Pot Roast with Fruit

This was only the second roast I've ever made in my slow cooker, so I think I still have a lot to learn about slow cooking a roast. The flavors turned out great; I mean, it's really hard to go wrong with peaches! I just think I cooked the roast a little too long. It wasn't tough -- just very done.

I based this roast on the "Easy Pot Roast" recipe in Better Homes & Gardens' 30 minute meals cookbook which calls for a refrigerated cooked beef pot roast. Figuring that a cooked pot roast costs more than a raw one, I decided to pay my lonely slow cooker some attention and cook that roast myself! I had the day off, so why not? Usually Hubby and I arrive home from work and school at the same time, around dinner-time, and neither of us like the idea of losing precious sleep in the morning to put together a meal in the slow cooker. When you wake up at 4:30 AM, every minute counts!

Ingredients
1 ~17 oz. beef pot roast
1 Tbsp butter or margarine
2 Tbsp minced shallots
   (I used chopped onions instead because I buy them frozen!)
1/4 cup water or broth
   (I used chicken broth left over from the previous day's chicken toss.)
2 Tbsp tarragon vinegar
   (I used rice vinegar because that's what I had on hand. Here is how to make your own tarragon vinegar.)
2 cups fresh, pitted fruit cut into wedges
   (Such as peaches, green plums, &/or red plums. I just used peaches.)
1 tsp snipped fresh tarragon or about 1/2 tsp dried
Hot cooked noodles
   (BH&G recommends spaetzle, but I used whole wheat rotini.)

Instructions
1. Place roast in slow cooker with shallots/onions and water/broth. Cook on high for 3 hours or until it's as done as you would like. Mine was well done after the first 3 hours. eHow has a great pot roast article for more particulars.

2. Add fruit and vinegar. Cook for 1 additional hour on low.

Delightful peaches ready to be slow cooked!

3. Serve over cooked pasta. Sprinkle with tarragon. Peachy!

In case you didn't notice...I actually forgot the tarragon....

I have a nice bag of spinach leaves left over from the "focaccia" recipe, so I made myself a little salad to go with the roast. To top it off, I shredded some cheddar cheese, chopped a carrot, and sprinkled it with sliced almonds. We usually eat our salads with nuts instead of croutons because the recipe for which we buy the nuts never seem to use up the whole bag, and apparently we can't keep croutons in our kitchen (because I eated them....)

The BEST part of our salads is our homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing from Emeril's recipe. You probably already have all the necessary ingredients! We store ours in an empty glass bottle from a store-bought dressing.