My Crock Pot is on Crack...

I seriously think it is! If not crack, then it at least has a heavy caffeine addiction going on. Meet my crock pot:
Innocent and unassuming. That is until you ask it to cook something. Then it becomes hopped-up demon crock pot that cooks everything TWICE as fast as the directions say, and TWICE as fast as any crock pot I have ever seen or used. When I relayed this info to a friend last night she told me it seems to be an issue with oval-shaped crock pots.

I was determined not to let it get the better of me this time. I had a beef pot roast thawing, I was in kind of a hurry when I was putting the ingredients together yesterday morning, so it was still a lil' frozen when I put it in, which I have read you should never, ever do with a crockpot - but everybody does it anyway. I didn't think it would matter since I knew about my "slow" cooker's drug habit, I figured it could handle a frozen roast. I was set on watching the roast VERY carefully this time so it would not be over cooked, plus I figured since it was frozen there is really no way it could cook too fast.

So I assembled and cut the veggies, celery, baby carrots, onions, and fresh garlic:

I covered the veggies with about 2 cups of water and added salt and pepper.

Then on goes the meat. Since I didn't have much time, I didn't bother to sear it in a skillet beforehand, although in hindsight think it would have been a good idea to lock in some of the moisture:

I rubbed the top with thyme, crushed rosemary, black pepper and sea salt (also, in hindsight, I should have added 1/2 the spices to the water so the gravy would have turned out a little more flavorful).
Soooo...because I was somewhat short on time I resolved to let it cook for 4 hours on high (most recipes say 6 hours on high or 8 hours on low). Well, around the 3 hour mark I started to feel sleepy, The Little Princess was down for her nap and I wanted one too. I had been folding laundry all morning and afternoon, I "deserved" one, hehehe. So here is how my reasoning went: I will turn it down to low and that will give me an extra hour to sleep (yes, amazingly The Little Princess naps for about 3 hours in the afternoon). A total of 3 hours on high and two hours on low. Sounds reasonable, right?

Well, I slept the whole 2 hours, and actually was awakened by Dear Husband arriving home from work. I immediately checked the crock pot...and it is like it knew I was out of commission and decided to take an extra dose when I wasn't looking! I could tell the meat was going to be overdone...but at this point it was just too late in the game to do anything about it. Crock pot demon drug fiend had won again...

Oh well, there is no crying in cooking, so on to making the gravy. I poured the veggies and juice into a metal mesh strainer placed in a large sauce pan, the water with the drippings from the meat produced about 3 cups of liquid.

Next, since I had a little more liquid than I was anticipating, I dissolved about 6 TBSP. of cornstarch and 1 TBSP of flour in a little bit of water, using my handy-dandy Pampered Chef Mini-Whipper to make sure it was completely dissolved. Then I added the mixture to the warm (NOT HOT!!!) pan of drippings. I turned on the heat and brought the gravy to a boil, whisking constantly with the mini-whipper:

The gravy thickens when it starts to cool (I like a thicker than average gravy).

So here is the finished meal, I also made instant mashed potatoes to go with it. The meat was a little dry and it shredded when I tried to slice it, but it was still pretty tasty with the seasonings. The flavor of the gravy was a little lacking (see my note about seasonings above), but the texture was perfect. Even though the meal didn't turn out "perfect" by my standards, it was still pretty yummy.

As for my crock pot? I think it is time for an intervention...

-Diana, The Ivy Kitchen