President's Day Dinner: Eye Round Roast

JoJo taught me how to make eye round several years ago. It's really easy--if you remember the recipe. I really should have called JoJo to refresh my memory, but I was too lazy. Besides, I thought I could handle it. Turns out I could--once I turned off the fire alarm.

Really, dinner was not a disaster, just a little bit of a surprise. Roasting an eye of round is similar to roasting a standing rib roast in that you first have to sear it in the oven for a few minutes before turning down the heat. Well, I seared mine for too long. I think I was supposed to sear it at 500 degrees for ten minutes. But I seared it for ten minutes per pound. Then I opened the oven to see how the roast was doing, and the smoke billowed out to the extent that all the fire alarms in the house went off.

Never one to over-react, Lawson never flinched from his X-Box game. He just hollered from upstairs, "Mom, is that just you cooking?"

I assured him that it was, and that I was just fine, thank you very much. I didn't want him to worry that I'd burned myself or anything.

I put some foil over the roast and put it back in the oven and turned it all the way off. Then I left the meat in there for about an hour, and when it came out, my roast was cooked just right--with a little circle of pale pink right in the middle. What's more, with the foil over it, the roast had collected a nice au jus in the bottom of the pan.

Tired of potatoes, rice and grits, I opted for a different starch tonight: gnocchi. It's so easy to make and so tasty. I boiled a package of gnocchi until the little pasta balls floated to the top of the water. While they were cooking, I combined in a small bowl about 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1 minced clove of garlic, salt, pepper, and a few chopped leaves of fresh basil. After boiling the gnocchi, I drained it and put it in a bowl. I tossed it in the olive oil mixture and then tossed in some fresh spinach leaves until they wilted. Then I sprinkled ground parmesan on top.

I also made some stuffed mushrooms. My mom used to eat those all the time. She thought they were little fungal buttons from heaven. As a kid, I didn't find them that delectable, but as an adult, they're more appealing. I just sort of made up the recipe last night. I took some medium-large mushrooms and pulled out the stems. I chopped up the stems and put them in a bowl with some finely chopped Vidalia onion, a minced clove of garlic, a smidge of olive oil, some chopped fresh spinach leaves and salt and pepper. I mixed all those ingredients with a fork and then put some in each mushroom cap, which I had placed in a small baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. Then I sprinkled grated parmesan on top of each stuffed mushroom. I baked them at 400 for about 20 minutes, and they came out looking tasty. And tasting tasty too.

Rounding off the meal was a combination of fresh broccoli and cauliflower florets, which I tossed in olive oil and salted before roasting for about half an hour. I don't care what kind of vegetable it is, if you toss it in olive oil and roast it, it's heavenly.

So the President's Day meal consisted of a delicious roast, plus several side dishes I'll be sure to serve again. But before I cook the eye of round again, I'll double check with JoJo on the searing part.