A "Lamb" Down Under

Ok so this post has nothing to do with Australia or the land down under. But I thought it was a funny play on words. Ok, maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm delusional today. Who knows. Work is getting to me, causing my brain to have issues with what is actually funny and what isn't. Oh well *continues to eat her combos*

Anyway, what we are really here for is the lamb stew/soup that Mike and I prepared Sunday and have been eating ever since - it made A LOT of stew/soup.

This month has been kind of messed up and his schedule is kind of off so we enjoy what we can. A nice relaxing weekend with him last weekend was just what the doctor ordered. This weekend, it's with family. He has to work - so I guess it's packed lunches and random assortment of dinners for him - we shall see what he sends me through the weekend.

So Saturday we decided this was what we were making and so we went to the only place in town that sells lamb and picked up a few packages of stew bones and steaks. We also grabbed some celery, carrots, snow peas, red onion, mushrooms, and beef stock.

I actually did all the veggie chopping, minus onion and garlic. Which is unusual since Mike usually has the better knife skills. I'm not as fast or precise but as you can see my veggies look pretty good, if I do say so myself *brushes off shoulders with a smug grin*. He is gets the onion honors because onions don't bother him while he chops them up where as Roomie and I cry like little babies. It's bad. I walked by while he was chopping up the onion and my eyes started watering. Yeah, it's that bad for me. He also did the garlic. I can't seem to get that down, the garlic all sticks to my knife and then I get frustrated with it and just kind of chop at nothing.

We both did the unthinkable too while cooking. We both were injured this weekend with bizarre knife injuries. I was cutting cheese on Saturday night for a snack and my finger slipped down the back of the knife toward the tip - was only using a steak knife - so my right middle finger had a nice little slit in it all weekend. Mike was using the Japanese Vegetable knife, which he soon became fed up with and sent home with me. He was chopping the onion and then he noticed blood on the back of the knife. He just said "what?" He evidently cut his finger on the back of the knife. Come to find the back of that knife is sharp enough to cut you if you do it right - much like he did. I think his was his right index or left. I can't remember honestly. I'm sure I'll get a text after this post is published and enlightened to which hand was injured ;)

So despite injury we made it through. After chopping up veggies, oh and red potatoes (not peeled) into little bites size chunks we added the veggies (not potatoes) to the roux we had made from flour and the lamb fat at the bottom of the pan. We then cooked those down till the onions were almost translucent. Then we added about 48 oz beef stock, lamb, potatoes, peas and mushrooms. (since mushrooms don't take long to cook). It was seasoned with Greek seasoning, salt, pepper, cayenne, rosemary, bay leaf and probably a few other things I didn't see. We figured after trying it it was still lacking something...just couldn't figured out what it was. Mike decided that next time we should definitely use Italian seasoning and salt and pepper instead. It was just slightly off. Also, we decided that frozen peas would have been a much better choice than the snow peas. The snow peas just became unpalatable, at least to me. I ended up picking them out Tuesday when I ate stew for lunch.

All in all it was good, a hearty meal which we served with a cheese roll that we picked up at Walmart - go get some. They are absolutely delicious.

Make a stew, it's not hard. Pick a meat of your choice, add veggies that pair well (most any), make a roux with the meat fat or oil and water (look it up online or get a The Great Big Book of Cooking like Mike did.) Then add stock of choosing and simmer until delicious and thick. YUM! Experiment too, add cream, add spices and other combinations of meat. Try anything. Experiment.

So allez cuisine mes amis!

Go out and cook!

Beyond the Normal Steak and Potatoes

This weekend was a lazy weekend. We didn't really feel like doing a whole lot of anything. We were going to go to the lake and meet some new friends but decided it was 1. too hot, 2. we didn't get up till 10 AM Saturday morning and 3. We would have had to drive at 8/9 am after going to bed at 3:30 AM/4:30 AM. Yeah not so much. So we decided to stay in for most of the weekend.

We drove into the city to go to Best Buy and Bed Bath and Beyond. We looked for bread pans (the ones you would make french bread loaves in - or even find mini ones to make hot dog buns.) for my pretzel bread adventures. No luck, the man at the store that we asked said "It really isn't baking season." Um, excuse me, it's always baking season. I even said "It's always baking season." LOL

So we got whisks, my whisk recently broke - grr, granted I've had it for quite some years now and wasn't what I would call a SUPER sturdy whisk. Basic and cheap from Walmart. So got that and headed off to Bets Buy. Mike wants to get a good tough camera for when he goes duck hunting this fall/winter. From what he says he inevitably ends up in the water and so a water proof camera would be a fantastic idea. His phone stays in a zip lock or air tight container and he doesn't really want to ruin an expensive electronic device, phone, camera or otherwise. So we found what he was looking for and then they didn't have it in stock. We ended up leaving and going back to the apartment and he ordered it online. Should be a fun toy. Won't have to be just for hunting. :)

*the wheels are turning for food pictures*

So that day we went to "Mighty Melt" for lunch, I got the cheese sandwich on wheat where he got the Chili Cheese potato. HOLY CRAP was that a HUGE potato. The Frito's on top were meh and stale and the knock off type. The cheese was just your basic nacho cheese dip and the chili was actually quite surprising. I would say it was the best part of that potato. My sandwich was good, fair amount of cheese but not too much and the veggies that were on it were good too, lettuce, tomato and mushroom. The wheat bread was border line dry but not bad. will probably stick to the white when I go back.

Beer brats are the lighter ones and
chicken chipotle jack are the brown ones on the left

That night we did bratwurst on the grill and used the pretzel bread buns to hold them. We sauteed up onions and peppers to put on top and then topped with spicy mustard. They tasted great, the only issue we had was that the pretzel buns had gotten hard. They had been in zip lock baggies, so not sure how they got hard and almost rock like. Edible but the crust was tough.

sauteed peppers and red onion

I made mine work and finished it all, hand held. Mike chose to cut his up with knife and fork.

Brad on pretzel bread, onions, peppers and mushroom rice

So because I've posted pictures of Mike cooking he took my phone and decided it was time for one of  me cooking. Yes I do cook, I prefer to bake but I do cook. I help with the pan work while he works the grill and the knife. 

Me laughing once I realize what he is doing.

 So that was dinner Saturday night. We ended up falling asleep not long after, about 10pm on the floor and couch. Sprawled out and tired old people that we are. (26 and old already haha.)

So Sunday we got a take and bake pizza from Papa Murphy's. Mike wasn't feeling leftovers since that was what he had been eating for a week. We had a chicken, bacon and artichoke de-Lite pizza. Was fabulous.

Then we napped. Like I said, lazy and relaxing weekend. We then got up and headed out to our friends house for a swim and some people time. We were also told to take home some bags of groceries - they had a neighbor moving who cleaned out her pantry. Free food, not going to argue. She says she'll have baking stuff soon too. YAY!!! I'm excited about that.

So after getting some vitamin D and having some time with friends we headed out to come back and make dinner. We had, that morning, picked up some lamb steaks, sugar snap peas, sprouts, onion and Greek seasoning. So came back and Mike prepped the onion, tomatoes and garlic for the veggie stir fry that I would be cooking up and he prepped the grill for the lamb. He coated each side of the meat with a generous sprinkling of Greek seasoning (Go to Walmart and pick up some - fabulous on lamb).

Sprouts - fresh

Tomatoes fresh from our friends garden

Garlic Herb seasoning from our local farmers market

Snap peas and onion saute

All veggies mixed in and sauteed up

So after coating and chopping up veggies he got them on the grill, the grill tried to flame broil them at one point, making cook time shorter than expected but still turned out great.

Mike saving the Lamb from the flames

A little charred but not badly

Mmmmm grilled lamb steaks :)

So Mike saved the lamb from a fiery death and promptly brought them in at a medium rare temp and doneness. :) Then we heated up some of the left over mushroom rice from the night before and plated.

From the rice, my steak was
much smaller than Mike's MAN steak ;)

From the veggie side of the plate

Let me just say this about the look, fresh and crisp on the veg, rice was good and the steaks were beautifully pink. Oh, yum, come play in my mouth for a while.

Moving on to flavor, the char really did not affect the flavor much, if at all. In my case I thought it was pretty good.

I may have mentioned this before but when Mike starts grunting and making yummy sounds while eating you know it's good. I agree - it was FANTASTIC! Mike used choice phrases. "Fucking amazing" "God damn that was good!" "That was awesome!" and so on. Went on until we went to bed. I am in total agreement. I even would be quoted, while getting water 2 hours later "Oh my god that was amazing."

This was definitely a hit and was definitely worth the time and effort and will be done again.

Y'all should try this too, amazing. No real trick to it, just cook. So, allez cuisine folks!