Author: beautifulchaosorg

Hi, I am Carolien and I am a Dutch woman trying to build a self sufficient homestead on concrete and rubble. Follow my husband and me on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@straverhomestead9667

Cooking a Lamb shank

Slow cooking a Lamb shank in the oven makes for very tender and delicious meat

We helped out a friend of ours who is a shepherd and got a Lamb shank as a thank you. He gave us the tip to slow cook the Lamb shank and we cooked it right away.

First I seared the Lamb shank all around in butter and put it in an oven dish in the oven. Unfortunately my oven only starts at 100°C, so I used that for the Lamb shank. Slow cooking should be done at 80 – 90°C for somewhere between 8 – 10 hours. I figured about 6 hours would be enough when cooked at 100°C. I forgot to put the garlic in with the Lamb shank, so I put it in with the Lamb shank later.

The 6 hours in the oven turned out to be a bit long at that temperature. The lamb shank was a bit dark and a bit crisp at the outside, but the meat was very tender and so delicious.

All in all this is a very easy way to cook up some meat with little effort. Next time I should cook it a little bit shorter and maybe it would be better to pore some olive oil over the meat from time to time wile it is cooking in the oven.

Mushrooms on our property

A few different mushrooms we found on our property

Before we had snow and frost we where rooming around our property with the camera. Amongst other things we found these mushrooms and tried to catch them on camera. Unfortunately we do not know the mushrooms. Maybe someone can help identify these mushrooms??

Preserving Garlic for quick and easy use

No Garlic goes to waist

We love garlic in our food. If we make soup, roast a chicken or some other meat or make a sauce. We put garlic in there. Unfortunately I can not store garlic in our Tiny House very well. It always starts sprouting after a week. Therefore I never buy much and often run out.

To solve my problem with this I decided to preserve garlic for quick and easy use and to prevent the garlic from going bad. This way I should never run out anymore. I have seen people mince the garlic and put it in oil, but I often use the cloves, so I just put the cloves (bigger cloves sliced in two) in olive oil. I bought 5 bulbs of garlic, but could only fit 4 bulbs in the glass I chose. The last bulb will be put to good use fresh. Luckily I had 3 helpers. More and also less useful. Those of you with small children will know what I mean. But the pealing went very quickly and was a lot of fun. And the garlic needed for today’s soup was ready for use also. I store the glass with garlic on oil in the refrigerator.