaked it a bit. (I've had this recipe test done before and not be done.) We cut up one of the little cakes into small slices, then had sugared strawberries over it and vanilla ice cream. I had planned to bake Valentine's Sugar Cookies, but we did our shopping run to the larger town north today, and Aldi's had lovely strawberries at a great price.
