GaryOsberg.com

Good morning from Collegeville,  

Last weekend we gathered at “The Cabin” to celebrate my son’s 38th birthday.  Erik loves to cook and he did a roast beef for the Saturday evening meal.  It was very tasty and  I mentioned that it reminded me of “Ma’s” roast beef dinners.  

Each family has the one or two meals that everyone looks forward to.  In our family, it was “Ma’s roast beef”.  She always put on a very special roast beef dinner.  The meat was very tasty, the mashed potatoes were perfect and the gravy was “right on”.  There was many a time that the four brothers who lived near Minneapolis would gather at Ma’s apartment for her roast beef dinners.  After she passed on, there was much discussion at the dining table about what cut of meat one should ask the butcher for.  Since Ma raised six kids as a single parent, we know that the meat had to be “affordable”.  Brother Craig always claimed that it should be “the eye of the chuck”.

I went to Byerly’s and they said that normally they would cut steaks from the “chuck eye”, but they would be willing to simply provide the cut as a roast.  The balance of the recipe, as I understand it, is to sear the meat in a roasting pan on all sides, slow roast in a covered roaster with water added and roast it for a long time.  Adding onions, potatoes and carrots is an option.  The finished product should be a roast beef that will flake at the touch of the fork and not break the “piggy bank”.  I suggested that the next time all of the brothers are on a fishing trip, Erik should cook a roast beef dinner in honor of Ma.

The show this week is a rebroadcast of shows from last fall as the crew is on the road embarking on their mini tour to St, Augustine, Florida; Houston, Cincinnati and New York City.  Special guests include the Old Crow Medicine Show, Robin and Linda Williams and Neko Case.  Enjoy the show.

“Nothin’ says lovin’ like something from the oven”.  Betty Crocker