lamb

People’s Porter Shepherd’s Pie + Giveaway

March 15, 2016 by rachelle 20 Comments

People’s Porter (Foothills Brewing) Shepherd’s Pie

I’m feeling frisky this week, y’all! It’s my birthday month and we’re giving stuff away! Woot! So, I’m coming at you with an additional post to remind you to ~~wish me a happy birthday~~ enjoy your St. Patrick’s Day holiday and to enter the giveaway for some free food from HelloFresh! If you’re not familiar with these fine folks, you can find them here.

We (and again, I mean me and IDK why????) have stepped things up a bit and in the spirit of my birthday and the upcoming holiday, I took the traditional Shepherd’s Pie and, well….. duh! I added beer! Because why not? If you want a family friendly version either substitute the beer for beef stock or go with this recipe where I made Shepherd’s Pie and lamented about how the only thing I wished I did different was to add beer. So I put it in a glass. What can you do? I went with the People’s Porter from North Carolina’s own Foothills Brewing because if it’s a beer you want to drink in a glass, it’s a beer you want to cook with. And I do love their beer any way I can get it!

BTW – this is not a sponsored post and I have not received any compensation from Foothills or anyone else. I just love good craft beer.

Anyways, I’m having a birthday and I hope you win a gift! I’ve teamed up with a bunch of super cool bloggers who know what it’s like to need a break and have someone else put together a meal for you. Who doesn’t need a break now and then? Scroll down to see the widget to enter and be sure to check out some of the other websites! Good luck!

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Win $500 Worth of Delicious HelloFresh Meals!

Giveaway Courtesy of HelloFresh and Arousing Appetites

Bacon and Feta Stuffed Lamb Burgers with Tzatziki + Giveaway

March 14, 2016 by rachelle 29 Comments

Bacon and Feta Stuffed Lamb Burgers with Tzatziki

Happy Monday, friends! Did y’all have a fantastic weekend? We had some beautiful weather here in the Carolinas and we happily took advantage of it. We got out our bikes and went for an 8 mile ride on one of our local greenways. Y’all will totally be relieved to know that I made it through the whole ride without crashing. You may remember that I have some issues with balance and riding bikes.

Enough about my embarrassing bike crashes and let me tell you how absolutely gorgeous the greenway was – keeping in mind that I missed a lot of wildlife and flora due to the fact that I cannot take my eyes off the trail for more than a few seconds or I’ll end up in the bushes, pond, on a porcupine, etc. Anyhoo, there were yellow wildflowers blooming everywhere, ducks were swimming in the water, and turtles were chillin’ on rocks in the sunshine. It was a great day and I hope it’s safe to say that spring has sprung!

Since it’s Monday and we’ve established that Mondays blow, we’re going to ease into this week like an easy Sunday morning – even though I have to suit up and go to work. Womp Womp. On the positive side of things we’re still continuing this month-long celebration of all my favorite things for my birthday and I guess we can include some St. Pat’s celebrating too. I’ll share.

The theme today is pub food. I mean, seriously. Who doesn’t love a burger? We (and I don’t know why I say we when it’s really just me) have stuffed some ground lamb with crispy bacon and feta cheese and topped it with some super easy tzatziki. Toss this on an onion roll and throw in some fries and all is right with the world.

Oh! And guess what? Since we’re celebrating my St. Patrick’s Day birthday pretty much all month long, I have a present for you! A giveaway! I’ve teamed up with a bunch of really hip bloggers to giveaway $500 worth of HelloFresh Meals! The winner has total freedom of choice to put together a preferred choice of veggie boxes, classic boxes, and family boxes! While we love our friends in other countries, this giveaway is only available for United States residents. Scroll below the recipe to enter the giveaway and be sure to check out the other very cool participants’ websites for some fantastic recipes!

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Here are my really cool friends with links to their websites!

Win $500 Worth of Delicious HelloFresh Meals!

Giveaway Courtesy of HelloFresh and Arousing Appetites

One Pan Shepherd’s Pie

April 16, 2015 by rachelle 27 Comments

Y’all know how normally when you make a Shepherd’s Pie you start it on the stove, then transfer it to a pie pan and bake it in the oven?

Well, we are not playing around with that mess here today. This is all done in one cast iron skillet.

Because after the crazy busy few weeks I’ve had with home improvements inside and out, slammed at work, and taxes (UGH), I can’t handle one more thing. I might explode. Or implode. Or both.

Seriously, I am not cut out for ~~physical torture~~ manual labor or math. I think I may have sprained a brain fuse or blown my gluteus maximus. Or blown a brain fuse and sprained my butt.

And the nasty rainy weather we’ve had all week has done nothing to improve my sunny disposition, so it seemed appropriate to share one of my favorite comfort foods – Shepherd’s Pie.

Start it on the stove and transfer the whole thing to the oven.

The only thing I would have done differently?

Added beer. I had to put it in a glass instead.

Cheers!

One Pan Shepherd’s Pie

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb carrots peeled and diced
1 onion diced
8 cloves garlic minced
1 pound ground chuck or whatever comes close in the package
1 pound ground lamb you can leave this out if you don't like it and just use 2 pounds ground of chuck
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon thyme
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup flour
2 cups beef stock
1 - 1/2 cups frozen peas
3-4 cups prepared mashed potatoes

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350
Melt butter with olive oil in a cast iron skillet or oven safe skillet over medium-high heat
Add carrots and cook 3-4 minutes
Add onions and cook 2-3 minutes
Add garlic and cook another 1-2 minutes
Add ground chuck and lamb and cook until browned, about 15 minutes
Add rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper and stir for a minute or so
Sprinkle flour over contents of pan and stir for 1 minute
Stir in beef stock and, bring to a boil, reduce heat,add peas, and simmer for about 5 minutes or until it is a thick gravy consistency
Top with mashed potatoes
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes
Turn heat up to broil and broil for another 5-7 minutes

Update: I meant to include a link for these mashed potatoes in case you need a recipe. It’s what I used for this Shepherd’s Pie and omitted the goat cheese.

Stuffed Leg of Lamb – Pinot Noir Soaked Fig and Dates with Gorgonzola and Pistachios

March 26, 2015 by rachelle 4 Comments

I highly recommend that you ask the butcher to butterfly your lamb for you. I speak from experience here.

I tried to figure it out, consulted Google, and watched a video. No luck. Chris had to do it.

He doesn’t mind though. It makes him feel all cave-manly to cut meat and wield a knife.

Speaking of meat – it never looks as good in pictures as it does in real life. At least not in my pictures. I’m not going to burden you with ugly meat pictures with unappetizing juices leaking out. I’m just going to tell you to make this dang roast. It’s totally awesome.

You don’t care for lamb, you say? Well, big whoop? It’s all about this booze-soaked fig and date stuffing with Gorgonzola and Pistachios anyway. Don’t get me wrong – it’s fantastic with the lamb, but it would be good in just about any other kind of meat you like. I think it would be awesome in pork chops or a pork loin too.

If I were going to stuff this into a pork chop, I would probably just cut a pocket and jam it in there. For a pork loin, I’m thinking maybe the way to go would be to ~~butterfly it~~ have Chris butterfly it, pound it out flat, stuff it and roll it. No matter what kind of meat blows your dress up, this stuffing is totally awesome. You need to do this!

And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.

Stuffed Leg of Lamb – Pinot Noir Soaked Fig and Dates with Gorgonzola and Pistachios

Ingredients

4.5 pound leg of lamb butterflied (do yourself a favor and have the butcher do it)
1/2 cup bread crumbs
5 garlic cloves
1/2 cup salted pistachios
2 tablespoons olive oil plus more to rub on lamb
3-4 ounces Gorgonzola crumbled
6-8 dried figs soaked in Pinot Noir for at least 4 hours, chopped
6-8 dried dates soaked in Pinot Noir for at least 4 hourschopped
4-5 sprigs fresh rosemary
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
salt and pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350
In the bowl of a food processor combine dates, figs, Gorgonzola, pistachios, garlic and bread crumbs. Pulse until combined and nuts and garlic are roughly chopped.
Drizzle in olive oil and pulse until combined and the mixture is sort of damp and pasty
Spread stuffing mixture on inside of lamb fold top of lamb over, tie with kitchen twine to keep together, rub outside of lamb with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Roast at 350 15-20 minutes per pound, until rare or preferred temperature

Double Chocolate Stout Irish Stew

March 12, 2015 by rachelle 14 Comments

Yeah. I did it again. I just can’t help myself when it comes to double chocolate stout.

But you can’t say I didn’t warn you the other day with the Double Chocolate Stout Bundt Cake!

So when I was perusing Jennifer’s copy of Food & Wine I became inspired at the mention of Irish Stew. I haven’t made Irish Stew in quite some time and right now it seems we are all about everything Irish for my ~~upcoming birthday holiday~~ upcoming St. Patrick’s Day holiday.

This Double Chocolate Stout Irish Stew was inspired by and similar to the Irish Stew in the magazine and based in part on the way I make beef stew and pot roast.

Not only is is made with beer, but for the most part it is done all in one pot. I say for the most part because if you don’t get distracted about going ~~day drinking~~ for a pedicure with Lisa and , you would remember to add flour when you put the meat back into the pot after deglazing. But if you forget, no worries! Just remove some of the broth to a saucepan, put it over some heat, and mix you up a slurry to thicken it up. Serve it up with some crusty bread or biscuits and you are good to go!

See this guy? We had it with him. It is a caramelized onion and gruyere biscuit posted in the recent past at Smitten Kitchen. I highly recommend it.

Inspired by Food & Wine

Double Chocolate Stout Irish Stew

Ingredients

3-4 tablespoons olive oil
3 pounds lamb shoulder cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 cups double chocolate stout I used Young's
1 large onion diced
4 garlic cloves minced
2-3 small turnips peeled and cut into 1 1/2 - 2 inch pieces
1/2 pound carrots peeled and cut into 1 1/2 - 2 inch pieces
12 or so fingerling potatoes
6 cups beef stock
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs rosemary
4 sprigs thyme
salt and pepper
1/3 cup milk
3 tablespoons corn starch

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325
Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, brown lamb in batches careful not to over crowd the pan or they will steam and not brown. Reserve the meat in a bowl until all is browned. 6-7 minutes per batch (I also browned the pieces of meat with the bones)
Pour the beer into the pot, cook for a few minutes scraping up all the brown pieces
Add the lamb with any liquid in the bowl, onions, garlic, stock, bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper, cover and cook in the oven 2 1/2 - 3 hours.
Add the carrots, turnips, and potatoes and cook until tender, about another 45 minutes to 1 hour
Remove pot from oven, take out the bay leaves, and transfer a few cups of the liquid from the pot to a saucepan over medium-high heat
Mix together milk and corn starch and add to the hot liquid in a slow stream,stirring until thickened. Transfer back into the pot with the stew, stirring it in slowly until combined
Serve hot with crusty bread or biscuits

lamb

One Pan Shepherd’s Pie

Ingredients

Instructions

Stuffed Leg of Lamb – Pinot Noir Soaked Fig and Dates with Gorgonzola and Pistachios

Ingredients

Instructions

Double Chocolate Stout Irish Stew

Ingredients

Instructions

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