3/29/2013

A Friday Mish-mash



1. The other morning, I was speaking to the kids about the usefulness of writing down some of our experiences and blessings. When we are blessed by God in certain ways, we think we will never, ever forget what He has done for us, but ... we do. The next morning at worship, we sang these verses:


1 O thou my soul, bless God the Lord; and all that in me is Be stirred up his holy name to magnify and bless. 2 Bless, O my soul, the Lord thy God, and not forgetful be Of all his gracious benefits he hath bestowed on thee. 3 All thine iniquities who doth most graciously forgive: Who thy diseases all and pains doth heal, and thee relieve. 4 Who doth redeem thy life, that thou to death may'st not go down; Who thee with loving-kindness doth and tender mercies crown:


Although we have many, many temporal blessings, the Psalmist here mentions his greatest blessings:

.... his iniquities were graciously forgiven;

.... his spiritual disease was healed and the pain relieved;

.... his life was redeemed.

Do any of you keep a journal of spiritual experiences and blessings? For years I didn't, but I am so glad to look back now over things I wrote over the past few years. They cause me to give thanks all over again for the many blessings 'He has bestowed on me'.

2. Do y'all remember the fella who gave us the St Kilda posts? What ... You haven't read them? You can read the first of the posts here.

In case you don't think it's worth going to read them, I'll give you a couple of photos as 'tasters'. No hurry here: I'll wait.














The second post is here, and the third St Kilda post can be found here.

Oh, you're back. They're good, aren't they? Anyway, that fella, Calum, sent me this photo yesterday:


This is a Cheviot ewe with a male Texel cross lamb.


I knew that off the top off my head. I'm good at this whole recognizing-sheep-and-their-breeds stuff.

Ahem.


3. Catherine turned eighteen this week. Yes, my second child is now officially an adult, and I still feel like I'm only beginning to learn this being-a-parent business.

Our kids get to choose the menu when it's their birthday, and Catherine's choice this year was lamb shanks.


I was cooking ten shanks, and had three different ways of cooking them. 



Five of them went into the slow cooker with red wine and rosemary, as well as garlic, stock and seasoning. They bubbled happily in there for about eight hours, and made my kitchen smell delicious throughout the day. The recipe for those is here.



Three of the shanks were bundled up in cozy foil parcels with rosemary and thyme, butter, garlic and onion. They went into the oven for about two and a half hours. You can find Jamie Oliver's recipe here.

The final two were plain-Jane roasted. I had to roast some in this way to get that lovely almost-burnt stuff on the bottom of the roasting dish so that Catherine could have ordinary plain lamb gravy.

My order of preference was:

1. The foil wrapped shanks. The flavour of the butter and garlic through the meat, as well as the thyme gives this one winning status.

2. The slow-cooker shanks come a close second. The meat just fell off the bones, as it did with the foil wrapped ones. Oh, they were delicious.

3. I did like the onion-y roasted flavour of these, and if they weren't in competition with the other two, I'd be singing their praises. As it is, they come 3rd in my order.






8 comments:

  1. When I come across the Pond, I want you to fix lamb shanks and we will sing a Psalm together to celebrate the LORD's goodness! I have never had lamb! Hmmmm, we can eat guga, too, right? Well, maybe guga. Do you serve them with grits? :)
    Happy belated birthday to dear Catherine!

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    Replies
    1. Grits???

      And you have *never* had lamb?? Oh, you don't know what you're missing ;) Yep, we'll have it together one day..

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  2. Without wanting to paint too graphic a picture, that Psalm is my 'shower psalm'- I OFTEN sing it (Tune;Stracathro, if you're interested) there. Great way to start the day! By the way, the lamb looked GREAT!!!!

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    Replies
    1. Stracathro is probably my favourite tune of *all*. I simply love it :)

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  3. Your lamb looks so wonderful. You are inspiring me to take some out of the freezer for this weekend. Happy Easter to you are your family.

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    Replies
    1. Michelle, I think you're the first American to have lamb in your home! Most don't seem to have tasted it - I guess beef is your meat of choice (ours too), but we have plenty sheep in the UK too .... Enjoy!

      Have a blessed Easter weekend :)

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  4. That lamb (i.e. the live one) is so cute!! It makes me want to add one to our farm for wool purposes.
    Happy Resurrection Day!!! What glorious hope we have.

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  5. We have relatives who were missionaries in Argentina and brought back a tradition of roasting lamb over a pit. We would do that once a year for a family reunion. It is always an experience and very yummy. Wow, your second is 18 already? Where does that time go?! *sigh* They grow way too fast.
    Susan P

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