½ cup butter

2 cups powdered sugar

⅓cup (about) brandy

Cream butter with sugar, add brandy, and blend to taste and form. It should be firm, not stiff, at room temperature. It softens on warm plum pudding.

NOTE: If a Lemon Sauce is preferred, substitute the juice of a lemon and a pinch of salt for the brandy.

Della’s Italian Pot Roast (in a Crock-Pot)

4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 6 pieces each

1 package fresh baby carrots (approximately 4 cups)

1 stalk celery, cut into 1-inch pieces, including the leafy tops

2 diced Roma plum tomatoes, with seeds removed

2½ lbs. boneless beef chuck roast

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 cans tomato soup (10¾-ounce can-I prefer plain Campbell ’s tomato soup)

¾ cup water

1 bulb of roasted garlic (see method below)

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar (ONLY white distilled)

TO ROAST GARLIC: place a whole garlic bulb on a piece of aluminum foil and drizzle over it a little extra virgin olive oil and wrap it up. (Twist top of foil to make it look like the garlic bulb is in a little sack.) Roast in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. When it’s soft, open the garlic bulb enough so that you squeeze the roasted garlic out onto a little dish or piece of wax paper or foil. Discard the casing.

Place the potatoes, carrots, celery, and diced Roma tomatoes into the bottom of a Crock-Pot slow cooker. Season the roast with the fresh ground black pepper and place roast on top of vegetables.

In bowl, mix together the tomato soup, water, garlic (squeezed out of the roasted bulb), basil, oregano, parsley flakes, and distilled white vinegar. Pour over the meat and vegetables in the Crock-Pot.

Cover and cook on LOW for 12 hours.

After 12 hours, remove the roast from the Crock-Pot and let it rest for at least 20 minutes before carving. It should be pink inside. I pour the vegetables and the juice (sauce) into a saucepan and reheat just before serving. I ladle some of the hot liquid over the slices of pot roast and vegetables. Serves 6.

NOTE #1: There are likely to still be vegetables and sauce left over after the meat has been consumed. I heat this up in a saucepan and serve in wide-brimmed bowls, like pasta bowls, as a hot vegetable soup lunch, with thick slices of bread for sopping.

NOTE #2: There is, intentionally, no salt in this recipe. There is some salt in the tomato soup, but I don’t salt the roast. When the pot roast slices and vegetables are served, if you feel you want a little salt you can add it then, but taste it first to be sure.

Melinda Wells