Cooking with Singer: Pot Roast/Beef Sandwichs... and my house is falling down

Good morning, all,

Foundation guy came out to check on my house. I'm having trouble with my brick walls and was hoping to pull it all down (110 year old house) and put up steel siding. Turns out, the front 1/3 of my house, the part with no basement, the foundation doesn't go down past the frost line (4 or 5 feet up here). No wonder it's shifting. Well, in the 60's, someone put up a massive concrete column to support the shifting wall. Except they didn't sink that into the ground either. It goes about six inches deep and is probably making things worse. Along with a large tree the previous owners let grow 3 feet from the wall, so the roots went under the supporting wall.

Basically, I'm f**ked.

With that in mind, this week, while we wait for the repair estimate that will either save the house, or force us to let the city condemn it, we'll be enjoying shredded beef sandwiches made from a pot roast. I make a pot roast without any veggies, drop it into the crock pot in the morning and by dinner, it's so tender just stirring the pot, the beef falls apart in the gravy...

Any roast cut, rubbed with vegetable oil
Crock Pot with one cup of water and one beef bouillion cube per pound of meat, set to 'Low' heat
salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin, garlic, rosemary to taste. I usually do a pinch of each per pound. A lot more if you add potatoes to your mix.
while I prep everything, I cut up an onion and brown it in the frying pan, then put that into the crock pot,
Sear the roast on all sides in a frying pan on med-high to high. You want a good crust. Some will tell you some malarky about it 'sealing in juices' but it's really all about flavor.
That's it. Cooking the beef at low temps (180 to 225) will convert all the collagen to gelatin, making it fall-apart-tender. After 4 hours or so, maybe turn the meat once, or check the liquid to see if you seasoned enough. After 8 hours or more, it's done. If the liquid is too thick, then in a frying pan, put some butter and flour, stir til mixed, then heat up to bubbling for one minute, put in pot and it will thicken. (Called a Roux). Or pour the liquid into a different pot and boil it off til it's thick enough for your tastes. You now have shredded beef and gravy that is awesome.

I make sandwiches with this and a spreadable blue cheese (Laughing Cow brand is very good) on any good bread. 3 pounds of beef was gone in five days between my wife and I.

At least you'll eat well while waiting, that sounds good. Are you looking at jacking the house and putting in a proper foundation or waiting to see what they recommend? Either way sounds pretty costly, good luck with the whole mess.

I am truly sorry singer. I can only think of only a few things that could be worse then having something so serious go wrong with ones home. I hope it all works out and best of luck with the estimate.

Vince

Firstly, that pot roast recipe is a bit off. Can't forget the red wine vinegar, salt, and some tomatoes. Maybe cut down the water a bit.

No idea how they'd be able to fix the foundation without Jacking the house. Except, it's double layer brick. The weight would be enormous. The guy is supposed to bring his dad, who founded the company, back to check it out. No idea on a time table. In the meantime, I may start training mice to chew on electrical wires in the attic (*wink* *wink*)

And tomorrow... banana bread.