Silence of the lamb.

If you were following along on Facebook this morning, you saw that I lost this recipe. My little helper and I were at Safeway perusing the produce section when I realized the recipe card was GONE. It'd been in my jacket pocket since Saturday and all of a sudden it was missing. I attempted to remember everything I needed and even searched for the recipe online (with no luck because I was searching for STEW instead of SOUP, possibly) using my phone in the one square foot of real estate at the store that isn't a dead spot.

I found the card in the house about an hour after I got home with all of the groceries. Turns out, I'd remembered MOST of the ingredients and could substitute the "oops" ingredients relatively easily.

Greg picked number one. (Thanks, Greg!) The recipe at the top of the stack was...

"Sweet and Sour Moroccan Lamb Soup" (6 quart pot)

~3 T olive oil
~2 lb boneless leg of lamb (The original recipe called for shoulder, but Safeway had only legs and ribs, so...)
~1 t ground ginger (Original called for peeled and grated. I forgot this ingredient when I was shopping. Oops!)
~1/2 t ground tumeric
~1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes (Original called for peeled plum. At least I remembered it had tomatoes!)
~7 c cold water
~1 onion, chopped
~1 bunch cilantro
~salt and pepper
~1 c orzo, cooked
~2 T lemon juice
~1/2 t ground cinnamon
~1 c dates, chopped

Heat oil in a large pan over medium-high to high heat.
Sear lamb on all sides.
Transfer lamb to crock pot.
Add ginger, turmeric, tomatoes, water, onion, cilantro, salt, and papper.
Cover and cook on HIGH for 8 hours. (Yes, high.)
Add cooked orzo, lemon juice, and cinnamon.
Ladle into bowls and top with dates.

6 servings.

This is a really tasty soup. Super flavorful. If you like lamb, you should totally make this. It sounds fancy and it's really easy to make. It'd be even easier to make if you actually remember to take the list of ingredients to the store with you. You know...Not that I would know anything about that.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Sadly, "Beer Week" is over already. We're heading out of town for the weekend, so we'll be eating the massive amounts of leftovers we have for the few meals we have left before we go. Technically, I had only one more meal planned, but I can easily postpone the meal and crock it some other week. No biggie. I even know which themed week!

This recipe was originally a stew. And it wasn't a crocked stew. Safeway carries only racks and legs of lamb, so I decided to turn the stew into a roast. And crock it, of course.

My grandmother used to make a lamb stew. It was AWESOME. She served it with mint jelly. I was this close to buying some mint jelly, but something changed my mind. Mint sour cream! I drooled a little bit. No lie.

"Leg of Lamb with Mint Sour Cream" (6 quart pot)

~leg of semi-boned lamb (I bought the only one Safeway had. It was 4.5 lbs)
~2 cups beef broth
~1 bottle of Guinness
~1/4 t salt
~1/8 t pepper
~1 bay leaf
~1/2 t dried thyme
~1/2 t dried basil
~3 potatoes, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces
~2 onions cut into wedges
~1 cup carrots, cut into bite sized pieces
~1/3 c sour cream
~2 t freshly chopped mint leaves (We have a boatload of it growing in our backyard!)

Place lamb in crock pot.
Pour beef stock and beer into crock pot.
Add all other ingredients except sour cream and mint leaves into crock pot.
Cover and cook on low for 9 hours.
Remove bay leaf before serving.
Mix sour cream and mint in small bowl.
Serve with lamb and veggies.

8 servings.

Oh. My. Goodness. This was as good as I thought it was going to be, AND we have a TON of leftovers! This would be a great dinner to make when you feel like showing off. It's expensive, but it's super easy and totally worth it. The fact that we have a fridge full of lamb is not even remotely a bad thing. Yum. Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned expensive-ness-itude, I'm not going to show off very often.

Baa Baa cinnamon rolls.

Today's suggestions came from Brad. (Hi Brad!)

He suggested I try this recipe and I was anxious to try it. With the exception of gyros I've had at various festivals, I hadn't had lamb in years. My grandmom made a lamb stew once or twice when I was little, but the only thing I remember about it is the mint jelly. The recipe Brad suggested is called "Grand Cru braised lamb shanks served with dried fig and winter spiced sauce over potato parsnip puree." I would've followed the recipe EXACTLY, but I could not find lamb shanks anywhere. And I mean ANYWHERE. The only supermarket within a ~5 mile radius (4 stores) that had any lamb cuts at all was Safeway. Lamb shanks are supposedly amazing in a crock pot, but since I couldn't spend all of the time in the world searching for shanks, I chose to do the same recipe, but using a Frenched rack of lamb instead. I also cheated and served it over regular mashed potatoes instead of the potato parsnip puree it recommended. So there.

Here's what I did.

~1 lb lamb rib roast, frenched
~salt and pepper
~2 T flour
~2 T olive oil
~2 carrots, peeled and chopped
~2 celery stalks, peeled and chopped
~2 leeks, chopped
~2 shallots, peeled and minced
~3 C chicken stock
~3 T fresh thyme leaves
~1/2 c dried figs, stemmed and quartered
~1 T brown sugar
~1 t ground coriander
~1 t ground cinnamon
~3 whole cloves
~1 bottle (750ml) La Trappe Quadrupel (minus some so my other half could taste it)

Wash lamb under cold water and remove access fat. Pat dry.
Sprinkle salt, pepper, and flour on both sides.
Oil a large saucepan and brown lamb evenly on both sides on medium heat.
Remove lamb.
Add carrots, celery, leeks, and shallots to oil and cook until slightly browned.
Deglaze saucepan with chicken stock and remove any vegetable remnants with a slotted spatula.
Add thyme, figs, sugar, coriander, cinnamon, and cloves; mix.
Place lamb in crock pot.
Pour mixture on top.
Pour beer on top.
Cover and cook on low for 7 hours.
Remove lamb.
Remove cloves
Blend vegetables and broth/beer mixture.
Pour on top of lamb.

This was a lot of work, but it was really good. I'd forgotten what actual lamb tastes like. The beer really stood out which made my other half happy. Lamb isn't one of my favorite meats, but it's fun to have something different every now and then, right? I'm curious how a shank would taste because I keep reading that they're AMAZING in a crock pot. I guess I'll have to keep my eye out for them. Or hop on a plane for New Zealand.

Brad also requested cinnamon rolls, but this time, he didn't give me a recipe. I could have made some from scratch, but since dinner was so complicated, I decided to go the easy route. I bought prepackaged cinnamon rolls and plopped them in the crock pot. And then added walnuts for funzies.

~1 package cinnamon rolls that comes with icing. (I used Cinnabon's with cream cheese icing)
~chopped walnuts

The recipe I found online told me to cook on high for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Check doneness 2 hours in.

This is what NOT to do:

Nestle REFRIGERATED package of cinnamon rolls (after you take them out of the package, of course) and plop them into a greased crock pot. Cook for 2 hours. They were overcooked. Burnt. They were edible when they were warm, but became hockey pucks as they cooled. We trashed the rest of them and that's saying something.

This is what TO DO:

Take a FROZEN package of cinnamon rolls and nestle them in a greased CorningWare dish that fits into your crock pot.
Cook on high for 2 hours.
Add icing and walnuts while the rolls are still warm.

MUCH better. 1000 times better. They're half gone. Or half are left. Whichever you prefer...