Slow Cooker Sunday! Welsh Cawl

Tags

Abel & Cole, butternut squash, carrot, celeriac, CSA box, giveaway winner, lamb roast, leek, onion, onion squash, parsnip, potato, rosemary, slow cooker, slow cooker lamb, slow cooker sunday, squash, swede, thyme, turnip, Welsh Cawl, winter root veg

Every once in awhile, one of the recipes that comes with our weekly Abel & Cole boxes is so good sounding that we have to make it!

This one turned out to be a slow-coked roast on the stove but we adapted it for the slow cooker since it was just one of “those” days. It worked out beautifully and we managed to clear out a bit of our freezer with it since we happened to have a gallon bag filled with cubed butternut and onion squash leftover from our soup making adventures earlier this winter and this just seemed to be the perfect occasion to use up some of it! After all, we are working on the Eat Your Pantry Challenge!

The hubby had this all alone in his bowl and I served my portion on top of some leftover rice that I didn’t want to go to waste. Either way you go, some crusty bread certainly does the broth justice and just makes it taste more comforting.

Bread gives hugs.

It’s a known fact.

Ingredients:

•  400 g lamb (we chose a bone-in half shoulder)
• sea salt and fresh ground pepper
• 4-5 TBS all purpose flour
• a glug of olive oil
• 4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 4 carrots, peeled and cubed
• 2 handfuls of diced winter roots (turnips, parsnips, swede, celeriac, butternut squash, or any other squash)
• 2 leeks or onions
• 3 sprigs of thyme
• 2 sprigs of rosemary
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 C water
• 1 C red wine
• two lamb bouillon cube (or vegetable) meant to season 2 C of water each
• a few good splashes of Worcestershire sauce

Season the lamb generously with salt and pepper then dredge in flour. Bring a frying pan with about 3 TBS of oilve oil in it to heat then carefully sear each side of the roast until it is golden brown. Then set it in the slow cooker.

Add the potatoes, carrots, root veg,  onions and herbs to the slow cooker, scattering evenly around the lamb.

Add three cups of water and one cup of red wine then toss in the lamb bouillon cubes (or vegetable bouillon cube if you prefer).

Cover and cook on LOW for 6-7 HOURS.

Press a fork into the meat and if the meat pulls away easily and is tender, turn it off and add a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce to your liking, top up with salt and pepper if necessary then serve with warm crusty bread and cheddar cheese!

Garden Update

Tags

chives, cilantro, lemon bars, thyme, tomato, truffles

So most of you know by now that I’m not great with plants. How the tomatoes are still growing and even ripening,… yeah, you heard right. RIPENING. I don’t even know! But while my tomatoes are flourishing, everything I plant in the window herb planter that is supposed to keep your plants alive is dying. I thought maybe I just had an issue with growing them from seed, so once they died, I replaced them with starter herb plants and now those are slowly dying too!

worn out after a long day in the kitchen. and it's only NOON!

The coriander plant was the first to go, the Greek basil is on its way out the door and part of the chives are already pushing up daisies! But because I love a challenge and I want to push myself some more (costing more plants their lives of course), I bought a starter thyme plant that I didn’t bother transplanting, stuck a water cup underneath to catch the excess water after I water it every few days and it is still alive. While I don’t have high hopes for it (knock on wood), I’m trying not to jinx it either. We will see just how far it goes. I did have a reason to pluck off a bit of the thyme leaves though the other night for dinner, so it at least went to a good cause first!

This week in the kitchen has been trying for us. Mei has really started to make some strides in the crawling department, squirming and squiggling everywhere and grabbing everything in sight and not too happy to sit in her bouncer and play without first trying to make a break for it. Patella has hit her teen years so I spent a couple of hours each night the past few nights trying to reinforce when mommy calls to come inside, its time to come inside, not play for hours outside, run around and make mommy crazy. So far? Patella-4. Mommy-0. I usually wind up catching her (eventually) and dragging her back in the house. Her teens years are getting me thinking of putting her back into puppy school. Oi.

what I find under my arm, a squirming Mei ready to eat my recipes!

So due to these two lovely children, my baking time has been limited, and my energy by the time I get them both down for naps so that I can bake. How frustrating. But I wouldn’t have it any other way, I love them both.

escaping. or at least, giving it a go!

That being said, I have been working through endless lemon bar recipes lately, looking for that perfect one to post, so look forward to some lemon bar magic. I also joined another group online, The Daring Kitchen, and the first challenge it to make truffles… which I thought I was struggling with, but after some time with it, I realized I was doing everything just right, just needing to give everything a bit more time so a post (or two) about truffles will be headed your way as well!

red!! Doyle is still green though!

In the meantime… should I pick and eat the tomatoes that have turned red? Or wait til they fall off the vine and then eat them?? I’m hoping some don’t turn red so I can make fried green tomatoes… what would you put on top of fried green tomatoes? I might make a fancy schmancy mayo!