Slow-Cooker Tzimmes — The Pot Roast That Keeps Coming Home

Memorial Day. The fourth one as a wife. The third as a mother. The first during a pandemic. Ryan was at the Pendleton ceremony. I stood in the crowd — masked, distanced, holding Caleb — and watched. The formation. The flag. The names. The silence. Caleb was quiet again. He's always quiet during ceremonies. Twenty months old and he's already learned the reverence. Or maybe he just knows that Mama is holding him differently — tighter, stiller — and that means this moment matters. After the ceremony, we barbecued. Just us — no group cookout this year, pandemic restrictions. Ryan grilled. I made sides. The usual Memorial Day spread: his burgers, my potato salad, Mom's baked beans, coleslaw. I called Dad. The same call, every year. 'Happy Memorial Day, Dad.' 'Same to you, kiddo. How's Ryan?' 'Good. He was at the ceremony.' 'Tell him —' He paused. 'Tell him his country's grateful.' Not 'I'm grateful.' 'His COUNTRY'S grateful.' Because Dad doesn't speak for himself on Memorial Day. He speaks for the country. He speaks for the men who didn't come home. The book is on my mind every day now. Chapter Two is underway: 'Lejeune.' The marriage, the deployment, the pregnancy, the PPD, the cooking that saved me. It's the hardest chapter because it's the most personal. The bathroom floor. The 4 PM emptiness. The crockpot chicken that was all I could manage. Clara says, 'Write the hard parts. The hard parts are why people read.' The hard parts. The deployment. The depression. The parking lot goodbyes. The silence of an empty apartment. I'm writing them. At 5 AM, in the dark, with Mom's binder on the counter and the smell of yesterday's dinner in the air. Made Mom's pot roast tonight. The Sunday classic. The deployment classic. The book-chapter-about-deployment classic. The pot roast appears in three chapters so far. It keeps showing up, the way it keeps showing up in life — persistent, warm, the food that says 'you're home' regardless of where home is. Memorial Day. Pot roast. A ceremony and a barbecue and a phone call to a veteran father. We remember. We cook. We write it down.

Mom’s pot roast doesn’t have a fancy name in her binder — it’s just “Sunday roast,” scrawled in her handwriting next to a coffee ring stain. But the version I’ve made my own over these years of cookouts, deployments, and 4 PM silences is a slow-cooker tzimmes: beef, sweet potatoes, carrots, dried fruit, and honey, all braising together for hours until the whole apartment smells like something safe. It’s the recipe I reach for when I need the crockpot to do the work while I write the hard parts. It’s the one that was waiting on the counter when Ryan came home, and the one I made the night I started Chapter Two.

Slow-Cooker Tzimmes

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 8 hours | Total Time: 8 hours 20 minutes | Servings: 6–8

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 to 3 lbs beef chuck roast
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 cup pitted prunes
• 1/2 cup dried apricots
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/2 cup fresh orange juice (about 2 oranges)
• 1/4 cup low-sodium beef broth
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar

Instructions

1. Sear the beef. Pat the chuck roast dry and season all over with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sear the roast 3–4 minutes per side until a deep brown crust forms. Transfer to the slow cooker.
2. Build the base. Scatter the carrots, sweet potatoes, prunes, and apricots around and over the roast in the slow cooker.
3. Mix the braising liquid. In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, orange juice, beef broth, cinnamon, ginger, and brown sugar. Pour evenly over the meat and vegetables.
4. Slow cook. Cover and cook on LOW for 7–8 hours, or on HIGH for 4–5 hours, until the beef is fork-tender and pulls apart easily.
5. Shred and finish. Transfer the beef to a cutting board and shred into large chunks with two forks. Return the meat to the slow cooker and stir gently to coat in the braising juices. Taste and adjust salt as needed.
6. Serve. Ladle into bowls or over mashed potatoes, egg noodles, or rice. Spoon plenty of the sweet braising liquid and fruit over each portion.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 415 | Protein: 34g | Fat: 13g | Carbs: 42g | Fiber: 5g | Sodium: 370mg