From Faye, you have to read this one to believe it:
Can you help a bitch out? I’m trying to track down a book with a contender
for possibly the best internal dialogue of any hero I’ve read:“Sure, he loved pot roast, but he was careening completely out of control
here.”Even my husband remembers this line.
I believe it was published with another short book (maybe by HQN? I think?).
I’m pretty sure the hero is dating his secretary, and the above brilliance
occurs when he goes to her house for dinner (pot roast, of course) and
realizes he’s in love.I think the other story in the book also featured a similar very wealthy
hero falls in love with working class gal plot, but I’m not sure of that
either.Really, all I remember is the pot roast. The rest of the story was
distinctly lackluster. I’m sure if anyone else has read this book, they’ll
remember the pot roast too.
The pot roast! Remember the pot roast! Please – this is cracking me up so I hope SOMEONE remembers it!
I can’t say for certain that it’s this novel, but Jude Devereaux’s written about Taggert and Montgomery super-rich hunks falling for their homey (that’s homey, not “homely”) secretaries/nurses/whatever.
Good luck!
No clue as to the book, but I’d like to say my husband resolved to marry me after tasting my excellent pot roast. Or at least, that’s what we tell the kids.
I haven’t read this, but I would like to invite any billionaires who may be reading to come and try my truly awesome pot roast. Just for research purposes, of course.
Gah, I read this too or a book very similar. The hero gets an erection smelling the pot roast the heroine is cooking, and is all “I’ve got to get a hold of myself… I mean I love pot roast, but not this much.”
I’m dying to know. My spectacular pot-roasting skills wasted on a wonderful but non-billionaire man. Sigh. As is always the way.
I don’t know which book the quote is from but I now have an incredible craving for pot roast….going to have to break out my slow cooker.
So that’s what the kids are calling it these days?
The Ravenous Billionaire Carnivore’s Working-Class Virgin Meat Goddess
Sounds like Gail Dayton to me. Her Convenient Millionaire. I have a copy and this one was published with another story. Sherry meets Mike and they move in together for some convenient reason or other and then later Sherry meets Mike’s mom and the mom tells her she’s heard all about her fabulous pot roast. Not sure it’s the same book, but it sparked a pot roast memory for me. 🙂
I know the menfolk were all in love with Nell’s pot roast in the Three Sisters Island Trilogy by Nora Roberts, but I don’t remember that line.
I’d remember this if I had read it, if only for the weird American usage of the verb careen. I just cannot get used to that American definition, however many times I see it.
🙂
Tzippurah, yes! That’s the scene! Her Convenient Millionaire isn’t ringing a bell- I don’t think they ever moved in together, but I might have forgotten that part (my mind stricken blank of anything but pot roast, my god how he loved her pot roast!) And it’s definitely not one of the Three Sisters- those are some of my favorites!
To add to the greatness of this book, it did inspire me (a former vegetarian, no experience cooking meat at the time) to make a pot roast for the man I was lusting after. Lo and behold, we’re now happily married, and every time I make pot roast, he quotes that li
Cara, you’re brilliant. I wish this were the title! It does completely capture the spirit of the thing, and I’m sure it would make it easier to find.
so could somebody post a good recipe for potroast?
Well done, Bitchery.
@Becca, good idea! Faye should post her man-winning pot roast recipe so that all may exploit its proven Power of Lurrrve™.
My brother is a meat cook to die for. He never uses any kind of written-down recipes, but I am certain that if he _were_ to write down any of his specialties, I am certain he would start every one of them with these words: First, you shoot a moose.
“Sure, he loved pot roast, but he was careening completely out of control
here.”
I cannot stop laughing, tears streaming down my face. God I hope someone knows the name of this so I can read it.
LOL is he from Vermont? When we lived up there the Moose Lottery was big digs and I could definitely see one of the guys we knew saying this.
Mooseburgers are actually quite good, at that.
Security word: why87. Why 87 flavors? Because he was too manly for the 57 Heinz flavors.
@foolserrant
No, actually, we are Norwegian. 🙂 And when we “invite” the King of the Forest to dinner we know we are in for a treat!!
Don’t know about pot roast but engagement chicken is a sure bet. I made it for my family and my 11 year old son walked in the kitchen asking what was in the oven because it smelled great. He and my husband raved about this chicken. It is simple and good and apparently has lurve magic.
http://www.glamour.com/magazine/2006/07/engagement-chicken
Up until just now (when I googled it) I’d never been completely sure what pot roast was, other than some meat based dish in American books.
True story –
My oldest brother’s girlfriend never really learned to cook. Her mom had cancer most of her childhood and eventually died of it. So all she really knows is things like Hamburger Helper, but has spent most of her life eating out. She feels at her age (46) she’s “too old” to change and learn how to cook and gets really angry when my brother suggests she should try. Anyway, he did convince her to try making a pot roast. He even got one with one of those timers that pop up when it’s ready and told her how to prepare it.
He didn’t, however, tell her to put it in the oven. When he came home from work he found she had put the pan ON TOP of the stove burners. Thinking because it was called a “pot roast” it was suppose to be boiled in a pan on the stove.
They eat out a lot.
This sounds like something that happened to my aunt. Back in the 70’s, my aunt wanted to show her then-boyfriend’s parents that she could be domestic, so she planned to make a roast chicken for them. Having never made a chicken before, she asked my mom how to do it. My mom told her that she would have to clean the chicken before she cooked it, so my aunt decided that you cleaned a chicken the same way you clean the kitchen counter: with AJAX. Thankfully, my mom got there before she could actually use it on the bird.
Security word:death69 If anyone ever cleans a chicken with AJAX they would die 69 deaths.
Just wanted to say I love the true story comments (the last two before mine). Hilarious!
*efforts36: If I put in more “efforts”, perhaps I could cook 36 pot roasts. LOL
Coincidentally, the Pioneer Woman has her pot roast recipe on her blog today, if anyone wants to know how to capture a man’s heart with meat: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/02/perfect-pot-roast/
JamiSings, my mother cooks her pot roast on the stovetop, so that’s how I learned to do it. Others cook pot roast in slow cookers. At the very least you need to sear it on the stove before putting it in the oven (or slow cooker), so the meat doesn’t dry out during cooking.
That’s how I cook stew, more or less. So, is pot roast what we Brits call stew? No mystery about stew, you just shove it in the oven and take it out when you remember to. Or when you smell burning, whichever comes first. Sigh. You can tell I’m a writer by the way I neglect my family’s stomachs…
@ Jane Lovering – the only difference between pot roast and stew, as far as I can see, (from eating & making both) is that you cut the meat into chunks first when making stew. And you might use a little more liquid.
I’d love to read this one too, if only for the funny. Would make a nice change from the hero smelling the heroine! Possibly I’ve been reading too many paranormal romances lately.
?
–noun
a dish of meat, usually brisket of beef or chuck roast, stewed in one piece in a covered pot and served in its own gravy.
Use pot roast in a Sentence
See images of pot roast
Search pot roast on the Web
————————————————————————————————————————
Origin:
1880–85, Americanism
@Raj – I never heard of anyone cooking a pot roast on top of the stove. It’s always been cooked in the oven by everyone I know. Usually covered with foil and a sometimes also a lid.
Go to the Pioneer Woman dot com and look for her pot roast recipe. She made it on GMA this week, but it’s in her cookbook, too. I’ve made it and it’s fabulous. Only add pepper. Otherwise, her recipe is spot-on.
It’s more what we Brits call casserole, I reckon. (Stew when cooked on the top of the stove, casserole when done in the oven). 😀 I don’t see any significant technical difference between stewing or casseroling a single large piece of meat as opposed to cut-up chunks, except, of course, that the latter cooks faster.
One of the most delicious recipes of this type is the Greek dish called kleftikon, a ‘pot roast’ of shoulder of lamb.
Here’s a good kleftikon recipe (it’s also called kleftiko, but our local Cypriot restaurant uses the final ‘n’, so that’s what I am used to):
http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/601804
It’s good.
Ah, It is in food that we see our major differences and yet it is still the same! Is it flan or custard or galactobouriko or … Is it beef stew or boeuf bourguignon? The magic of pot roast is that it is a classic dish that you do all the prep work for and then shove in the oven to cook slowly while you did something else. It has a nostalgia factor going since its an old homemade dish and everyone has their own special “secret” to making it. Do you or do you not add tomato sauce or paste or ketchup to the gravy, do you or do you not add wine to the gravy, how much garlic, cook it on a bed of vegetables like carrots and potatoes, add a bell pepper, or add this or that. Most women learn to look it by watching their mothers or mothers-in-law.
Also the reason it isn’t stew is that it is a big chunk of tough but favorful meat you throw in the pot but don’t cut up. If you cook it right it will be fork-tender with delicious gravy. Less prep that cutting meat into chunks, flouring them, browning them. There is just something about the mystery of taking a big hunk of meat out of the pot and being able to pull it apart it is so tender. For most American men pot roast = home cooking and Mama. Kind of an odd thing to get an erection over, in my opinion. Any idea yet what the book was?
@Ag –
Casserole here involves noodles, bits of meat (like chicken), veggies like either brocoli or peas, and bread crumbs baked together in the oven.
Pot roast you take a big old hunk of beef, which you then season. Then you put it in a big pan with some water or beef broth, potatos, and carrots. (No bell peppers in my home, mom & I are HIGHLY allergic!) You cover it with foil so it can keep basting itself. Stick it in the oven and cook until it’s good and tender.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pot-roast-recipe/index.html
http://www.idea-queen.com/roast-recipes.html
Casserole was one of those American/English differences that I was really taken aback by. I think that what Americans call a casseroles, I would call a bake. I don’t make much of a distinction between stew and casserole, except that casserole sounds posher and might have red wine in it.
Yes: that’s a totally American sort of dish, and I don’t think we have a standard name for it at all. Noodles—good grief! ‘Bake’ might cover it, as Ros says, but certainly not ‘casserole’. (Of course, the word casserole is originally just the name of the vessel you cook the food in, like tagine —which can be made either on the hob or in the oven, incidentally).
To me, the size of the piece of meat is immaterial—single large piece or cut up into chunks makes no difference: if it is cooked with veggies and liquid, producing its own gravy, in a closed container, it’s a stew if you make it on the hob, and a casserole in the oven. The addition of red wine is fine in both cases! 😉
American English and British English diverge more widely in food terminology than in almost any other everyday area of speech.
I cook pot roast on the stove. I mean, I’ve cooked roast in the oven too but then I don’t consider it pot roast.
Not all casseroles have noodles, mind you. My mom makes a brocoli one with rice, cream of mushroom soup, brocoli, and cheese.
You know what threw me? Reading those Agatha Raisin books they were talking about something called “lasenge” and how it was served with chips. I finally asked my English boss whom informed me it was lasenga and yes, it’s served with chips there (here that would be seen as too many carbs since there’s noodles in lasenga). Real kicker for me is when a character put ketchup on it. Why put ketchup on something that already has tomato sauce in it?
Do you mean lasagna? I don’t want to get into too much of a class-based discussion here, but I assure you that in many circles in the UK, the very idea of lasagna and chips (french fries) would cause utter horror. Really.
The AE and BE usage of the terms ‘noodles’ and ‘pasta’ is also rather different from ours.
Incidentally, lasagna doesn’t necessarily contain tomato purée, though it often does. The layering between the pasta sheets can be of cheese and spinach, for instance, or of minced beef without tomato. Adding ketchup is— well, that’s another thing that would raise a plenty of eyebrows here.