Saurbraten with spaetzle!

This was my first big project of the New Year. My common-law mother-in-law made some delicious saurbraten for Christmas dinner (I got to eat leftovers - yum!) and it inspired me to go off my normal no-beef diet and make one of my favorite dishes of all time. Maybe it tasted better because I haven't had it in years - that was probably part of it. It's very time consuming and a bit labor-intensive, but not difficultso much. And it's worth it!

I used THIS RECIPE FOR SAURBRATEN, from Grouprecipes.com user bondc.

CLH TIPS: I froze the meat upon coming home from the grocery store. When I thought I'd be ready to make saurbraten in 4 days, I put it on the calender then made the marinade. The worst part of the entire process was cutting the fat off of the roast. Blegh. And raw beef smells grody; sorry, it does. But then plopped the roast in the marinade and went on my merry way. 4 days later I was ready to follow the recipe.

For the SPAETZLE I USED THIS RECIPE from Allrecipes.com user Rhonda Story.

CLH tips: I say whatever and puh puh to the idea of buying a spaetzle press. My wise sister-out-law once told me that Alton Brown once told her never to buy a kitchen implement that has only one use. I also didn't have a ton of luck with the grater-method suggested by the author of the above recipe. But guess what - instead of getting frustrated (and by that I mean after getting frustrated and terrified) I just tore the dough into rough little bits and threw them in the boiling water - and the spaetzle came out frreaking awesome! Just do it dudes!