Cooking & Baking with Brittany

While I was home I decided to have some friends over for dinner & game night. While I was making the meal a friend asked me to take pictures and blog about the dinner. This post is about my adventures in the kitchen!

I decided to make a pot roast with carrots, onions, and potatoes for dinner and a chocolate mousse cheesecake for dessert.

I have a crock pot which I love so I used that for my pot roast.

1. I cut up potatoes into small chunks, cut up an onion and poured a half a bag of carrots onto the bottom of the crock pot. 
2. Take roast and cover with flour, salt, and pepper. 
3. Sear the roast in a pan with some olive oil. Here is a link to a video which shows you how to do it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3khonZqxOw
4. Then I put my roast on top of the vegetables. I bought 4 lbs for 6 people and it was the perfect amount. 
5. Then I put a 2 bottles of beer and 2 cans of french onion soup (campbells) on top. I probably could have gone without a bottle of beer or can of soup because I had lots of extra gravy. If you want to make mashed potatoes with the meal skip putting potatoes on the bottom and make them later. 
6. Cook on low for 10 hours. I cooked it on high for 3 hours and then low for about 7. It depends on how big of a roast you make. If you check it halfway through and find that it is not cooking how you would like it do then you can turn it up for a few hours. 

                                                          Pot Roast when it first went in

                                                 Pot Roast after a few hours

                                                   

I did not get a picture of the pot roast when it was all cooked because I was trying to get everything served while it was still hot. I can tell you that everything was delicious which means something because I am my own worst critic.

With dinner we also had caesar salad and crescent rolls. 

Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake
http://www.mangiodasola.com/2010/02/chocolate-mousse-cheesecake.html

The cheesecake recipe came from Pinterest and I have included the link above. The following is just a brief overview of the recipe with pictures. I am not including every step. To get the full recipe please go to the website listed above.

1.  The first step was to make the crust which was crushed Oreos combined with some butter. 

2. Get a spring form pan 

 3. Pour in crumbled cookies and press them firmly into the bottom of the pan

 4. Start combining ingredients for cheesecake filling & preheat oven

 5. Put cheesecake in oven for 1 hour and 15-30 mins

 6. Once cheesecake is cooked leave in oven for 1 hour then remove and let cool to room temperature before putting in refrigerator for 4 or more hours. 

 7. Once the cheesecake has chilled for at least 4 hours start making mousse for the next layer. I used Bakers chocolate for the mousse and used a knife to chop it. 

 Chocolate finely chopped 

 Chocolate melted and ready for next step

 Eggs after they have been whisked 

 Final product

Final product side view 

The cheesecake was time consuming but was worth every minute. It tasted amazing and I will definitely be making it again in the future. If you spend the time preparing everything before you start or while you wait for the cheesecake to chill, you will save yourself a lot of time. The cheesecake could have used more time in the fridge/freezer but it was already 9:30 by the time I finished it so I just served it not completely chilled.

What is your favorite meal to make when you have guest? I would love to know.