"Pat & Betty's No-Fuss Cooking (Reynolds Wrap)" - (Winter Solstice) Homestyle Pot Roast

 

Date I made this recipe:  December 29, 2013 (Intended for Solstice)

Pat & Betty's No-Fuss Cooking (Reynolds Wrap)  by Patricia A. Schweitzer and Betty T. Morton, home economists for Reynolds Wrap

Published by:  Hyperion

ISBN:  1-4013-0060-X

Recipe:  Homestyle Pot Roast – p. 120-121

Every once in a while, as I'm putting newly-acquired cookbooks on the shelf, I make a note on my calendar to cook from a book to celebrate certain occasions.  As an example, this year I made a note on Halloween to use the Great Pumpkin Cookbook.  I also made a note on my calendar for December 21^st, The Winter Solstice, to make a dish from the cookbook Pat & Betty's No-Fuss Cooking.  Pat and Betty were product spokespeople for Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil and "foil" is a good word to describe my intent to "foil" the longest and darkest day of the year by bringing the light into my cooking.  I thought using aluminum foil would be just the ticket as it's shiny, it's bright, and keeps the heat in on a very cold day.  Get thee back, darkness!

But on the 21^st, my brother and sister-in-law flew in for a visit and so dinner got put on hold until the 29^th and even then my bright idea (hahahaha) fizzled because the recipe I selected did not require aluminum foil.  I know, right?  Here's what happened:  given that my plans were temporarily set aside, I did not really read through my selected recipe like I should.  And that's because I just assumed (and you know how that word gets us all into trouble) that a recipe for pot roast in a cookbook published by the good people who make aluminum foil would require the sucker to be all wrapped up, nice and cozy in said foil, just like mom used to make.  And I'm sorry, why add the word "Home[style]" to the recipe if you didn't intend for us to invoke memories of "home" and mom and family dinner?  Shame on you, Reynolds Wrap.

What was required was a plastic oven bag.  What????  That's just wrong.  Wrong, wrong, Reynolds Wrap wrong.  A plastic oven bag is not at all shiny, is not made out of aluminum therefore...FAIL.  But I was pressed for time and under the gun to get this dish made so I acquiesced but not before searching the internet to see if I could tweak the recipe to use aluminum foil.  And the answer was yes...but not quite...and so I went with the bag.  (Hangs head in shame.)

Now if you ask me, and you didn't, I think this is why the end result was not quite to my liking.  The roast was fine, it was delicious but the meat was not pull-apart like it was when mom made it in – and this is important – aluminum foil (or "tin foil" as we always called it).  It could very well be due to the fact that chuck roast has more marble in it than other cuts of meat but I think it's the bag.  And no, I don't care that it was tested in Reynolds Wraps' test kitchen by none other than Pat and Betty!

Savvy TV viewers may recall that Pat  (Schweitzer) and Betty (Morton), two actual home economists, were the faces of Reynolds Wrap in TV commercials airing in the mid 90's.  Together, they showed us all how to best use Reynolds Wrap for all of our cooking needs.  And perhaps my memory is foggy but I swore they didn't do any commercials featuring anything but aluminum foil and yet their cookbook, published in 2003 includes recipes utilizing cooking bags as well as wax paper and plastic wrap.  And again, this is just wrong, wrong, really wrong.  BUT...I like Pat and Betty and so I was prepared to overlook this minor (not really) flaw in the roast recipe. 

And okay sure, I could have made something requiring a foil-lined pan instead of a cooking bag  or even one of their recipes calling for an aluminum oven bag but I had my heart set on a roast in foil.  And let's face it, when temperatures dip, a Watermelon Boat is the last thing anybody wants to eat.  (Yesterday, the temperature started out as a balmy -22 degrees so yeah..."no" to the watermelon on page 30.)

And so in conclusion, if you like Pat and Betty or Pat or Betty or if you like the concept of aluminum foil (that wonderful light-projecting product) or if you like Reynolds Wrap (and I do), then this is your book.  The recipes are not complicated and some of them were tempting, just not on a day when I was all about celebrating the Winter Solstice even if it was 8 days later when I did so.  What can I say?  The holidays just flew by!

So happy light, happy warming temperatures (I hope) and happing roasting, even if it is in an oven bag.

Homestyle Pot Roast – makes 7-8 servings

¼ cup flour

2/3 cup water

One 1-ounce envelope onion soup mix

One 3- to 3 ½-pound boneless beef chuck pot roast

6 to 8 small whole red potatoes

1 medium onion, cut in quarters

One 16-ounce package peeled fresh baby carrots

Chopped parsley (optional)

Preheat the oven to 325F.  Add the flour to a large oven bag, shake the bag to distribute the flour, and put in a 9-by-13-by-2-inch baking pan.

Add the water and soup mix to the bag and squeeze the bag to blend them with the flour.  Put the roast in the bag and turn the bag to coat the meat with the sauce.  Arrange the potatoes, onion, and carrots around the roast.

Close the bag with the provided nylon tie and cut six ½-inch slits in the top.

Bake for 2 ½ to 3 hours, or until the beef is tender.

Open the bag carefully and transfer the meat and vegetables to a serving platter.  Stir the gravy and spoon it over the meat and vegetables.  Sprinkle the meat and vegetables with parsley before serving, if desired.

"Reynolds Wrap Carefree Cooking with Aluminum Foil" (for the Winter Solstice) - Family Steak

Date I made this recipe:  December 21, 2012 (Winter Solstice)

Reynolds Wrap Carefree Cooking with Aluminum Foil

Published by:  The Supermarket Book Company

© 1975

Recipe:  Family Steak – p. 51

Every so often, my friend, Jen, will talk about a person as being part of the “tinfoil hat brigade” (i.e. somewhat delusional).  I think this recipe might just put me in line for a year’s membership although you can be the judge, right behind my husband, Andy, who now thinks that I am one cuckoo short of a clock after telling him my rationale about using this book and this recipe.

Here’s the deal:  I thought it would be fun to make something in honor of the Winter Solstice on Friday, the 21^st.  Once we achieve the solstice, we start gaining daylight (and hopefully sunlight) hours.  I am ALL about this event. Light = warming up = summer = hooray!  Sad to say though, I do not have a “solstice” cookbook in my collection (not that anybody’s written one but details, details).  So what to do, what to do?

And then the light bulb came on (hahaha) and I thought about the two Reynolds Wrap cookbooks I have, one published in 1975 and the other in 2003, and so I was all excited:  “Honey, I’ve got it.  I’m going to use a Reynolds Wrap cookbook because aluminum foil is shinny and it reflects light and it’s perfect, don’t you think?”

People, he did not think.  The look he gave me was priceless.  But then I went in for the kill and said  And I know just what I’m going to make.  I’m going to make this recipe for steak and Lipton Onion Soup mix wrapped in a foil packet.  Oh wait, here’s one for steak and Lipton Onion Soup and mushroom soup.  Oh, my mom used to make that!  It’ll be perfect.”  (For the record, I could have sworn the recipe called for cream of mushroom soup but it called for mushroom gravy.  I didn’t care and made it anyway but I’m telling you right now, I have pretty crisp memories of aluminum foil and cream of mushroom soup so there.)

People, let me just say that the second look I got was the one that suggested he was about ready to call the authorities and cancel my near-membership with the tin-foil hat brigade. He did not like the sound of the “family steak” recipe at all but that’s because the man has never had meat prepared that way in his life.  I find this sad.

I think though, I was more stunned by the fact that he was deprived of this meat and foil packet (let’s not forget the Lipton Onion Soup Mix) than I was the fact that he didn’t seem to grove on my solstice/foil concept.  At our age, there is really NO excuse for not having that recipe but then again, his mom didn’t really like to cook.  Still, I took an informal survey of my friends and before I knew it, I had several people waxing poetic about foil-wrapped meat; back in the day (and by “day” I mean the 60’s and 70’s), this concoction was considered to be gourmet!  Hell, even my Girl Scout troop made “hobo pies” at day camp; ground beef, vegetables and onions wrapped in foil and cooked on a campfire.  (For the record, while the “camping” part continues to elude and perplex me, I am a mean cook over a campfire!)

So after learning about lack of foil-wrapped anything in his life, I was doubly-determined to correct that problem, pronto!  And so I made the meal and it was good and we are still eating the leftovers.  And I felt much brighter about my future after the solstice and my brilliant (if I do say so myself) concept of using foil. 

This is perhaps the easiest, but most nostalgic, recipe I’ve ever made.  My only advice is to try to use round steak if at all possible:  Andy bought a combination of chuck steak and round steak (if there is such a thing—actually, he wasn’t sure what he bought!) and it was almost a little too thick for this recipe but I made it work.

I’m already writing a note on next year’s calendar to use the other Reynolds Wrap cookbook for the solstice because I think I’m on to something.  Perhaps I should invite Jen and the rest of her tinfoil hat brigade over as well?  There’s something about safety in numbers that is comforting.

Now remember folks, and you heard it here first, nothing says “solstice” like Reynolds Wrap.  I could so be their marketing person….

As to the recipe, brace yourself because this.gets.complicated.

Family Steak – 6 servings

2 pounds chuck or found steak, 1 inch thick (Ann’s Note: try to stick with that thickness for best results)

1 can (10 ½ oz.) mushroom gravy

1 envelope (1 3/8 oz.) onion soup mix

Trim excess fat from meat.  Place sheet of Heavy Duty Reynolds Wrap in shallow pan and arrange meat in the center.  Pour mushroom gravy over and sprinkle with onion soup mix.  Close Reynolds Wrap into bundle (if you absolutely need a tutorial, it’s on p. 111).  Bake in 325F oven for 2 hours.