Courtesy of Greg

I have been trying to think of a way to close this inaugural week's blog entries. I've been sifting through some of my favorite recipes and trying to think of must do activities, but what I stumbled upon in my Gmail Inbox was a recipe of my Dad's that he sent me last year. Now that I live up here in Oregon, the cold and rainy capital of the world...I seem to gravitate towards a lot of "comfort food" type recipes. This is a perfect recipe for one of those cold, gray days. I'm giving you this recipe word-for-word the way my Dad sent it to me.

Greg's Famous Pot Roast and Noodles:

Shopping List:
Beef...usually a cheap London broil, but most cuts are okay since it goes in the pressure cooker...since it's the 2 of you and you have the smaller pressure cooker I'd say about 3 lbs
1 Box (2 envelopes) Beefy Onion soup and dip mix
1 cup or so of flour
1 stick butter
2 cans beef broth or get a jar of "better than beef" (kind of like a bouillon in paste form) and use water to make broth then you can make as needed
1 or 2 bags of noodles (biggest egg type noodles you can find)
1-2 tablespoons of oil to brown the beef (veg oil or olive or in a pinch butter)

Instructions:

1. Trim and brown the beef on all sides in the pressure cooker w/o lid (in the oil mentioned in your shopping list)
2. When browned, add 1 or 2 envelopes of soup mix and water as per soup instructors (about 1 cup per envelope)
3. Add water and better than beef or broth til meat is covered or a bit more (total liquid should be about 4-6 cups depending on how much meat and room in pot). Pot should not be more than 2/3 full.
4. Put lid on and heat up to pressure...once it starts hissing, NOTE THE TIME and begin to gradually lower heat til it's gently hissing.
5. Let cook for about 50-60 min.
6. During the last 10 minutes of the cooking, melt the butter in a sauce pan and add about 1 cup of flour. Using a fork, mix and de-lump it (technical term).
7. Remove pressure cooker from heat and bleed off the pressure til you can open the lid (if there is any doubt how to do this call me!)
8. Open and remove meat and set aside. Put flour/butter mix in the broth and heat while stirring til it thickens.
9. Cut or shred meat and add to 'gravy'.
10. Make noodles and cover with meat/gravy.
11. Eat...

Note: You can start noodles while you're making gravy.

I hope you guys enjoy this recipe! Can you tell it was written by a man? I especially love the orders to call him if I have trouble opening the lid of the pressure cooker! Dads always look out for their little girls :)

I think you could probably do this same recipe in a slow cooker if you don't happen to have a pressure cooker. Just put all the ingredients in the crock-pot and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8-10. Then make the gravy and noodles! I haven't tried this idea out, but I'm sure it would still taste delicious.