Hey all! 😀 I hope spring has finally sprung in your neck of the woods, the sun is shining, the birds are building their summer homes, and everything is bursting into beautiful blooms! It’s been a weird winter here, and spring couldn’t come fast enough for me!

And neither could this month’s Secret Recipe Club assignment! 😀 I’m always so excited to see who I’m assigned to next! It’s like being gifted a whole new cookbook to drool over! And as always, this blogger did not disappoint! I totally cracked up, because the recipe that I chose, was the same one that we had both saved for YEARS off of Pinterest! One of my very first Pinterest pins, as was hers, too!! I always wanted to make this, but for whatever reason, it always took a backseat to something else. So I was crazy-silly-happy to see that she had it on her blog! THIS time, thanks to Ellie, I was not going let it get away! 😉

 

 

 

This month I was assigned to Ellie from The Hobo Kitchen! (Nice to meet you, Ellie! 😀 ) She’s a wonderful cook and baker who was born and raised in the beautiful Bahamas! She moved to the U.S. back in the 90’s at the tender age of 16, and has made her home in a nearby town from me called, Hoboken! Hence where she got her title for her second blog! (Her first one being, ” The Bitchin’ Kitchin’ “!)  Both blogs are chock-full of fantastic recipes! I looked through tons of wonderful appies, desserts, tarts and libations, but the one I kept going back to was the one that made me laugh, because I had done the exact same thing! But others that caught my eye were her recipes for Jamaican Beef Patty Flatbread, Bahamian Conch Fritters (I would so make this if I could get my hands on some conch!),  Belgian White Beer Cupcakes <—- I know, right?!!! , and Chicken Tinga, which I wanted to make, but I’ll have to wait for my homegrown tomatoes this summer for something like that. 😉 Pathetic, pithy-goopy-slimy, anemic, store-bought tomatoes just make me mad. I’ll wait for the good stuff. 😉 (Sorry about that, but there’s no comparison. Grocery store tomatoes are just plain gross.)

Moving on.

On to the recipe that both Ellie and I had been hoarding on Pinterest! (I can’t believe I’m finally making it – – a gazillion pins later!) But better now than never!

And I’m so happy that I FINALLY got a chance to try this! 😀

The ever popular – –  and probably famous by now – – “Crock Pot Balsamic Shredded Beef“.

Now that it’s spring, we’ve had a lot of outside work to do, and I LOVE being able to just toss stuff into the crock pot and have everything done after a long day’s work in the yard, with little to no fuss at all. A nice, hot, melt-in-your-mouth meal that practically makes itself is like having a magic little fairy in your kitchen! (If I can only teach her how to do the dishes…I’d pay her extra to wave her magic wand and dust for me, too.)

This comes together so easily and quickly, that you’re really going to appreciate it, too! I only added a teensy few extra ingredients, and it really turned out fantastic! Minimal ingredients come together in a  snap!

 

 

Then into the old crock pot it goes! (I used my ancient one since I was making a smaller roast for just the two of us.) And that old thing still worked perfectly! 😀 I started everything early in the morning to be on the safe side, though. I didn’t trust it overnight all by itself. 😉

 

 

I turned the roast 3 times, just to get even cooking and so that each side got plenty of that wonderful marinade! When it was tender enough to pull, 8 hours later, I pulled it in the crock, removed the fat as I went along, transferred the meat with a slotted spoon to a bowl, and added 1/4 cup juice just to keep it extra moist. I covered it well, and decided that the juice was too luscious to not use! So I skimmed all of the fat from the top, then boiled it in a small saucepan and reduced it by (at least) half, until it was dark, sinfully rich, and slightly thickened and syrupy! An incredible “balsamic reduction”. 😉

 

 

Then pour all of the reduced and slightly thickened sauce over the meat and toss!

 

 

I even made homemade Stone Ground Rye Rolls with Caraway just for the beef! It was a good idea, too, because it ended up being a match made in tastebud heaven! 😉

 

 

We then decked out our sandwiches with a few extra toppings that made them super fun and absolutely delicious, including kale, a halfway decent tomato sliced, and havarti cheese! SO VERY GOOD!

 

 

So if you’d like to try an excellent pulled beef recipe for sandwiches, or to use as an ingredient in another recipe, this is definitely the one to try! Be sure to take that extra step and reduce the sauce, it’s truly incredible and wouldn’t be the same without it. 😉

 

Thanks for stopping by my blog! And thank you to the Secret Recipe Club for having me, and Ellie for a fantastic new sandwich to make! We will be enjoying these for many years to come! 😀

Please be sure to stop by her blog, The Hobo Kitchen, and check out many more of her wonderful recipes! 😀

Take care all, and have a most beautiful spring day! 😀

 

 

*This recipe was adapted from The Hobo Kitchen.

Yield: 6-8 sandwiches

Crock Pot Balsamic Pulled Beef | The Secret Recipe Club

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 13 hours 50 minutes

Total Time: 13 hours 55 minutes

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Ingredients

• 2 3/4 - 3 lb. beef chuck roast, trim excess outer fat
• 1 cup beef consommé, can sub beef broth or stock
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup good balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbl. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
• 3 cloves finely grated or minced garlic
• 1 Tbl. red wine, (I used a simple cabernet sauvignon)
• 1 Tbl. butter
• split and lightly toasted hard rolls (*I made my [i]Stone Ground Rye Rolls with Caraway[/i] for this)

Optional Toppings:

• havarti cheese slices
• pieces of torn kale
• slices of tomato

Instructions

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the beef consommé, dark brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, salt, red pepper flakes, garlic and red wine.

Add a little marinade to bottom of crock pot, then the chuck roast.

Pour rest of the sauce over the roast. Top with one tablespoon butter. Cover and cook on High for 15 minutes to get it started and heated, then Low for 6-8 hours. (I like to turn my roast three times during the cooking time).

With two forks, pull the roast meat into small chunks or finely shred. (You can remove the roast from the crockpot to do this or you can leave the roast in the crockpot while shredding it.)

I shredded in the pot, removed it with a slotted spoon, and added 1/4 cup of the broth to the pulled meat to keep it moist, covered it, and set aside.

Skim all fat from juice/broth and pour into a small saucepan. Bring to a high boil, and boil until reduced by half, dark and rich, and slightly thickened and syrupy. Pour over pulled meat and toss to coat.

I served ours on homemade rye rolls topped with kale, tomato slices and havarti cheese.

 

 

 

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