Midwinter recipes

This time of year, the tail end of winter is the blah-est time IMO. Even here in Southern California where it's still pretty and nice, there's just a sense of ehhhh that's inescapable, except in the kitchen.

When in doubt, I always say, cook. The one thing that always cheers me up is the smell of good food cooking. I take such a deep joy at this and it's so easy and cheap to do. I've developed a bunch of easy recipes that really hit the comfort food spot without being too unhealthy.

The first recipe is a great way to sneak vegetables into non vegetable eaters. It has only a few ingredients and is quick and easy and uses few ingredients.

Vegetable/beef soup
2 plus pounds of beef cut into one-half inch pieces
garlic powder
onion powder
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 quart V-8 vegetable juice (you can use tomato juice, if you prefer, but I really like the flavor of V-8)
1 large package mixed frozen vegetables (the standard peas, carrots, lima beans, corn mix is the best)
1/2 cup red wine (optional)

Brown beef sprinkled with garlic and onion powder in Dutch oven in batches in heated olive oil. Add V-8, vegetables and wine. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for at least an hour.

One of the first things every male I knew made for himself that actually could count as cooking was the Lipton's soup pot roast. They'd wrap a piece of soup-covered beef in aluminum foil and/or plastic wrap, stick it in the oven at 350 for an hour or so and think themselves the next Bobby Flay or something. The reason they were so proud was because it's actually kind of good, just a piece of piece coated with Lipton Onion soup mix and cooked.

But there is so much more to pot roast and I've been able to take it to a level of culinary transcendence that it's mind-boggling. Or at the very least, it's one of the most popular meals I serve. It really makes the house smell amazing.

World's Best Pot Roast
Reynold's oven bags (not the aluminum kind, turkey size)
3 pounds 7-bone chuck roast (you can use any beef, but chuck is always the best)
2 tablespoons flour
1 envelope Lipton's onion soup mix
5 red potatoes, scrubbed and quartered
5 celery stalks cut in 1-inch pieces
5 whole carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 onions cut into 1-inch chunks
4 turnips, peeled and quartered
4 bay leaves
1 cup red wine or beer
1 cup water

Shake flour, soup mix and beef together in oven bag. Add the rest of the ingredients. Slit bag, put in 11X13 inch baking pan and place in 295 degree oven for about three hours or until meat is fall-apart tender. Serve with crusty bread. I have to have sour cream with my pot roast, which I mix in with the juices and mop up with the bread, but Rob likes his without the juices and with A-1 Sauce (ewwwww).