Recipe (What we're having for dinner tonight!)

Lamb Shanks

Take one or two lamb or hogget shanks per person. Trim off all the fat and sinewy bits you can. sprinkle with salt and pepper. Brown quickly in a frying pan if you can be bothered.

Preheat the over to about 190 degrees C

For Four shanks,

Chop up into dice two medium sized onions and two or three carrots (depending on size) and place them in a large roasting dish along with four or five cloves of garlic. You can also put a couple of chopped sticks of celery if you like it, but I dont. Put two or three sprigs of rosemary in with the veges.

Place the shanks on top of the mixed veges.

Add a carton of readymade stock (I use beef but it doesnt matter much) and some water to cover about 2/3 of the shanks. If you dont have a carton of stock you can use stock cubes and some water, And if you havn't got stock cubes, just use water.

Add a good slosh of red wine and a bit more salt and pepper.


Put the dish in the oven and ignore it for about an hour, then turn take it out and turn the shanks over.

Put it back in the oven, and ignore for another hour and a half.

When its cooked, the meat will be coming away from the bones and be soft & yummy.

Take the shanks out of the dish, and using a potato masher or a blender, puree the vege/stock mixture to make a sauce. Sometimes it needs to be thickened with cornflour, sometimes its thick enough as is. Taste and season as necessary.

Serve the shanks with lots of mashed potato and the sauce on top of everything. Oh, and some steamed broccoli is good to have with this.

Mmmmmmmmmm

(A variation on this is to add some cubes of Kumara to the dish halfway through cooking, and not puree the sauce at the end.)

And again, Mmmmmmmm.

Oh So Procrastinatey

Its been longer than a couple of months since I last made a post here.
Not because nothings been happening - but because I am easily distracted.

Ive visited Auckland and Tauranga and Hamilton, and spent a delightful (and incredibly drunken) weekend with as many of my friends and family as possible.

We flew to Auckland on Friday afternoon, then I borrowed Dads car and drove to Hamilton. The Friday night entailed drinking beer and playing poker, 500 and Monopoly with Sara and her boyf and his mates. It was fantastic! Ive never had more fun on a night in. Got to sleep around 4am, and up again at about 9.30. Sara gave me a pair of socks - theyre pink and angora and warm. MMMmmmm . Theres nothing so good as a new pair of socks. We share the belief that you should never have to buy your own socks. Someone should always give them to you as presents. It ought to be a rule.

Saturday involved a drive to Tauranga to visit my friend Karen and her gorgeous 18 month year old boy. He initially thought that I was a bit scary - until I gave him a present and then I was the new best friend. I also dropped in to see Mum, but was feeling fairly grim and hungover so didnt stay long!

Saturday afternoon was a drive back to Auckland, and a big big night out with Chuck and Nick laughing our butts off at The Classic , eating meat on sticks at Tanukis cave, and then playing pool at the K Rd ballroom. Doesnt get much better! Got back to Chuck's place around 4.30am, and got 6 or 7 hours sleep before heading off to check on MrFiji (who was also in Auckland, just visiting his family) and then spend the afternoon with my Dad. Felt a tad seedy, but thats just the price you pay i guess!

Only hassle was the 4 hour delay that we had to cope with at the airport on the way home - the weather in the south island was snow and storms which had closed many of the airports. Its just so good to have such great family and friends - I can visit them 2 or 3 times a year and its just like Ive never been away.