What is Mobic or? Tylenol is fine for me, but anything that affects kidneys is an issue. This year, I was planning on some salad greens, but because the harvests require me to go down on my knees too much, I decided against it, in favor of broccoli and cukes, stringbeans, and a grape tomato type I loved last year. The tomatoes were the best and sweetest tasting of any I have ever tasted and were 1000% better tasting compared to the cherry types right next to them. I saved seeds from the grape tomatoes and had a 100% germination from the seeds. The plants are now more than a foot tall, just waiting to get outside. Since before the hospital stay, I had small sore spot on my upper left thigh. Last night, I rubbed across it and felt something very hard. Looked at it in the mirror and saw a black spot there. Grabbed a tissue and pulled it off, and it moved! It was a tick, that had been on me for a few weeks and was really hanging onto my skin and hurting. It left a 1/2 diameter red welt there, thats sore too. I rubbed the area with alcohol and put on Bacitracin. I was also wondering about Lyme disease! Now I have to figure out what to use in the garden that can repel or kill ticks.

The key is long, slow, low heat with just a little added moisture. Too hot a temp will toughen the meat, too much juice will stew the meat and rob the meat of some of its flavor. Just did this last week--the amounts are 'eyeballed', not measured. The cut was some rump roast, which can be a little dry; chuck would be better, but this turned out very good: Preheat oven to 300. Cut up some onions, celery and carrots (roughly 2 parts onion, 1 part each celery and carrot--you're making what the French would called a mirepoix). Put about half the mirepoix in the bottom of a Dutch oven or casserole along with a bay leaf or two. Brown the meat in a skillet and put it in the Dutch oven on top of the veggies. Season with salt and pepper and whatever else you like to use--garlic, red pepper, whatever. Strew the rest of the vegetables around and on top of the meat. Add a little liquid--about a cup of chicken broth would do fine. (You're braising this, not stewing this; you don't want the meat swimming in liquid.) Put the lid on the Dutch oven. If you want to be traditional, you can make up a stiff paste of about half flour and half water, and make it into a 'caulk' to seal the lid to the Dutch oven. Put in the oven and leave the heck alone for 4 hours. You can instead use aluminum foil to help seal the pot; get a piece somewhat bigger than the opening of the pot, cover it, and indent it a little so the foil makes a shallow inverted cone. Put the lid over this piece of foil. Vapors will collect, condense and drip down on the meat. After about 4 hours, break the seal, remove the meat, drain the juices from the vegetables and make a sauce or gravy with the juices. The vegetables will be pretty mushy, and you may want to toss them; they'll have given up their goodness for a noble cause.

The thing about words like "gravy", "sauce", "salsa" and "mole" is that they take on local characters to mean something rather specific when all of those words really just mean liquidy stuff to pour over food. Calling it "au jus" is more about the 100+ years of the sandwich famously being described as "au jus", than about it accurately being sauce au jus de viande. One of the restaurants which claims to have created it, Phillippe's (a few blocks from the other one), gave this recipe to Food Network, though I don't know if that's how they actually make theirs. Au jus, is a noun in American English. You will often hear people ask for "more au jus", or ask to "warm up the au jus". One of the origin stories was that the roll fell into the pan drippings at the carving station while a man was getting a beef sandwich and he said he was fine with the wet roll. Another version was that he complained that the bread was stale or too hard, so they dunked it in the juices to soften it. Still another version was that the guy just wanted the drippings so asked to have them soak up on his bread. They say it got the name because customers who saw it would ask to have the roll dipped "like Frenchy does," referring to Mr. Phillippe, who, being French, probably also inaugurated calling it "au jus". Thus, he probably just meant "with the juice", period. At the other place that claims to have invented it, Cole's, they say it was dipped in the juices for a guy with bad teeth who couldn't bite and chew the roll. I could believe that they did make sandwiches with drippings, too, but it makes the most sense that the name of the sandwich, and the "au jus" to dip it in, came from Frenchy's, which is what customers used to call Phillippe's. Whichever, that first French dip sandwich was literally dipped in the jus de viande. I wouldn't think many had been since, since, as you say, there isn't that much juice to be had, especially if you skim it.

Here is my favorite recipe that I posted on All Recipes. You need a heavy pot with a heavy lid for the best success making this recipe. A Le Creuset French oven is what I use. Make sure you sear the meat the full times mentioned and *do not* add any liquid. Beef Pot Roast Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 2 Hours Servings: 8 "This is the best and easiest recipe for pot roast I have ever tried. It is best to make it a day ahead. Serve with oven roasted vegetables, potatoes, carrots, onions, or your favorite side dish." ~ Teresa Beef Pot Roast 2 teaspoons olive oil 4 pounds boneless chuck roast 1 onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 bay leaves 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). 2. Heat a heavy Dutch oven on top of the stove over medium high heat. Add oil, and sear meat in the center of the pan for 4 minutes. Turn meat over with tongs; sear all sides for 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Remove meat from pan. Arrange onion, garlic, and 1 bay leaf in the bottom of the pan, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Return meat to pan, place remaining bay leaf on top of meat, and cover. 3. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Reduce the heat to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C), and cook for 1 1/2 hours. Remove roast to a platter to rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Slice, and top with onions and gravy.