grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Peking Roast (a Keiser’s Kitchen recipe)

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Peking Roast - vintage recipe made with black coffee

Whoa. It’s been a while since I posted a recipe from the famous Keiser’s Kitchen cookbook. (Famous to those who lived around Keiser, Arkansas in the 1970s.) I made this Peking Roast back in November for Game Day when Arkansas shut out LSU. Let’s say that again. “Arkansas Shut Out LSU.” What a perfect Keiser cookbook choice as it was contributed by Ruth Barnett and her son Craig (my like-a-brother best friend) was visiting for the weekend. See the connection?

Do you remember eating this roast as a child? I asked.

No, he said.

So that’s how that conversation went.

Craig and Me

This Peking Roast was delicious and simple because while we tailgated, the crockpot did most of the work. We did have to consult with Ruth via telephone because like many of the Keiser’s Kitchen recipes, the ingredients and/or directions are a bit vague per 21st century standards (i.e. add seasonings).

What seasonings? 

We decided that meant salt and pepper.

Unlike regular pot roasts, this one has a special ingredient —black coffee. The coffee gives the gravy a richness unlike water or broth. You can eat the meat with potatoes, your favorite side dish or salad, but I shredded the meat and made sliders. Perfect Game Day snack for celebrating a Hog Shut Out.

Peking Roast - shred the meat and make sliders

Peking Roast

Print Recipe
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 5 pound rump roast
  • garlic & onion no measurements provided...
  • 1 1/2 cups strong black coffee
  • 1 cup water
  • seasonings to taste salt & pepper?
  • 1/2 cup vinegar I used Rice vinegar
  • 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
  • 2 to 3 bay leaves
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon marjoram

Method
 

  1. Cut slits through the meat. Insert slivers of garlic and onion into roast. (I used 2-3 spoonfuls of chopped garlic.) Mix vinegar, mustard, bay leaves, chili powder and marjoram. Pour over meat. Make sure it runs down into slits where the garlic and onion have been placed. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
  2. When ready to cook, place meat in a large heavy pot and well brown in oil on all sides. Pour in water and coffee and simmer on top of stove 4 to 6 hours. (I cooked mine in the crock pot on high for 6 hours. I also added the rest of the onion because why not?) If needed, additional water can be added. Salt and pepper 20 minutes before serving. The gravy may be thickened or left as is.
  3. Great served as sliders with cole slaw!

Peking Roast Sliders

Try it, you’ll like it. The Keiser ladies were great cooks! Still are, I’m sure.

 

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Ruth Barnett

Ruth Barnett

Here are two other classic Keiser’s Kitchen recipes I’ve tested so far:

Milky-Way-Cake.-Heavenly.-2

Milky Way Cake

Yum-Yum-Cake-2

Yum Yum Cake

 

Write more, Love more!

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Write more, Love more. This tagline is printed on the window of Shindig Paperie in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and what a great tagline it is. My new quest to write 52 letters in 2015 gave me the perfect excuse to visit. This well-curated shoppe filled with all things paper is located downtown just off the square. Downstairs. There’s something about a downstairs business (in a historic building—look at those bricks!) that makes for an intriguing shoppe rather than just another run-of-the-paper-mill store.

Shindig Paperie. Write More Love More

Oh my heart did a little flip flop when I walked into this place. (Dallas crafty obsessed friends: it’s like a cozier version of Paper Source at Northpark…)

Shindig Paperie

Cards and paper and pens and calendars and postcards and teeny tiny clothespins I’ve been wanting forever (because certain projects beg for them) and I could go on and on.

tiny clothespins

LOOK at this notepad I found.

Coolest notepad ever!

How do I love this paper made by Sugarboo Designs? Let me explain the ways—from the old-fashioned notebook paper it’s printed on to the pre-printed inspirational messages at the bottom. Each page includes a perforated stub. Tear off and scatter into the world as you please...tuck one under a pillow or inside a lunchbox, throw one on a dashboard or sneak it into a pocket, string onto a gift or hide inside a book, roll it up and float it out to sea. Anything is possible – Anything can be!

Neat, right?

Sugarboo Design

Three weeks into January, and I’m on track with my #52Letters project. I’ve mailed three handwritten letters:)

“Let your heart dance with pen and paper
Now fill the paper with dancing letters.”
― Debasish Mridha

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Let your heart dance with pen and paper. @ShindigPaperie #52Letters2015 #writemorelovemore[/tweetthis]

P.S. This is not a sponsored post, but I wish it was!

Musical Pairing:

Build Me Up Buttercup, The Foundations

 

Winter garden dream. And GOLD!

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Winter is the perfect time to dream and plan for a spring garden. Did you realize we are halfway through the calendar winter? Yes, although it’s still too soon to plant veggies and flowers (at least in our neck of the Northern Hemisphere), it’s never too soon for moving dirt around. Unless, of course, your dirt is buried under a blanket of snow. Since ours isn’t, we have lots of garden prep work going on at our house. And believe me, since we bought this house in August, we have been itching to work in the yard.

wheelbarrows

Winter isn’t stopping us. Not this week anyway.

To add more interest, we are terracing our sloping backyard. This is the beginning of a stone wall.  (See Lou Holtz supervising? He’s good.)

building a rock wall terrace

We have plans to expand our outside stone dining area, install a sprinkler system and build a fire pit. The Grey Barn is doing the heavy lifting. The Grey Barn, dirt work

Fortunately, the last few days have been dry, otherwise what a mud hole we would have. Mud + Schnauzers = Pigs.

Lucy and Annabelle playing ball

Turning dirt reveals treasures like old broken glass and pieces of pottery. Yesterday I found a cool rock partially buried but glinting in the sunlight. I’m not sure what it is, but it looks interesting. Some sort of ore or mineral?

found in my backyard

If it’s something significant, let me know, and I’ll go dig for more in the backyard. In the meantime until we identify it, I’ll pretend it’s gold. Or a rare lump of Martian meteorite. Or maybe there’s a black diamond hidden inside there.

Whoo-hoo!

Think of how many herbs and plants and trees and seed packets one nugget of gold would buy.

A girl can dream. Even in the dead of winter.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Turning up dirt uncovers lots of treasures. #gardening #winter #waitingforspring[/tweetthis]

“I’m a miner, and I’m always dirty, because I’m constantly digging. Am I shoveling for gold? Hardly. I’m unearthing this hearty land searching for the next great American novel. If I dig deep enough, I’m sure to find it.”
― Jarod Kintz

Musical Pairing:

California Dreamin’ – The Mamas and The Papas

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!