Happy New Year to All

I'm sorry I haven't posted for a while. Life hit a few rather nasty bumps, so I really haven't felt (mentally) much like sitting down and writing anything anyone would want to read. Pity party for one is now over.

Last night: I wish I had a picture. There were 3 dogs and a cat on the bed with me. (Some nights there are two cats and only two dogs on the bed.) No, I didn't have much room, and part of the time the only cover I had was a fleece throw. No, short of starting a world war, I couldn't get them to move. The room was cold, and they were way too comfortable. It is a good thing the animals gave off lots of body heat. LOL (Pellet stove has quit, again. This time, it is really dead.)

Here are three of the culprits: It you look closely in the bottom picture, you can see part the cat's feet. She's asleep on the dining room chair. The fourth culprit is a medium-sized Border Collie. (I have a camera; I just don't know how to download the pictures from it.)

Today: Wash bedding and throw rugs.

This morning I grabbed a package of bacon out of the freezer. I was going to cook the bacon for breakfast and then brown a rump roast in the drippings. Well.... the bacon was bad. It stunk up the whole house. (It was so bad that now the thought of food makes me a little queasy.)

I didn't want to just do a plain ol' pot roast, again anyway. BORING

Ah ha! The other day Motherhen68 posted her January menu list and links to the recipes. One place she had listed was A Year of Slow Cooking. For fun, I had done a search for rump roast recipes. One in particular intrigued me. But! It sounded too weird. It had beer in it. My husband hates beer. So, I didn't copy it down.

Today I went back and got the recipe. This was submitted by a commenter who goes by The Momma (don't know anything about her):

Slap a hunk of beef in the pot (I think I had a 3lb rump roast), sprinkle on some Italian dressing mix (the powder stuff) and then add 12oz of beer. Cook on low for 10ish hours. We ate it with some of the jus and I'm gonna make burritos and something else with what's left over!!

UPDATE: This was very good! Make sure there is enough liquid to cover most of the meat!

This is in the slow cooker as I write. For once there was everything in the house that the recipe called for. Thanks, Mom and DH. I mean, I never keep Italian salad dressing mix in the house, but there was some in the pantry! DH brought beer last weekend when friends came down to help us. We didn't drink any of it! Anyway, I'll let you know how it turns out.