Classic Pot Roast with Mushrooms

So I made another roast tonight which had Wade lamenting: "not another roast!" But alas, he liked it and said it was better than my other ones. Yipee! I got the recipe from the Relish magazine that comes with the newspaper. It calls to cook the roast in a large dutch oven, but since I don't own one, I put it in the crock-pot and called it good.

This is what the article said about the recipe: "This pot roast melts in your mouth and has lots of sauce. Any mushrooms will work, but we like portabello and shiitake best. The recipe can be altered in a multitude of ways: adding chiles gives it a kick, adding more root veggies brings out a decidedly wintry character, and adding some bacon or smoked sausages adds depth of flavor."

3 lbs. chuck roast (about 2 inches thick)

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

3 T olive oil, divided

2 1/2 cups thinly sliced yellow or white onion (I did about 3/4 of an onion)

3/4 cup diced carrot (I did one carrot)

3/4 cup diced celery (I did one stalk of celery)

1 parsnip, peeled and diced (I omitted this)

8 garlic cloves, chopped (I used minced garlic, like 3 or 4 spoonfuls)

1 lb. shiitake or portabello mushrooms, sliced (I did 8 oz. of sliced mushrooms and 8 oz. of shiitake mushrooms)

1 tsp. chili powder

1 1/2 cups beef broth

8 oz. tomato sauce

1 1/2 cups red wine (I substituted chicken broth)

1 1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves

2 bay leaves

1 T. cornstarch

2 T. cold water

1. Preheat oven to 300 F. Tim beef of all visible fat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. (Again, I just did the crock-pot.)

2. Heat 2 T. oil in a large Dutch oven. Add beef and brown on all sides. Remove from pan. (I did this in a skillet.)

3. Add remaining 1 T. oil, onion, carrot, celery and parsnip to pan. Saute until lightly browned, about 8 minutes.

4. Add garlic, mushrooms, chili powder and cook 3 minutes.

I took the roasts out of the pan after they were browned and put them in the crock pot. Then I sauted all the ingredients from #3 and 4 in the skillet.

5. Return meat to pan, and add broth, tomato sauce, red wine, thyme and bay leaves. Bring to a boil. Place in oven adn cook 3 to 3 1/2 hours, until beef is fork tender. There will be lots of liquid.

I just put all that on top in the crock-pot and cooked 8 hours on low.

6. Dissolve constarch in cold water. Pour cornstartch mixture into pan, stirring constantly. Return to oven and cook 15 minutes or until sauce has thickened.

I did this about 30 minutes before I was going to serve.

It was really good. I took the roast out to shred and then returned to the crock-pot. I served with mashed potatoes and used a slotted spoon to get the meat and veggies out.