In the last few months the 8 broads have been having discussions about dinner. Is anyone surprised that we spend our free time talking about food? We were putting together our editorial schedule for the Innkeeping Quarterly and thought the topic of … “What’s for dinner” might be interesting. What was interesting was the response from the 8 of us! “What dinner???” “You are kidding, right?” “We are lucky if we make a sandwich!” “Does dinner at Fenz ( a local restaurant) count?”
The bottom line is, . … we innkeepers are really not good at taking care of ourselves! From the first ring of the alarm clock…. (can you hear strains of Good Morning America) to the colored bars of “ gone off the air” we are guest focused. We do far more than cook breakfast and arrange afternoon tea which leaves innkeeper dinner for me (and my spouse/family) languishing in never never land.
It is interesting.. a few years ago in New England I was at a session at one of the regional conferences and Rick Wolf of the The B&B Team was talking about his afternoon as an innkeeper.. how he and his wife would stop at 4pm, mix a cocktail and sit on the patio and talk about the day. You know how you envy your neighbors for that Caribbean cruise in January that docks in Tortolla??? Well, that was me listening to Rick. Sitting on my patio at 4pm with Werner is like.. well, a retirement dream!
Anyway, back to life at the Inn. How many of you are innkeepers who are raising children at the same time? I know you are out there! We were unusual at the time. .. (read 1986!) many of our peers were “retiring” into innkeeping. We were all of 30 yrs old.. we were starting a career with 3 preschoolers.. who, indecently , needed fed on a regular basis.
So that is the premise (sorry.. long!) for this post. Dinner. I do dinner. At the moment I have 3 “20 somethings” living in my house. All 3 work outdoors during the day. One is the son of my dear friend from college (hi Annie!!! We love Matt!) and 2 are my sons (Lukas and Jason don’t like me mentioning them in these articles…. ) The 3 of them work outdoors, one is an arborist climbing trees all day, one works in landscaping.. walkways, etc, and one works in sustainable farming… pork, beef and lamb. They work long hours and come home hungry. They are also an appreciative audience. I can make new stuff without the “what is this” attitude. They are charter members of the clean plate club!
So.. whats for dinner? Tonight I am making an eye of round roast according to a technique I found online that bakes it for half an hour at 475F. yes.. that hot… then …. You turn off the oven and wait 2 ½ hours. Wow. You really want to try this one!
Sides are buttered red beets (ok, not everyone’s favorite) with garlic mashed golden potatoes.
One thing I can tell you.. there will not be many leftovers. The great thing about cooking for hungry people is that they are very very forgiving. Fortunatly, this one needs no forgiving. It is a winner.
I guess what I am trying to say here is.. as innkeepers or as working people in general, it is really important that we learn to take care of ourselves, cook good meals and relax. Meals do not need to be fussy to be good. Especially in the summer when we have great freshness at our disposal it is not that hard to make a great meal for you and yours without depleting more of who you are.
Here is a toast to us. Involved working people. Innkeepers, and everyone else!! .. who works to make a living. Taking care of yourself and those you live with has a huge payback.
Zum Wohl!
High Temperature Eye Roast
1 4-5lb Eye Roast (I used 2 pieces.. that added up to about 4.5lb.s)
steak seasoning ( I used the Weber Grill one but any steak seasoning will work)
Preheat your oven to 500F ( I know, I know. .. but yes.. 500!)
Rub the roast(s) generously with whatever rub you choose.
Put the roast into a baking pan/dish and put into the oven.
Turn the oven back to 475F
Bake/Roast at this temp for 25 min
Turn the oven OFF… yep.. off!!
and .. this is the good part.. let it sit there for 2 1/2 hours
Do not open the oven to peak! It will be fine.
I left mine for 3 hrs because I got caught up with guests, and it was perfect. I mean.. ..PERFECT
who would have thought.
Let me know how it works for you but man, this is going into my once a week kind of recipes.
Slice and serve!
(sorry that I don’t have a picture but I will make it again this week and add one! ) picture.. pink centered roast beef. YUM.
Lancaster County PA Broad
Deb, this is so great! I want to stop what I'm doing, run to the store, buy an eye round and try this. Think the guests will mind if breakfast is a little delayed?
My Dad loved to cook outside. His favorite was to take an eye round and drill a hole through the middle. In that hole he would put a stick of pepperoni and then put it on the rotisserie. I can still taste that! Delish!