As is my usual these days, I combined a few different recipes. The basic idea is to cook a roast (pork or beef or some even said they use chicken parts) with a can of cranberry sauce (some said jellied, some said whole) with an onion or a package of onion soup mix. Some recipes had mustard and cloves added; another had a bit of French salad dressing. Some thickened the gravy with cornstarch on the stove; others thickened it in the crockpot. I mention all this because it sounded like a great flexible recipe. I always like it when I find some “idea” that has morphed into infinite variations.

1 beef roast

1 onion, sliced

1/3 cup Catalina dressing

1 can jellied cranberry sauce

2 Tbs butter, softened

2 Tbs flour

Trim the fat from the roast and put in the crockpot. Put the onion slices on top of the roast.

Mix together the cranberry sauce and dressing and pour over the roast. Cover and cook on low all day, until done. (Or cook half the day on high.)

Remove the roast from the crockpot.

Mix together the butter and flour and whisk into the gravy. Turn the crockpot on high and cover for 10 minutes or so.

Slice the roast in 1/4 slices and serve with the gravy. I served this with mashed potatoes and cooked carrots.

All the variations I found of this were on a freezer-cooking list. Most suggested freezing leftover slices in gravy. One variation, by the way, mentioned that you could do this same sauce with a couple of cans of white beans rather than meat for a vegetarian version.

It was a big hit. Lucky for me, it turned kind of cool tonight and the wind cooked up so this was a perfect meal!