Beef its what's for dinner!

So you wanna make a roast for dinner...here are some helpful facts to make sure you get a yummy roast. First if you buy a roast with a bone it will cook faster because the bone will help transfer the heat. Second depending on the roast will depend on how you cook it. If your meat is tough you may consider braising it. To do so you need to get a large pot with a little oil in it. Heat up the oil, then take your meat and brown all sides(allowing outsides to caramelize and hold in juices better). Remove meat and add carrots, onion, etc. and saute. Put meat back into pot and fill with a liquid (usually a stock) half way up the meat. You can then simmer on the stove or put into the oven until meat is cooked and tender. It is important to cook slowly and lower heat so the liquid has time to breakdown the toughness. Otherwise if your meat is not tough and is a good quality cut you can just put it straight into the oven. Once meat is finished remove from heat and allow to rest for 15-20 min. before cooking, this allows juices to get pulled back into meat and distribute more evenly. The meat will also continue to cook about 5-10 more degrees while resting so you may want to pull it out a bit early, depending on how you want your meat cooked.

Gravy

Making gravy can be tricky, but if you know a few things it is much much easier to make. When making gravy from a juice of a meat all you need to do is a something to thicken it up and some seasonings. Just mix a little bit of flour with some warm water and then slowly pour into your pot of meat juices. Mixing the flour and warm water first will keep you from getting lumps in your gravy. Also if your gravy has a flour taste to it its ok, it does not mean you added too much and its ruined. Just keep your gravy on a very low simmer and it will cook the flour taste right out.

Garlic!

So one of my FaVoRIte things to add to food is GaRliC! I just LOVE it! An interesting thing I recently learned is that garlic can produce different flavors depending on the way it is prepared. When garlic comes into contact with air, you get a more bitter/sharp taste. If you are trying to avoid the bitter taste try not to incorporate  air, food processors do this. It is suggested the best tool to use is a mortar and pestle because it keeps it from getting air and the heat a processor would do. And as we are on the topic of garlic...keep all oil and garlic mixtures in the refrigerator because they can easily grow harmful bacteria. Also when mincing garlic add a little salt to keep it from sticking to your board and knife.