Grandma's Pot Roast

This is such a basic recipe, but SO good to have on a cold weekend night. The trick seems to be in two things: browning the meat first, and using the Pampered Chef Deep Covered (Stone) Baker dish. My mom has made beef jerky instead of pot roast a few times when using different but high quality dishes, so if you have the stoneware, you are probably in better shape. Here is what I do:

Grandma's Pot Roast
Beef or Chuck Roast Meat, not sure how big but pretty decent size
Packet of Dry Onion Soup Mix
Potatoes (Yukon or Red or those one-bite potatoes are yummy)
Onion, roughly chopped
Carrots (I usually use a bag of baby carrots)

Olive oil for browning
salt and pepper

Preheat the onion to 300. Get the meat out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you start working on it. Open it, salt and pepper it and then throw it in a skillet with some preheated olive oil (just a splash) and brown it on all sides. You aren't cooking it really, just getting some nice color and texture on the outsides. Meanwhile, chop your onion, potatoes and carrots if needed. It will probably take 7-10 minutes per side to brown. Transfer the meat to your baking dish, and then fill in your veggies all around the meat where they will fit. I usually go onions on the bottom, then potatoes and then carrots, but you can do whatever you like. I then sprinkle the onion soup mix over the top of everything and bake for 2.5 to 3.5 hours or so. I wish I would remember one of these times, but it may be interesting to toss the veggies with the onion soup mix and then add them all around. What I do seems to work, though. You will be able to smell when it is done. Let the meat stand for 10 minutes or so before serving. Mmmmmm....