Our Honest to Goodness Farmhouse Shepherd's Pie Recipe

I didn't grow up eating Shepherd's Pie but it has become part of my winter dinner repetoire over the past few years. I've finally written down how I make it to pass out at the Farmer's Markets (and to help sell our ground lamb). I'm sharing it with all of you today. I'm one of those cooks who wings it and it usually turns out fine. All this recipe writing is a stretch to say the least. Kids love Shepherd's Pie and it makes a great dish to bring to a potluck!

Shepherd's Pie is one of those recipes that you can tweak and use all kinds of odds and ends from your pantry, fridge or freezer. In fact that's the fun of it. It's also great to make an extra one to put in the freezer for those nights you just can't bear to chop an onion or mince some garlic. 

I know that most cooks in the States probably do not use lamb. Heresy! How can it be official Shepherd's Pie if sheep aren't involved? Really now. Digging into the www I found that in England, Shepherd's Pie is definitely made with lamb. If it is made with beef, it is called Cottage Pie. 

Anyone else want to throw in their own tweaks for their version of Shepherds Pie?

Leyden Glen Farm's Shepherd's Pie

This is our “farm version.” It’s yummy and homey and will feed a crowd.

2 pounds potatoes
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter

1 pound ground lamb
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion - diced
2 carrots – diced into ½” pieces
5 cloves garlic - minced
1 cup chicken broth, lamb stock or white wine
1 tablespoon tomato paste
½ teaspoon dried rosemary
½ teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and Pepper
1 cup each corn and peas (I use frozen)
¼ cup parmesan cheese

Peel and chop the potatoes. Boil in salted water until tender and mashable. Drain. Add the milk and butter. Mash the potatoes, season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.

Brown the lamb, drain fat and set aside. Saute the onions and garlic in the oil until onions are translucent taking care not to burn the garlic! Add the diced carrots and sauté for 3 more minutes. Mix together the broth, tomato paste, herbs and salt and pepper. Add all ingredients to the skillet and simmer until carrots are done to your liking. The mixture should be thick. If too saucy, let some of the moisture evaporate. Add the frozen peas and carrots. Try not to overcook!

Butter a 9 x 13 casserole. Pour in the meat mixture and smooth. Spoon the potatoes over the top of the meat and spread evenly.  Place in a 350 degree oven and bake for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with the parmesan cheese. Broil to melt the cheese and brown the top.
Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

To make an Italian-ish version of this:
Substitute red wine for the white wine.
Substitute 1 can cannelini or Great Northern beans for the corn and peas.
Add ¼ cup basil pesto to the meat sauce mixture before topping with the potatoes.

Penny's Lentil and Lamb Soup - A New Recipe and a Story for You!

I've been cooking lamb since we first began sheep farming over thirty years ago. Now, with the development of our "direct to consumer" farm plan, I'm finding that consumers really need help in deciding what to cook with our lamb. It has taken me a while (let's just say I started this project over a year and a half ago) but I'm finally getting some recipes written down, cooked and photographed.

Taking photos of food isn't easy. Especially when it is brown food that is what I consider totally unphotogenic. Recipe writing and food photography is another one of my blogging journeys. I've discovered some good food blogs. Wow - is that another world as compared to knitting blogs. Here's who I like so far: David Lebovitz, Joy the Baker, my friend Janis's Bite Me New England (Janis is a great lamb customer and frequently blogs about cooking our lamb!),  Dorie Greenspan, The Sweet Beet, Michael Ruhlman, Matt Bites. There is even a food photography blog on the NYTimes website. The food blog world is huge! And it seems to be a big money generating world - unlike the knitting blog world which I seem to be segmented into. There is a food blogging convention! And Food Blogger Camp! It seems like a big pit that I could get sucked into if I let myself. I will just look in from the outside, for now! If you want an inside scoop on it, check out this post by David Lebovitz. It makes us knitting bloggers look like chump change. If you have any favorite food blogs my readers and I might like, leave them in the comments if you will! 

Now where was I? Oh yeah, Penny's Lamb and Lentil Soup, that's right. The back-story..... The Farmer and I lived in Colorado while I was in grad school at CSU. We pretty much had what I would consider no money. We lived on my grad school assistantship stipend and what he made doing whatever job he could find. We weren't married, much to the chagrin of my mother and father. In fact, she was so upset that even though she adored "him" she never would ask about him nor mention his name. (Remember that Mom?) My Dad, being the kindest Dad in the world, would once in a while send me a check so I could pay for my car insurance. 

 

Whatever.... Mom has gotten over it and here we are - still together almost 30 years later. She didn't have anything to worry about. I remember those days with such incredible fondness. We lived in the basement of a small little yellow house on Whedbee Street with my sheltie cross Haida. The Farmer said we were "worms" because all we could see out of the basement windows was the dirt ground above us. I was studying textiles, writing my thesis (on "Wool Production from Small Flocks of Sheep" - boy some things sure do not change!), and learning how to cook on a budget.

Considering that there were two of us living on a very tiny income, I had to learn to cook cheaply. Meat was a splurge and so we existed on a semi-vegetarian diet (much to The Farmer's dislike but hey - he wasn't cooking, was he?) I have always had a love affair with soup. I will admit, I grew up on Campbell's Soup - out of a can. I used to eat it for lunch every Saturday. My favorite was Scotch Broth with Cream of Tomato a close second. In the little basement kitchen, I had a couple of cookbooks -- a paperback copy of The Joy of Cooking for basics and  "The Moosewood Cookbook." Boy, was that cookbook the thing back then! I cooked my way through it for sure. I just loved those handwritten pages and funky little drawings. Still have it, still cook from it.

Colorado is where I learned about lentils. I had never eaten a lentil growing up. My mom wasn't big on cooking with beans except for her post-Easter "split pea soup" she made with the leftover ham-bone. I latched onto those lentils and turned them into soup. I would make a big pot of lentil soup and we would eat it all week long. Let's just say I overdid it! Nah, Kristin doesn't over do anything, does she? By the fourth night, he would look at me with disdain. I guess I don't blame him but to tell you the truth, I can still eat lentil soup five days in a row. I just love it.

Later on, when we both had jobs and were doing a little better financially, we took a memorable couple of trips to France on my frequent flyer mileage. We were in food and wine heaven, visiting so many fabulous little inns and restaurants. The places we visited would fill a book so I will stop reminiscing and tell you that in France I discovered the lovely little LePuy Lentil. Ahhhhh, a lentil that wouldn't get mushy and was a lovely shade of olive green. When I got back to the States, I found them for sale and I haven't stopped buying them yet.

Enter Penny Vurgulopolous. Penny was a Greek woman who worked in our mill store when I worked at TYC. Penny had a thick Greek accent, a wonderful loving Greek American husband named Chris, and in her basement, she had a SECOND KITCHEN that Chris built her so that she could cook and bake for the different parties she threw and church functions she attended. Penny came to work dressed in Chanel suits, dripping with gold jewelry, hair coiffed just so. Mind you - this was a dirty yarn spinning mill and she was selling close-out yarn. She was quite the picture! Penny was an awesome knitter (she wrapped her yarn around her neck to tension it) and an even more awesome cook. She constantly brought in her homemade Greek delicacies to share with the office staff.  I'll never forget the spanakopita, the baklava, the moussaka, the melty soft long roasted leg of lamb, the traditional deep red Greek Easter eggs.......

When Julia was born, I used to bring her to work with me when she was an infant. Her health was fragile and it was best she was with me. She was a good baby and would usually lie on the floor under my big office table playing with one of those dangly overhead baby entertainment things while I tried to figure out what was going on at TYC. Penny loved babies and she would beg me to let her hold and swaddle Julia. She would sing to her in Greek, play finger games. She was just so darn wonderful with Julia. Whenever Penny was working, Julia would "go to the store" with Penny. She would sit in her little seat next to the cash register and Penny would entertain her. One day I went over to check on her. Penny was feeding Julia some of her lentil soup. I almost died. Julia hadn't had a bite of any solid food yet and there she was sucking down the soup. I went with the flow and Julia survived! It was pretty priceless now that I think back on it. Whenever Julia was going to be at work, Penny would make her lentil soup.

So that's where the name for today's recipe comes from. Sorry for the long, convoluted trip it took to get here. This is a recipe that has evolved over the years..... from the first days of lentil soup in the basement apartment in Fort Collins to our farmhouse here in western Massachusetts. Now I fortify it with ground lamb or lamb sausage. It seems so natural considering the connection with my Greek friend Penny's lentil soup and the Greek people's love of lamb.

Penny's Lentil and Lamb Soup
PRINT THIS RECIPE

1 pound lentils (preferably French Le Puy)

¼ cup olive oil

5 cloves garlic

1 medium onion

1 small can tomatoes (14 ounces)

3 carrots

2 bay leaves

½ teaspoon oregano

1 pound ground lamb or lamb sausage removed from casings

3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Peel and mince garlic. Chop onions into small dice. Heat olive oil in a soup pot. Brown onions and garlic taking care not to burn the garlic. Remove cooked onions and garlic and reserve. Brown lamb in soup pot. Drain off extra fat. Return onions and garlic to pot. Add the tomatoes, and lentils and cover by one inch with water. Bring to a boil, then turn to simmer adding herbs. Cook for thirty minutes. Peel and chop the carrots, cutting them on a diagonal so they are largish. Add carrots and cook the soup until the carrots are done to your liking. Add the vinegar. Let the soup sit if you have time so the flavors will mingle. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Note: Substitute 3 Tablespoons wine vinegar and ½ teaspoon sugar if balsamic is not available. The key to this soup is the vinegar!

Vending at the Winter Farmers Market + an Irish Lamb Stew Recipe for You!

We’re going into our third year of selling our lamb meat at local Farmers Markets. This winter, Julia and I have been doing the Amherst Winter Market at the Amherst Middle School. It is a good space for a market (nice open room, not too crowded, pretty close to the center of town) but a bit off the beaten track. It’s been a challenge for everyone to get the word out about the market since it is its first year. Frankly, I think consumers haven’t really caught on to the Winter Market thing yet. Have you? With all the snow and ice, it’s a bit hard to think about buying from a farmer in the middle of the winter. But when we get them there, they do buy!


Most of the vendors at our local markets sell produce. In the winter, they are selling veggies that they store - carrots, potatoes, turnips, beets, onions, kohlrabi, apples, cider and radishes. I am so amazed by the products they keep hauling in the door. I can feel the energy and anticipation of the produce vendors building. They are planning, seeding and many will be bringing spinach and fresh greens within the next couple weeks that they grow in their greenhouses.


There are a few of us “meat vendors” at this market. It is funny to say but I really feel like an outsider to the group. I think all the meat vendors do in fact. We are a different breed, that I will admit. Leyden Glen Lamb is a new farm resource for the Amherst clientelle because we don’t sell regularly at the summer Amherst Market on the Common. I’m hoping and praying that they will give us a spot a few times in 2011 - fingers crossed. We did "guest-vend" a couple times at the end of the year and it was fabulous. 

I spend most of my days at the market telling the people about our farm and where the heck Leyden is. (Leyden is one of those teeny tiny towns that has very few people living there and nothing happens.) The other huge part of my day is teaching customers about the different cuts of lamb meat and how they should be cooked. I love this part of the job because I love to cook! I amaze myself sometimes with how I can sell an odd piece of lamb with enthusiasm and by sharing the knowledge I have developed through cooking lamb for over 30 years.


I’ve been developing some recipes to hand out at the market. Last weekend, I tried out a “St. Patrick’s Day” Promotion by suggesting to customers on my “signage” that they cook some Irish Lamb Stew to celebrate. This week, I worked on my recipe and have it down. I’m sharing it here with you first on the blog.

I did quite a bit of research on-line and in my cookbook collection about the “really truly” official Irish Lamb Stew. Most of the sources say that it should only be made with potatoes, onions, and lamb. For my version, I wanted to help the other vendors sell their product so I have included onions, potatoes, turnips and carrots in the recipe. It may not be totally “traditional” but it sure iss good. And besides, I like the different textures that happen by using different kinds of root vegetables. I made a second pot of it today to make sure I can follow my recipe and to photograph. Here is the lamb browning. It is difficult to take a good photo of this and I can tell I'm on another learning curve!

My thanks to Marie Duprey, knitter, blog reader, folk singer and three time "whole lamb" customer from eastern Massachusetts. She and her husband buy a lamb every spring just before St. Patty's Day to eat through the year. They start off their lamb year by making lamb stew for St. Patrick's Day. 

Since I now have to write recipes for our lamb website, I was happy to find a blog by Dianne Jacob called Will Write For Food. There was a great interview on it with Amanda HesserHow to Adapt and Write Recipes which I found very useful. Diane has written a book about food writing also called "Will Write for Food." Check it out.

Leyden Glen Farm’s Irish Lamb Stew

 Print the recipe

I love cooking lamb stew (or stew of any kind for that matter). The scent of the bubbling meat stock on the kitchen stove warms my insides as soon as I walk in the door from doing farm chores. I chop all the veggies in the morning after breakfast and begin the stewing process. After lunch, I add all the extra veggies that I have already cut up and cook the stew until the veggies are just done. I let the pot sit and cool on the stove to develop the flavor. It is always better the second day.  

Traditional Irish lamb stew does not contain any vegetables but potatoes, onions, and leeks. I’m not a traditional girl so I add some great winter storage root crops including carrots and turnips. They add an interesting texture to the stew and a bit of color since it can verge on mushy and brown.

Potato Notes: It’s nice to use a mix of both a floury potato (traditional bakers including Russet and Idaho) and a waxier potato (Yukon Gold and small reds). Add the floury potatoes in the beginning of the stew. They will fall apart and make the sauce thick. I add the waxy potatoes with the rest of the vegetables and only cook them until they are just done so they will hold their shape.

I use lamb stock as my liquid but I’m a sheep farmer and frequently have leftover bones to cook up a good flavorful stock. You can substitute water or beef or chicken stock for your liquid. A bottle of Guinness might add an interesting flavor. Feel free to use more lamb if you want a meatier, chewier stew. The small amount of meat in this recipe will give great flavor but if you’ve got a house full of die-hard carnivores, use at least 2 pounds of lamb.

What You Will Need to make Irish Lamb Stew for 6 people:

1 to 1 1/2 lb. Leyden Glen Farm lamb stew meat or 1/2 lamb shoulder (bone-in)
2 small to medium onions
1 1/2 lbs. potatoes (see potato notes above)
1 small to medium turnip
7 carrots
salt and pepper
2 T. olive oil
16 oz. water, lamb stock or beef stock
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf

Chop the onions. Heat the 2 tablespoons olive oil in a soup pot and brown the onions until translucent. Remove and reserve the onions leaving a bit of the juice in the bottom of the pot. Add the lamb and brown. Add salt and pepper. Remove the fat if your lamb is too fatty. The fat from the lamb will add flavor but too much isn’t pleasant.

Step One: Peel and dice the potatoes. I like to dice the floury potatoes small and leave the waxy ones in larger chunks. When the lamb is brown, add half the potatoes (use the smaller floury potato dice) and the reserved cooked onions. Add your liquid of choice (water, stock or beer) and dried thyme and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a very low simmer. Cook for 1 1/2 to two hours. It may be necessary to add more water to avoid scorching. By the end of the cooking time, the potatoes should have disintegrated and become the thickener for the stewy-sauce. If they haven’t, use a potato masher and squash them down to thicken the stew.

Step Two: In the meantime, peel the carrots and turnips. Cut into chunks about an inch square. Add the remaining waxy potatoes, carrots and turnips to the stew and cook until the newly added vegetables are to your liking. A half hour usually does it for me. Some people like their veggies more whole and crunchy and some like them mushier. You decide!

Crock Pot Instructions: If you want to use a crock pot, throw all Step One ingredients into the crock pot and cook until the meat is tender. On top of your stove, cook the remaining vegetables in water until they are as you like them. Drain them and set aside. About 1/2 hour before you are to eat, add the cooked veggies to the crock pot, turn it to high and finish it all up.

For either version: Correct the seasonings and if you have time, let the stew sit overnight to develop the flavor. A sprinkling of chopped parsley adds a nice bit of color and will make your stew more appealing. Serve with a green salad, a loaf of crunchy bread and a pint of Guinness.
 
How do you like your stew? Potatoes only or potatoes plus other veggies?

Turnips for Thanksgiving

Tomorrow we are having 21 people for Thanksgiving - most of them family but we have added a few friends to the mix. I love Thanksgiving and our farm is the perfect place to celebrate. We make it an old-fashioned day - taking a hayride through the hills and then eating, eating, and eating some more. My sister Lynn and my Mom have been here helping to get ready but as usual, we are doing more talking than anything. Tonight we'll be cooking up a storm in preparation for the big day.

I love the Thanksgiving Holiday more than any other. No pressure except for a lot of cooking which I don't mind at all. I always make turnips for Thanksgiving. It began when I asked The Farmer what his family traditionally ate for Thanksgiving and what he would really miss, knowing my family's culinary traditions. He said "turnips." I was stymied because I had never, ever eaten a turnip - never at all. I told my Mom on one of our first married Thanksgivings when we would brave the hoards of other people heading to New Jersey to celebrate with family. (Thank goodness we don't do that anymore!) She said "okay - you make them." That led me on one of my culinary adventures which continues to this day.

When we moved to the farm and I started to become more interested in sourcing local food and growing it, I discovered something called the "Gilfeather Turnip." I grew them a few times, getting the seeds from somewhere that I can't remember. Now I get my Gilfeathers from my friends at Coyote Hill Farm. I don't know what the difference really is in the taste of the Gilfeathers but whenever I cook them, everyone loves them. It should be noted that many vegetable farmers around here are now also growing a quick maturing turnip which they call "salad turnips." These are sliced and eaten raw in the spring and early summer.

Thus to the purpose of this post. My sister Laurie suggested I write about turnips. My whole family has come to look forward to eating them once a year but everyone is perplexed at how to cook them and what kind to buy. Tomorrow, we're going to have a little turnip tasting to see which variety wins. Here's the selection of turnips I am cooking.

From left to right: Two Gilfeather turnips, one "Purple Top", One Cape Turnip, and The Farmer's favorite Rutabaga (these are the ones covered with wax that you commonly see at grocery stores and are also known as swedes or yellow turnips)


How I cook them?
1. Peel them.
2. Cut them into chunks about 1". Peel 2 apples and core. Cut the apples into slices.
3. Boil the turnips and apples until soft.
4. Mash them and add a generous amount of butter, salt and pepper.
That's it - what could be easier?

I have also made Mario Batali's Turnip Risotto which I found in one of his cookbooks. Always on the look out for a new way to cook turnips, I was wary of this one. But my oh my - it is awesome. I will try to do this recipe again during December now that the days are short and I have more time to cook. Trolling the web, these special Gilfeather recipes also look like they should be on my list to try! But they don't have the correct photo of "Gilfeathers" at the top of the page - those are just common purple top turnips.

Purple top turnips are commonly used for livestock feed. The Farmer is always talking about growing a field of turnips for the sheep although we have yet to get there yet. Here you can read about how important turnips are for sheep feed in the UK when the grass has stopped growing. I am pretty sure farmers in the west grow turnips to graze their sheep on in the fall.

I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving, wherever you live.

Why I Wish Every Sheep Had Ten Legs

Our family's foray into the retail meat business this past year has been filled with lots of learning. The biggest surprise for me has been how confused people are when you offer them the possibility of buying lamb. Depending on the locale of the farmer's markets we have sold at the comments go like this...
"Oh, I could never eat those cute little animals."
"Wow, local lamb. How great. How much?"
"Oh, I hate lamb." (This comment usually comes from folks of the older generation who ate too much bad mutton during the 1940's.)
The most surprising comment I have gotten is: "What do I do with it? How do I cook it?"

The first time someone asked me this, I must have looked shocked. I remember being full of disbelief that someone wouldn't know what to do with a piece of lamb. But then I remembered that I have been cooking lamb for almost 30 years. I've found the standard answer, cook it anyway you would beef calms most of them down and they aren't so fearful. And then I mention Shepherd's Pie and they buy some ground lamb.

When we began raising sheep back in 1979, I was wearing rose colored glasses. For me, raising sheep was all about the creamy, crimpy, lusterous wool for handspinning, the sweet animals grazing overgrown pastures, and just how beautiful it all was. I am a romantic at heart and there really is nothing more romantic looking than a beautiful field full of white fluffy sheep, don't you agree? Being from the suburbs of NJ, I had never been exposed to much farm life. The closest I got to farm animals was at the annual Morris County 4-H Fair where the farm kids slept over in the barns with the cows and sheep for the duration of the fair. I always envied the fun they must have had when we were leaving the Fair every night to go back to our snug house in Dover.

But when I got involved in this sheep thing, my partner was The Farmer. He is and always was a homegrown dyed in the wool farm boy who grew up eating his family's cows, drinking his family's milk from their Sunbrite Farm Dairy, selling his eggs from his chickens as he rode around on his Dad's "Milk Man" delivery truck, and raising a pig or two. I had a lot to learn for sure.

When our first lambs were born, way back in the early 80's, I was hoping for a bunch of ewe lambs. That way our flock could grow and I wouldn't have to think about what to do with the ram lambs. As luck would have it, our first lamb crop was two ewe lambs and one ram lamb from our flock of four ewes and one ram. Back then, we named all our sheep. I can remember those names still - Putney, Frieda, Addie, and Betsy. Our ram came with a name - Zeno. We named the ewe lambs Polly and Esther and I can't remember what the ram lamb was called. Perhaps we were smart and didn't name him although I doubt that was the case. The lambs grew and grew. I knew that the inevitable day was coming when we would have to get rid of the ram lamb. We planned to keep the old ram Zeno and back then we never would have bred sisters to their brother.

After our first ram lamb was taken care of (you can read a bit about that here), I had a whole bunch of lamb meat to work my way through. I started experimenting with different recipes, buying cookbooks, and generally learning about all the different cuts of meat you get from a sheep. This was and still is a huge learning experience for me and one that I can honestly say I have really enjoyed. I love a good cookbook full of lovely lamb recipes although they are difficult to find!

Our step into the retail meat business has been another learning experience and once again I am enjoying the learning. Our meat business has slowed down since the Farmer's Markets stopped in late October. Coincidentally, we have run out of animals to process. What perfect timing although it was totally unplanned! Now, we're waiting for the new lambs to be born this winter. We will grow out them out to about 100 pounds and then the cycle will begin again. We do have some spring lambs left that are pretty much spoken for when they are at slaughtering weight.

So back to the title of this post. When we started the Farmer's Markets, we really weren't sure what we were doing. It took a whole summer of trial and error to figure out what cuts of meat would sell. I experimented a lot to see what cuts of lamb customers really wanted. It became clear to me that if we had our lambs processed into lamburger, we'd keep very busy. But lamburger is the least expensive cut we sell. Each animal yields many different pieces of meat - 2 legs (the back), about 24 chops (loin and rib), some stew meat, liver, heart, and kidneys (great for steak and kidney pie), lamburger, and 2 shoulders and 4 shanks (the hoof end of each leg). It's easy to sell chops - everyone knows what to do with them. A leg of lamb is pretty standard fare too, as is burger and stew meat.

And then there are the shoulders! What to do with the shoulders? I have cooked shoulders for many, many years but most people aren't aware why the meat is tougher - especially if they purchase shoulder chops. When I sell shoulder roasts or shoulder chops to a customer, I always preface the sale with - "You do know how to cook a shoulder, don't you?" You see, the shoulders on the animal do the most work. It's the part of the body that carries the animal up the hill and across the field. They are full of connective tissue which my Dad used to call grizzle. After many years of cooking lamb, I know that I've got to cook the shoulders "low and slow" or use them in a stew or a braise. They are totally delicious as long as they are cooked properly - full of fabulous flavor and with an unctuous quality.


And boy do I wish our sheep had ten legs! With every leg comes a shank (whether it is a front leg or a back leg). Lamb shanks are delicious and thanks to many fine restaurants, they are becoming more and more popular with consumers. No matter how many shanks I bring to a market, I usually sell them all. Shanks have a huge cult following and I am one of those shank devotees. You've got to cook them low and slow but man oh man, are they tasty.

Here's a lamb shank recipe I came up with a few weeks ago when we had a few shanks left and I had a hankering for them. It is one of those recipes that is really easy - you just put everything in a pot and let it cook. When you come back, it is done and dinner is ready to eat.

Kristin's Autumn Lamb Shanks:

4 lamb shanks
1 large can of peeled Italian tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
6 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
2 cups of wine - I prefer red but white will do

Heat oven to 250 degrees. Place all ingredients in a Dutch oven. You can cut up the tomatoes a bit if you want but it isn't necessary. I use a copper pot but any pot will do as long as it can go on direct heat and oven heat. I don't have any Le Creuset pots but I think they would be perfect. Place the Dutch oven on the top of the stove and bring it to a boil. Once the mixture boils, place it in the oven with the lid on. Cook until tender - about three to four hours. The shanks are done when they easily pull away from the bone.

I usually serve one shank per person but this depends on people's appetites and the size of the shank. Serve with crusty bread, a salad and some nice cooked white beans. A perfect meal for a late autumn or winter weekend day.

There's a great cookbook by Stephane Reynaud I just found with lots of nice lamb recipes in it. And it is one beautiful cookbook: French Feasts: 299 Traditional Recipes for Family Meals and Gatherings. He also has another wonderfully beautiful cookbook called Pork and Sons. Both these books are so beautifully designed and appealing that my heart melts. Check them out.

And did you seen this? Check out the link - a new magazine called Canal House Cooking that looks really intriguing. It is done by former editors at Saveur and Martha Stewart. I downloaded some sample pages and it looks really great. A bit expensive but with the demise of Gourmet (I'm still in tears) perhaps it will fill the void. There's a chocolate gingerbread recipe in the winter issue that looks divine.

Does anyone else have any favorite cookbooks with lamb recipes in them? I'd love to hear.


Today's sheep photos were taken while the sheep were grazing another neighbor's field close to where we moved them a couple weeks ago. There's still a lot of grass left but it's just a matter of time before the ground freezes and the fence posts won't go in the ground. The dogs, The Farmer, our neighbor Wendy, and Eeyore moved the 230 plus sheep across the road without incident. Not a car passed, what luck! The electricity is running from Wendy's house through a culvert under the road so that the sheep will be safe from the coyotes.

Good weekend everyone.

Derby Days

This morning I went out very early to try to get some nice pictures of the lambs as the sun was coming up slowly and still low in the sky. The lambs aren't used to me taking photos of them and so it was hard to get many good shots. I'll try again over the next few days. Eventually they'll be less afraid of me and my pointing a black thing at them.


This weekend is the Kentucky Derby. If you're looking for an excuse to throw an impromptu party, I would say this is it - even if you don't like horse racing. The first weekend in May is usually beautiful. I've been going to Derby Day parties since I was a little girl. When we moved here, I discovered that my new friend Kay (a Jersey girl too) also shared the Derby Day Party tradition. Our families have been getting together to watch and bet on the race for several years now and I look forward to this late afternoon visit and strolling in Kay's newly planted vegetable garden. I always bring my Derby Deviled Eggs and you can find my recipe here. Eggs are courtesy of my chickens who looked particularly beautiful this morning in the early morning light.

Here's this morning's April Lamb Derby under the apple trees at our farm.


Hard to tell who won though without brightly colored silks on jockeys and numbers on saddles.