The Blank Page

Is there anything worse than being faced with a blank page and zero ideas or inspiration? When you've told yourself, "You must write a blog entry today". Hmm, I could have waited until tomorrow. Since there has not been a single event of note in my household, family or neighbourhood that I can think of which has happened today. The weather is warming up so I was able to get out into the garden for a bit and attempt my pitiful battle with the weeds that threaten to take over my yard. My teenage son continues to eat and eat and eat and eat. I know he's still growing. And he is expending a lot of energy training and playing sport. And he needs his energy for school and in particular for the exams he is doing at the moment. But truly! The period of afternon between 3:30pm when he gets home from school and 5:30pm when he is looking around for what I am making for dinner, is like watching a National Geographic doco with time-lapse photograpy as the food rapidly vanishes from the cupboards and fridge. Tonight, we are having a simple meal of lamb scotch fillet with lener crisp vegetables and a spot of salad.

Mum's Projects

I don't know why I do it. I know I shouldn't. But you know what? It happens every single time. I just can't help myself when it comes to doing the kids' school projects. Not intentionally mind. It creeps up on me. As is usual, the project will have been left until the last minute. There will be a total lack of inspiration for a subject matter for the project. Once decided, there will be a distinct lack of direction for undertaking the design and construction of the project. And so somewhere along the line I will get involved to ensure timely completion. We are currently working on a Trojan Horse made from Paddle Pop or Popsicle sticks. It is a very ugly and ungainly construction, partly because of a conflict of methodology between the project owner (12 year old son) and the project contractor (me). I helped to a point to get the project off the ground then left him to it. And this is where the construction left the design path so to speak and headed off in a totally different direction. In an effort to bring the project back on course, more materials were used than originally budgeted for and the scale has increased somewhat. After a mercy dash to the craft supplies shop to get more paddle pop sticks (ooh, look! they've got big ones too; packet of those as well) I think it highly unlikely that said project will meet the designated completion time: tomorrow. Maybe that's a good thing. He should learn more about consequence of his actions anyway.

Slow Baked Lamb Shank Casserole (serve 6 with leftovers)

4 large lamb shanks
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion chopped
1 carrot chopped
1 stick celery chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
1/4 cup of white wine or sherry
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cups beef stock
Pinch dried mixed herbs
Bay leaf
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 170˚C. Heat oil in large oven proof casserole. Brown shanks then remove from pot. Lower heat and in remaining oil gently cook all the vegetables until soft and golden. Add a little more oil if necessary. Add wine or sherry to pan and cook for a few minutes, then add tomatoes, tomato paste, stock and herbs. Return shanks to pot, bring to boil cover and bake for approximately 2 hours. Check occasionally that there is plenty of liquid and top up if necessary. Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley.



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Committee Meetings and Course Revision.

Monday and back to the normal week for everyone. MM (does anyone remember that horrendous womens magazine that had a segment called Mere Male? You could write in with your item about the daft thing the simpleton in your life had just managed to achieve for all the other readers' sanctimonious amusement. So I'll adopt that term here!) back at work, kids back at school and me with the house to myself. Love Mondays! Today is about tidying up. I have finally given in to the clothes dryer for the season. After spending the last few weeks putting the washing out then bringing it in at the end of the day still damp and finding I'd only be shortening the dryer cycle by thirty minutes, I have just gone straight for the dryer. I also relented and did some vacuuming. This, theoretically is someone else's job but funny how they always manage to get out of it! Vacuuming in my house also means picking up after everyone first, I job I really grudge because it means I failed yet again to get them to clean up after themselves. I managed to get enough done to feed my inner self-satisfaction before I had to shoot off to a committee meeting. I've tried really hard over the years to avoid getting onto committees but I must have had my defenses down the day I agreed to be chairperson for the meetings of the organising committee for our little local community festival. Two hours later, pick up the kids from school, MM is out tonight at a revision session before his course exam next week and there's not enough leftovers from last night's curry to feed the tribe. So it's time to fall back on an old reliable. Something I can prepare fairly quickly, then stick in a slow oven until dinnertime. I'm doing a simplified Lamb Cassoulet. I've never cooked a real cassoulet before but I'm fairly certain there should be some kind of garlicky sausage in it as well as some pork belly or something like that. This doesn't have any of those things but I have added bacon before. I picked this recipe up in a magazine a couple of years ago and snipped it so I can't even tell you which magazine it came from. Oh, and it didn't look like this picture which is actually a traditional cassoulet but it sure tastes good. The important thing is; everyone likes it and in my book that makes it a winner. So here it is:-

1 tablespoon olive oil
6 lamb forequarter chops. I like to cut them in half.
1-2 medium to large onions depending on size, chopped
6 large garlic cloves, peeled and cut in half
a few sprigs of rosemary
400g or 6oz (approx) can of butter beans
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3/4 cup white wine or chicken stock or mixture
400g 6oz (approx) can of chopped tomatoes

I like to use my large enamel cast iron casserole pot for this. Preheat oven to 150 deg C. Rub the oil over the meat. Heat the casserole pot on the stove then brown the lamb in batches and put aside. Turn the heat down and add the onion, garlic and rosemary to the pan. Cook for about five minutes just until it starts to colour then add the beans to the pan. Return the lamb with any juices. Pour the combined wine or stock, tomato paste and chopped tomatoes over. Cover and bake for 2 - 2 1/2 hours. The lamb will be falling off the bone and the gravy will be lovely and thick and flavoursome. Serve with creamy mased potatoes and some steamed green vegetables.

Did you try this recipe? Tell me what you think.

I found this great site for cookbooks.