Can you do that? See, I haven't cooked roasts much, so I'm terrified of straying from the recipe.

I'm pretty sure you can. Roast beef is pretty hard to screw up. My mother started me making them when she went back to work full time, when I was 11. What are the basics of the recipe?

FYI, in case I drift off on the internets, when you're buying a roast beef, make sure there is a sticker or some sort of mark specifying it is an "oven roast". You don't want to end up with pot roast, but bake it like you would a roast beef, because it will be tough.

Unless the store only has real cheapy cuts, and real expensive cuts, don't buy the cheapest one per pound. But you can get a roast for a much better price than the rib roasts (although they are delicious, when you're looking to blow extra money on food).

You people who keep talking about what you're wearing to Prom are causing me to start making my obsessive Packing List.

My packing list so far is all shoes. This is never good.

vw, what's the recipe?

It gets rubbed with thyme, garlic, salt and pepper, then laid over a bed of onions in beef broth.

Oh, then you use the juices in individual yorshire puddings and a mushroom sauce.

vw, are you going some place that actually has a butcher? If so, ask him what he suggests. You can get some good roasts in the general sirloin family (sirloin tip, tri-tip, sirloin butt) that are a little less tender and a lot less per pound. Your best friend is a meat thermometer.

It gets rubbed with thyme, garlic, salt and pepper, then laid over a bed of onions in beef broth.

No problem. Where are you going shopping? I'll look up the store and help you find a decent oven roast.

edited to ditto what Ginger said about the meat thermometer.

What's fun to do with a roast is cook it on a rack and collect the juices underneath, then roast the potatoes underneath the meat, in the juices. If you time it right, you can still use the juice to make gravy too. Mmm, gravy.

Where are you going shopping?

The Super Stop and Shop on McGrath Highway. I don't trust the local Star Market.

I'm gonna talk to the butcher there, though, and see what he suggests. I'm not gonna actually buy it till Saturday, so... I'm just trying to be prepared in case I need a Plan B.

edited to ditto what Ginger said about the meat thermometer.

But, but! Then your roast won't be red and raw and dripping on the inside. Or maybe it's just my family who like to taste the heart still beating.

In that case, vw, you can ask him to cut the size you need and pick it up Saturday.