Chocolate on Your Beef Roast

My Baby Sister and one of my BFFs recently BOTH became "chocolatiers" for Dove Chocolate Discoveries...think a Pampered Chef party but with chocolate, lots of chocolate...DOVE chocolate!

I offered to host the first party for Baby Sister...of course, I promised to host the party in August and it didn't happen. However, I did get myself together and we had the party on Saturday. My BFF even came over from Ohio to help out!

It was a great excuse to have some family and friends over to my condo. For many of the guests, it was the first time they'd seen my place.

(Side Note: My mom and I argued on how long I have lived in my condo...I said 2 years, she said 5 years. I looked it up tonight and it's been just over 3 years, so we were both off!)

Unfortunately, I did get any photos of the wonderful chocolate mousse, mudslide chocolatinis, white chocolate meyer lemon cake and more...I was too busy sampling and trying to be a hostess.

(Side Note 2: The milk chocolate fondue was a HIT with both the adults and the kiddos in attendance.)

I did snap a couple photos of Baby Sister prepping our main dish of the night...Shredded Beef featuring a couple of the Dove Savory Selections.

We started by putting some Sweet 'n Spicy Cocoa Rub on a couple frozen beef roasts I had in the freezer.

When we thought we added enough rub, we dumped on some more...just because we could.

We also added a can of regular Coke to the bottom of the crockpot. Then I set it to High and let it do its thing for 6 hours. The roasts weren't quite as tender as I wanted them to be after 6 hours, so I left it on high for another hour or so.

Then I started forking the roasts apart so my guests could make mini shredded beef sandwiches on King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls (I love those rolls).

We added some of the Dove Sweet 'n Smoky Chocolate BBQ Sauce to our sandwiches and they rocked!

The sandwiches were a great savory addition to what was a very sweet tasting party!

If you live in Central Indiana and are interested in hosting a Dove Chocolate Discoveries party of your own, send me an email and I'll connect you to Baby Sister! If you don't live around us, check out their website for a chocolatier near you!

A Coke + A Crockpot = Delicious!

I lost my Crockpot.

I'm not sure where it went.

Maybe it ran away to a house where it might actually get used regularly.

Maybe it's just hiding in a cabinet behind the 3 boxes of Ritz crackers and 8 cans of green beans!

Wherever it is, I wish it well.

I used this as an opportunity to upgrade! My excuse for not using my Crockpot more often was that I normally work 8 to 10 hours a day during the week. So with an hour commute each way, I can be away from home for 10-12 hours at a time. With a Crockpot with just low and high settings, I always worried that I would overcook food.

So, I went with a programmable Crockpot. My new best friend has four settings (4 & 6 hours on High and 8 & 10 hours on Low) and then automatically shifts to Warm for up to 6 hours!

So here's the finished product from my test run:

I had a beef round roast in the freezer from my dad, so I have NO idea how big it was. It was wrapped in white butcher's paper and I know where and how it was raised (mostly grass-fed but enjoyed a bucket of corn every day) so I don't really care that they don't include the pounds! I thawed it in the fridge overnight.

So I unboxed my new bestie and added one of those cool "slow cooker liners" because another reason I don't use the Crockpot more often is the clean up. Yuck!

   

Then, I cut up some red potatoes, threw in some baby carrots (had some large carrots but couldn't find the peeler at 5:30 a.m.) and added the roast.

Now it gets kind of weird. My sister and a coworker swears that a can of Coke and a package of onion soup mix is all you need to make a yummy roast. They are both good cooks so I went with it!

With the Coke poured and onion soup sprinkled, I  put the lid on, set the Crockpot on Low for 8 hours, and was out the door.

I came home 10+ hours later to a tender (flaked apart with a fork), flavorful, home-cooked meal with little mess to clean up!

I think my new best friend and I have a long future together!