Italian Beef

Place in crock pot:

3-4 pound boneless beef roast, round or rump (I like bottom round best)
2-3 onions, thinly sliced (to taste, lots is good)
½ of 12 oz. jar pepperoncinis (or mild banana peppers) and ½ the liquid from the jar.
1 envelope Italian dressing mix
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
½ can beer (6 oz.)
Water, about ¼ c.

Cook 10 – 12 hours on low. (Can cook 7 hours on high, but low is better as high tends to make the beef not want to shred. TIP-slice onions the night before and have all ingredients ready to roll so you can put this on to cook before or while fixing breakfast!)

Pull roast out after cooking and shred with forks. If using pepperoncinis, remover stems and most of seeds and chop. Put all back in crock pot and mix. Serve on buns.
Really good on toasted Kaiser rolls and topped with Muenster cheese (melt cheese on top side of bun after toasting).

Because this makes a lot, I often freeze about half of the recipe. To serve I just defrost in refrigerator, then heat up the amount I need at the time.

This recipe became a favorite as soon as I made it for my family. A co worker at the Social Security Administration, Sandy Mack, gave me this recipe. Our unit there was staffed by wonderful cooks and when we would celebrate birthdays or holidays, good food was definitely in abundance. The other work units were always glad to come in after the 8:00 a.m. parties and help devour the leftovers.

Probably the memory about this recipe that really makes me smile is my nephew, James', reaction to it. We were visiting my sister and her family in Waynesboro, Georgia ("Bird Dog Capital of the World") and I made this for dinner one night. (I think one of the reasons my sister likes me to visit is that I'm always ready to cook some of the meals. Hey-I love to cook and she still works outside the home, so why not?) Anyway, this dish is, shall I say, very "aromatic." James, who was about 8 or 9 at the time, came into the kitchen from another area of the house and as he did so, holding his nose, said rather suspiciously in a very nasal tone, "What's that smell?!?" It just cracked those of us in the kitchen up! Now that is one of our favorite phrases!