Alright, ladies. First, for the chicken and dumplings (or, Mimi's Chicken and Dumplings) (mimi is my great grandmother)
*salt and pepper your skin on, bone in chicken to taste
*have min 6-8 carrots and same (or 4-6, if you're not a celery person) number celery cut into good sized (like about 2" long) chunks, you want these big enough that the carrots and potatoes aren't mush before the chicken's done...
*have a medium-large to large (but not huge, they start to lose flavor) white onion chunked (like half-half-thirds)
*mince or press 4-6 (or more if you like garlic...)cloves of garlic
*chop about 1 potato per person in 1 1/2 in chunks
Over medium high heat (no lower) brown chicken in oil. Keep brown bits in pan (also called fond), but remove chicken. Throw carrots, celery, onion, and garlic (can put garlic in a little later if you prefer) in the pan and brown. Remove, leaving brown bits, and make gravey. Gravey should be on the thicker side, as it has to support the dumplings when the time comes...also, make sure to make enough that it not only covers the chicken in the dutch oven (did I mention that this is easiest made in a dutch oven?), but leaves a little room above them for the dumplings to "float" above the chicken. Put the "guts" back into the gravey (including now the potatoes and chicken too) and simmer (or as Mimi used to say, "Putsy") for just about an hour. When the carrots and potatoes are JUST about done(done is easily pierced with a fork so that the potatoe breaks in half), make the dumplings with the bisquick (there SHOULD be directions on the box), and put them in the gravey. Mom says she used Jiffy mix and it cooked 12 minutes, but check the bisquick time.
Everyone has their own way of making gravey. Mom and I do it differently...she makes a roux in the pan and then adds the liquid, I simmer the brown bits up with the liquid and then add the roux, whisking it in. I dirty more dishes, but find it more easily controls the thickness.
Now, for your pork roast gravey...crock pots in general create an abundance of liquid...it's how they cook. In general, you can stretch the juice or pan drippings as far as you want by just adding broth to your drippings/juices. Doing this makes for a better depth of flavor to your gravey. However, if you don't have any drippings left (you could save some planning to use it for this purpose), you could just take a couple of pieces of the meat and brown it in a little tiny bit of oil, making some brown bits for the pan, and this definately improves the flavor over not using any meat or meat product at all...so if that's what you have to do, yes, I'd brown the veggies, then the couple of pieces of meat, then pour in the broth and simmer up said brown bits, and then add the roux (oil and flour), while whisking all the time to keep it smooth. Hope that's what you need. Ask if you need clarification anywhere...
We'll see. Of course, this won't be within the scope of the April pantry challenge, as we don't currently have raisins and dates, but it's almost May and I'm almost out of EVERYthing, so I'll be shopping this weekend. But I promise not to buy doubles of anything I already have. Promise. 
I made bread with the rest of my whole wheat flour and bread flour (actually had to go buy yeast; what I had was waaaay out of date, but since it's fridge and not pantry, it's not technically cheating), and we'll have roasted asparagus and fresh pineapple. I am ready to start buying pantry supplies again!
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