Too hot to cook, well almost

Last night I heard the weather forecast for today.  The heat index was projected at 100 degrees and it hit the mark.  I'm a little tired of grilled meat, so I pulled out the crockpot and an old stand by recipe.

On the menu for tonight's supper was Crockpot BBQ Beef, Broccoli Raisin Salad, chips and ice cream with homemade fudge sauce.  I should have taken a picture of everything but we were in a hurry to eat dinner as my DS's, DH and DIL were all playing in a church softball league game right after supper. 

I have had this recipe for Crockpot BBQ Beef for over 20 years and I always have the ingredients on hand.  The original recipe is as follows:

3 lbs. stewing beef
1 cup chopped onion
1 - 6 oz. can tomato paste
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon mustard

Combine all of the ingredients and cook on low for 8 hours in a crockpot.  Mix with wire whisk to shred meat and serve on buns.

My tweak from this original recipe is that I use a rump roast instead of the stewing beef.  I can get a rump roast on sale for $1.99 a lb. When they are on sale, I buy a couple.  Yes, a rump roast is a very tough cut of meat but if you do what I do, you end up with a pretty tender piece of beef.  I take the rump roast and cut it up into 3 inch chunks, dredge them in a flour, salt and pepper mixture and then brown the chunks in oil on all sides. Then I place these in the crockpot.  I stir together the rest of the ingredients, except I don't add quite as much sugar or salt, and pour over the meat.  Cook this on low for about 6 hours, remove the beef chunks to cut up or shred and then put back in the crockpot.   The sauce will be thick, which I like as when you serve it on buns, the sauce doesn't drip out all over.

Also, I use a rump roast to make beef and noodles or vegetable beef soup.  I use the same technique as above by cutting into chunks and browning before making it into soup or whatever.

Broccoli Raisin Salad

I don't really have a recipe for this one.  I cut up fresh broccoli flowerets, chop some onion and carrots.  I take about 8 slices of bacon and fry it up and then crumble.  Then I mix together some Miracle Whip, add some sugar to taste, thin it with a little milk and add a little vinegar.  Mix the broccoli, onion, carrots and bacon with the salad dressing mixture and add some raisins and that is it.  Sometimes I add cauliflower and grapes in place of the carrots to this salad.  Just depends on what is on sale and what I have on hand at the time. 

I posted my recipe for Hot Fudge Sauce the other day.  Next time I am going to use mint chocolate chips instead of the semi sweet chocolate chips for a change.   I think that will be delicious.

I did a lot of laundry today and hung the clothes out on the line to dry.  It was nice to know that while I was doing the laundry, my dinner was all set.