Mary Ate a Little Lamb

I use my photo file as a screen saver for my lapto and I spotted these lamb shanks I made back in October. I did a search through the old blog and couldn't find any reference. Now I'm craving lamb shanks. Especially this recipe. My cousin went to culinary school in the 90s and made a dish similar to this for the whole family. I played her soux chef, but the magic was all hers. It was the best lamb dish I've ever had.

Lisa used a leg of lamb she got through her school and I have never had the exact recipe, but I set out to recreate what I remembered. I used lamb shanks, bacon, tomatoes, tomato paste, beef broth, celery, carrot, onion, garlic and black olives.

I buzzed the veggies in my food processor to get things rolling along quickly. The veggies cook down into the sauce, so they don't have to be chopped pretty.

Brown some chopped bacon in a big pot to render the fat. Use the fat to brown the lamb shanks on all sides. I just seasoned them with kosher salt and pepper. If you use a paper towel to dry the meat it will brown better. This step adds a bunch of flavor to the finished dish.

Remove the bacon and browned shanks and put the veggies in the pot. Use a little olive oil if you think things might stick. You're just looking to soften the vegetables a bit.

Throw the shanks and bacon back into the pool and dump in tomatoes, tomato paste and beef broth. You can add a bit more salt and pepper too, but don't overdo the salt. You'll add salty olives at the end. If you hate olives leave them out. Cover your pot slightly and let simmer for a couple of hours. You could place the whole pot in the oven as well. You want that lamb to cook long enough to fall off the bone. Cool the shank and give it to your dog to take outside. You won't see him for hours.

The sauce thickens naturally during the cooking process, but if it seems thin, let it boil gently on the stove uncovered. It will thicken and make a beautiful ragu. I add olives toward the end of the cooking process so they don't fall apart. I remove the meat from the bone and toss it in the sauce, but you could serve one shank per person if you want to make a great display. I like this served on creamy polenta, but you could serve it on egg noodles, mashed potatoes, pasta, or just eat it out of a bowl.

Sweet Weekend!

I finally finished my Riley Blake challenge quilt. And just in time too; a new Modern Quilt Guild challenge is starting this month. More free fabric. Whee!

This little quilt makes a great hot pad for my cast iron pot, which I have been using non-stop.

Speaking of the Modern Quilt Guild, they've announced that QuiltCon 2015 will be held in Austin, Texas again. Yay! I'd attend just for the food! So many great places to eat. I'm thrilled to have my same roomie Rene' and already getting excited. Last time was a blast. Squeee!

Also exciting was this huge gift box from my buddy Yumi. She sent me all kinds of goodies from Japan, including an entire case of Cheezas which I shared. I usually hide them for myself. ;) There was a cool toothbrush, lots of snacks, dumplings to steam, gorgeous fabric, horse oil hand cream, and some scary green drink powder with brown bits. Wasabi coffee with chocolate chips? Yumi will tell me what it is, but sometimes it's fun to just try these new things. Unless it's wasabi coffee with chocolate chips...

I had College Boy build the little bird that was in the goody box . These are the tiniest Lego-like pieces I've ever seen. So cute. Birdy is hanging out in my studio.

Our guild's Saturday Sew Day was a blast. I cut the fabric for the Canoe Ridge Creation's Gigantic Starburst quilt before I left and happily stitched the top together in no time. It makes a 60" square quilt, so this pattern is a keeper for quick quilt tops. I plan on quilting this one in 2020.

We had a smaller group sewing on Saturday, but the talent was in abundance. Just look at all the projects my guild buddies are working on. I'm always in awe around this guild group. We have so much fun. My sides were starting to hurt from laughing. On another note, only one gentleman walked in the room where we sew at the library and asked if we could tailor his suit. I hope our laughter didn't offend him. Ha! We always get at least one person wanting us to tailor garments and we always laugh.

750!

Beef Bourguignon was on the menu one night. I haven't made it in years. Ina's recipe was a bit easier than Julia's. The first time I had Beef Bourguignon was as a small child at a dinner party. I thought it was awful, but dutifully ate every bit and thanked the chef. My mom would have killed me otherwise. I'm glad my palette became better developed as I grew up, but I'll never forget that first time. I hope I didn't make faces.

Igniting the cognac was a trip. What a huge flame! I hope my eyebrows grow back eventually. The dish was delicious and it's really nothing more complicated than regular beef stew. The booze (cognac and red wine) make the dish. I served it over egg noodles with a crusty baguette for dipping.

Ina also made seafood chowder. I defrosted my lobster stock and set off to the seafood market for scallops, shrimp, crab, and mahi mahi chunks. Not a bad dinner. Can you believe I forgot to add heavy cream at the end? It really didn't need it

750 blog posts later, I'm still chugging along. All my favorite recipes are linked here and sometimes I can figure out when I made a particular quilt. Flickr helps with that too! Thanks for sticking with me and commenting so I'm not just talking to myself (not that there's anything wrong with that! ;) Have a great week!

Sunday Stash #80

Fun fat quarters that I may have bought because the selvages were cool too. I'm hopeless.

My obsession with food fabrics continues. Those tomatoes on the right are my favorite. I've been looking for a good tomato print. Yay!

Gray with big textured white dots. On sale!

I know I shouldn't complain when most of the east coast is truly freezing, but Florida has been cold for this Southern girl. I made Mexican Meatball Soup to warm myself up. I just used the recipe as a guide as usual. I used ground beef, threw in a can of kidney beans and used Rotel tomatoes with habanero. It was spicy and good. I topped mine with avocado and sour cream. The Inspector added Cheddar cheese to his.

I've been hemming and hawing over these Riley Blake fabrics for the Modern Quilt Guild challenge. Free fabric is always fun, and I really loved this collection. Gingham...swoon! Polka dots...drool. I made the Dresden plate a while ago and shoved the project away during a cleaning frenzy. At Sew Day I made the two center circles.

Should it be the orange polka dot center?

Or how about the dark gray one? The gray won.

Hollywood brings her charge over on Sundays to craft, play, eat, etc. Today they caught the ice cream man. I think Hollywood was more excited than her charge! It was his first time with an ice cream man. Get ice cream from a stranger driving around in a musical van? Sounds questionable to me too.

Now he's excited! Batman ice cream with gumball eyes. Delicious. Happy Sunday!

History

Did you see this Paris apartment that has been untouched since 1942? The owner, Madame de Florian, a socialite and actress fled during the war but continued paying the rent until her death in 2010. I thought it was so fascinating. I would love to wander through her apartment and look at everything. Is that creepy? I've been going to estate sales for years now, which my kids think is beyond creepy. Whatever.

We had our guild Sew Day last Saturday. It was great to get out and sew. Real jobs have kept me from goofing off and sewing. Red's foot control decided to go haywire and sew at excessive speeds, so I had to leave early. The next day, I took the foot control apart and cleaned it out. It seems to be fixed, but we'll see. In the meantime, I hope I don't sew over a finger or two. It goes SO fast and you can only stop it by turning the machine off. Did I mention I'm on my second foot control in five years?

I pieced all the Catvent blocks together at Sew Day. Twenty five days of Christmas cats. The different blocks are so fun and I love the rainbow colors. I added grey borders after this, so it's a little larger. It's plenty small enough to quilt it myself, so that's up next. I have two extra kitties to put somewhere on the backing. I'm going to try to piece that today.

Our block of the month for February is the Scrappy Trip Along block that went viral in blogland last year. It's a fun block and looks great in scraps. It will be fun to see all the blocks together. We have lots of participation in our guild blocks of the month.

I haven't been cooking as much as usual, but I did make some good egg salad last week. I threw everything but the kitchen sink in it and still forgot Dijon mustard. It was still good. I wanted to make avocado egg salad. Doesn't that sound good? My avocados weren't cooperating that day. The avocados have been dirt cheap this season. I buy a bunch at every grocery trip and then patiently wait until one ripens.

I also tried this Greek yogurt markinated chicken. Pretty good! I grilled boneless, skinless chicken thighs on my BBQ grill. Bone-in chicken is always better, but I buy what looks good and/or is on sale at the grocery. I'm getting skin on chicken next time too.

Breakfast this morning was this salami, bacon and spinach hash. I substituted the russet potatoes with a half baked sweet potato leftover from a dinner fail. I threw some fresh jalapeno in too and left out the orange zest and nutmeg, because I was trying to remember the recipe without looking it up. I'm the only sweet potato fan around these parts, but Inspector Gadget is usually more hungry than picky. He's not a spinach fan either, but I put that stuff in everything!

So happy to have a day off where I don't have to travel, work, or run errands. Even laundry sounds fun. Okay, I'll go now. Clearly I fallen off the deep end. Have fun!

Well Hello 2014!

New year, new planner. I've always loved paper products. I tried putting all my appointments online last year, and it just didn't work out for me. I think I need a pretty calendar and the act of writing something down to remember anything. There are some great printable calendars available online. I've been printing them off and hanging them everywhere.

Do you ever buy yourself Christmas presents? This cast iron pot was such a bargain, I had to add it to my cart while online Christmas shopping. It's bitter cold here (72 degrees!), so I'm making bean soup for lunch.

I started the day with a spinach, feta and tomato omelet. I threw fresh oregano into the baby spinach while it sauteed. The Greek flavors are great together. The Inspector had a ham, Swiss, red onion and tomato omelet. I have to sneak in the veggies for some people around here.

We can definitely stand some fruit and vegetables after a few dinners like this. Meat, cheese, and crackers. I did have a bowl of grapes, but we barely ate any. I went a little overboard buying cheese this holiday season. It's all my mom asked for for Christmas, so I bought extra for us. I like buying cheese about as much as I like buying fabric.

Look where silly Bones has taken up residence. Poor little thing has a fluffy pillow bed and a cozy blanket, but he'd rather snooze under my desk among the dust, computer cords, and unfinished quilt projects. I only know he's under there because I can hear him snoring. Goofy.

Off to finish my soup and sew for the rest of today. I hope you're having some fun.

How did this happen?

Twenty two years ago, this little kid came into our lives. You may know him as College Boy, but I won't be able to call him that for long. This kid of mine is smart, sensitive, sarcastic, caring, stubborn and multi-talented. I'm not sure where his sarcasm comes from. *cough*

Not only does he tolerate college by breezing through with great grades, he works full time at one of our theme parks and has been promoted several times. This kid has his nose to the sliding glass door grindstone.

He and his sister Hollywood love the holidays. Doesn't it show? Yes, I still enjoy helping Santa with their stockings. Inspector Gadget just shakes his head, which just fuels me Santa for next year.

Ha! Caught him smiling. My braces investment paid off! His girlfriend is as sweet as they come and my crazy family hasn't scared her off yet. Happy birthday College Boy! Wishing you a lifetime of fun and success. Thanks for being my kid.