Roast and bread and farro salad.

On Sunday, I tore two recipes out of the January issue of Food and Wine Magazine. I'm not a religious menu planner, but decided on a little culinary discipline this week, thus curbing my ridiculous grocery expenses.  I grabbed my eco-friendly insulated shopping bags and headed out for the 45 minute drive to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods.

I bought a few things.

I would like to congratulate the marketing/product design department at TJ's for this one. But folks, don't throw away your butter.  This is a tub of white moist clay looking substance that kind of passes for a mixture of fat free butter substitute and fat free cream cheese with a little salt. Not so swell.

Now this.  I absolutely love this cheese. Love it plain, with apples, with crackers... whatever. A friend of mine eats it on Shortbread cookies. 

and I bought these:

Cherries, which I've been dying to cook with since I had the duck with cherries at Square One in Hendersonville.  My favorite Balsamic Vinegar. Potatoes for the roast.  I love trying different potatoes.  

And Dynamo. It's packed with vitamins. (And they put it right inside the door...) I also bought a beautiful 2.5 lb chuck roast from Whole Foods and raided the cheese remnant basket and came home with these:

The Uniekaas Reserve was an afterthought at the urging of a fellow cheese lover and it was fabulous!  It looks like cheese rind  but tastes smooth and rich and salty.

So Monday night I made a giant, crazy delicious roast and yesterday I made bread to go with it since we're going to be eating leftovers for a couple more days, at the very least.  And what could be better than sopping up roast juice with fresh baked bread?!

I used the Tyler Florence's baguette recipe from FoodNetwork.com, though I always tweak it here and there.  I swear to pete there are very few things better than bread straight out of the oven. 

The roast recipe.

Which earned a two thumbs up from the husband 

who said he thought it was the best roast he had ever eaten.  

I used a Rachael Ray dish and cooked it covered on 225 degrees for about 4 hours.   

Between picture editing, emails, housework... (Facebook and Pinterest...) yesterday, I made this:

I've never used Farro before. 

It's in the wheat family and used a lot in Italian cooking. 

I found it at Whole Foods. 

 It required 8 hours of soaking. And then I boiled it like pasta until it was al dente (way less than the 35 minutes the recipe called for).

Finished salad. Super yum.

This concludes my efforts in the kitchen for the week!  

Visiting a Flat Rock Wood Room on Thursday and Sierra and I tried out the Duke's Hot Dog place on the Swamp Rabbit Trail in Travelers Rest yesterday after school, so that review is coming soon too. Have a great day!