LPBeier, no issue with pastry here, I'm killer at it. My Home Ec teacher in grade 8 was astonished at how perfect my raspberry turnovers were when everyone else had hard nasty pastry. I firmly believe its all because I'm terminally lazy and don't work the dough too much! Now the choux...well...if you can teach me the Hallelujah chorus will go up all over the continent!
As for the pot roast...get a fatty piece of meat, or only do it for a few hours as opposed to all day. Mostly, again, ignoring it is the key.
Sorry, Alix, I got mixed up - I think it was Kades needing help with pastry but she got it. I was lousy at pastry until I went to school.
I have even tried your recipe for pot roast....twice and it didn't work. The meat I have used has been fatty and I do ignore it. Well, will just have to keep trying!
The main point of choux is that you have to add your eggs in after it has cooled a bit AND you need a lot of arm power to stir it until the right consistency. I will send you my recipe and method.