Father's Day: 3 recipes in one

I am going to start this post with an apology.  By the time we served dinner on Father's Day, I was too hungry to take a pic.  So, you are just going to have to use your imagination with this one...

Originally, Ryan was planning to make a smoked brisket for Father's Day.  I was all for it.  Less planning and work on my part.  However, when we saw that the weather was going to be rainy and cold all weekend, we scrapped that idea.  Instead, Ryan requested the following:

Pot roast with carrots and onions

Mashed potatoes and gravy

Steamed broccoli

Jello

Rolls

Yellow cake with strawberries and cream

(OK--I decided to have mashed potatoes and jello.  It just went!)

(The explanation paragraphs are color coded to match the colored items on the menu.)

I was reminded that just before we moved, my friend Anna Marie made us pot roast for dinner one evening.  It was seriously the BEST pot roast I had ever tasted and I demanded her recipe.  Turns out it was Pioneer Woman's Pot Roast.  So, that's where I went for Ryan's roast.  Because I forgot to add beef broth to my grocery list, I used 2 cans of chicken broth with 3 beef bullion cubes.  (Again. Has anyone else realized yet that these things are more the norm than the exception?)  I have to say, though, it was still absolutely fabulous.  This recipe has become my absolute favorite Sunday Roast recipe.

And, going back to the whole forgetfulness thing, I'll tell you about our Father's Day jello.  We painted our kitchen (red, of course) on Saturday.  Since it was drying overnight, we had a lot to put away on Sunday morning.  Between assembling the kitchen, getting all 5 of us ready for church, and prepping food, we had a very busy morning.  And, I didn't get a ton of time to prep food prior to our 11 o'clock church meeting.  I made our "Tropical Fusion" jello and put it in the fridge to wait for the pineapple tidbits and chopped maraschino cherries to go in.  When we got home from church, I realized that I had forgotten to stir the fruit into the jello.  By that time, the jello was completely set.  Instead of serving the fruit on top, I broke up the smooth, solid jello and stirred in the fruit bits.  And then I prepared a small box of peach jello (what I had on hand) according to the "Speed Set" directions, then stirred it into the Tropical Fusion and fruit.  By dinner time, the jello was set beautifully--once again smooth and beautiful.  The flavors blended perfectly and it was quite tasty.

OK. Last one. I love watching Alton Brown.  And I consider it quite fortunate that I happened to catch his "Gold Cake" episode sometime last week.  When it came time to make Ryan's yellow cake, I knew I had to give Alton's recipe a try.  Ryan described the cake as "Alton Inspired" because I had to make a few subs.  First of all, I didn't have an accurate kitchen scale.  So, I wasn't able to weigh the ingredients.  Secondly, I didn't have cake flour.  I subbed all-purpose flour. (1 cup cake flour = 1 cup minus 2 Tbls AP flour)  And thirdly, I eyeballed the vanilla and accidentally added way too much.  This being said, it was not my favorite yellow cake.  I thought the butter flavored shortening and too much vanilla gave it an artificial flavor.  And it was a little dry and not very sweet.  Next time, I think I'll switch back to "David's Yellow Cake" from allrecipes.com.  That's my favorite so far.

There you have it.  I hope your Father's Day was as tasty as ours was!