Big Flavor

Now that we are deep into Fall, I found myself at the store today with a hankering for a roast.  I do not often cook roasts, but today it sounded good.  Recently, I was looking at a promising recipe for pot roast and although we are not huge pot roast fans, I thought I would try it out.  Unfortunately, there was not a pot roast to be had at the grocery store.  Strange?  So after wandering around, I landed on a pork roast: specifically something called an End Rib Roast.  I had never heard of it before, but it looked like a good piece of meat.  I decided to cook it pot roast style and WOW.  Let me say, this was one of the best roasts I have tasted.  Very moist, lots of flavor.  The kids even loved it.  The little one ate his weight in carrots.  The older one loved the potatoes.  The cool thing is: they both got a hearty dose of veggies (because I never make mashed potatoes with *just* potatoes)!  We're not usually slab-o-meat kind of eaters, but every once in awhile, it's a nice change.  Here's the whole meal:

Danielle's Pork Roast
2-1/2 lb roast
1 medium onion roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic roughly chopped
salt/pepper/italian seasoning/red pepper flakes
olive oil
1 cup chicken broth
2 celery stalks
2(ish) cups of carrots
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Place pork in deep oven-safe dish with lid, drizzle with olive oil, rub with a heavy dose of salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and a few red pepper flakes.
3. Pour chicken broth in with pork (around edges, not over the top).
4. Sprinkle onion and garlic over pork and around side.
5. Cover and bake for one hour.
6. Remove lid, add carrots and celery, replace lid, bake for another 40 minutes or until pork reaches temperature (mine had one of those nifty pop-up things).
7. Move dish up one level in oven and broil for about 3-4 minutes until the top is browned.
8. Let roast rest covered for a few minutes.

Suped-Up Mashed Potatoes
4 medium/large yukon gold potatoes
1 large parsnip
1 sweeet potato
1 cup sour cream
2 Tbls butter
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1. Peel and boil potatoes, parsnip together (I threw in the extra cup of chicken broth left over from the can used above).
2. Drain, put back in pot.
3. Add butter, sour cream and cheese.  Mash to desired consistency.

Gravy
2 Tbls butter
2 Tbls flour
1-1/2 cups liquid from roast/veggie dish
1. Melt butter in small saucepan.
2. Add flour, bring to a boil while whisking.
3. Slowly whisk in liquid.  Bring to a boil, boil gently until gravy thickens.