Three Meat Dish

I love when a plan comes together. Christmas week was both wonderful and tiring. Wonderful because we spent the week with the ones that mean so much to us- our families and tiring because of all the cooking, cleaning and ensuring everyone was well entertained.

We started the week on Monday night with a long and late night’s drive to my folks house. The weather was supposed to get bad Tuesday morning, so we decided at the last moment to leave the night before. Tuesday was filled with lots of cooking for the Baldwin Family Christmas Eve Dinner.

I made a Southern Red Velvet Cake, Sweet Potato Casserole and a Corn Bread Casserole for Christmas Eve dinner. There were lots of presents opened Christmas Eve when my brothers and their families arrived and my niece and I spent some of the night practicing on her crocheting (part of her present that Charlie and I gave her was a crochet hook, yarn and a pretty basket to place everything in. She’s been begging her Auntie Lane to teach her how to crochet.)

Christmas morning my mother made her traditional Christmas pancakes and we all relaxed, joked and told old stories all morning long. Charlie and I had to leave later on that afternoon to drive back up north to Jeff City, because the McConnell crew was headed up to our house Friday night for family Christmas on Saturday.

I spent Friday cleaning the house, setting up the holiday table decorations and making pies. I make a lot of things the night before, so I could actually enjoy myself and not have as much to cook the day of the dinner.

Friday Charlie parents (Josefa and Raymond) plus his two twin nephews Michael and Stephen arrived. We did a simple grilled dinner that night (lamb chops, sirloin steak and chicken.)

Saturday went easier than I expected it would. Since most of the food was prepared (not cooked, just mixed up and in a dish) the day was very easy. You can tell from the Christmas Dinner Menu it was pretty extensive, but with some time put in the day before even this menu was easy. Charlie's sister and family came on up Saturday afternoon as well.

The Three Meat Dish was incredible. I could not even believe how tasty, tender and amazing it was. There were no leftovers at all! My gal pal Michelle, from Down on the Dairy called me about cooking this dish, so I thought it would be the first recipe I share from the Christmas Dinner menu. This is an easy meal, because you stick it all in a pan, cover and let it cook away. I think it’s important to use good meat though. With any meat – the dish will only be as good as the meat is.

Three Meat Dish
1 beef roast, about 2 lbs.
1 chicken, about 2-3 lbs.
1 ham or pork roast, about 2 lbs.
2 cups of dry white wine
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup of fresh parsley, chopped very coarse
2 cups of carrots, chopped rustic
2 cups of celery, chopped rustic, plus all the leaves
4 bay leaves
2 small onions, chopped coarsely
Garlic powder, lots of it
1 tsp. dried basil
½ tsp. pepper

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a large roasting pan place half the celery, onions, carrots and parsley. Lay all three meats side by side on top of the freshly cut veggies. Add your liquids (chicken broth and wine). Place the rest of the veggies in the dish around and on top of the meats. Sprinkle the pepper, dried basil and bay leaves all around the dish. Then, take about 4 T. of garlic powder and sprinkle all over the meat. (This is a lot I know, but is key to the great taste of the meat.)

Cover the entire dish tightly with alumni foil. When I say tight, I mean tight! You don’t want any steam to get out.

For the pounds of meat that I have listed in this recipe your cook time will be about 4 ½ hours to 5 hours. This will all depend up on the pounds of meat you are cooking though! The meat is done when you can stick a fork in it and the meat falls apart! Cooking this dish slow on low heat is very important.

* You can also add potatoes to the dish as well.
* All three meats need to be around the same size, except the chicken can be a little larger. * Depending on how many you will be serving will depend on the size of your meats. I think the ham is the most delicious out of all three of the meats, but trust me they are all very good.
* This recipe won’t disappoint you!