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Leg of lamb is much more reasonable. I paid $6.50/lb from the halal place, although it was more like $10 or $11 at a typical grocery store.

Wow, our store must have found the same truck that @JohnT 's stuff falls off off, $3.99 lb at our local Giant for the leg, didn't see any racks laying around. I think the legs with the bone removed were $7.99 a lb.

Doing predominately crockpot meals this week. Had sweet and sour turkey breasts on Monday, beef stew last night and have a corned beef going for tonight's dinner. Kids haven't had corned beef since my wife doesn't like it (she has class tonight so no dinner at home for her), so it should be interesting to see what they think. I can see a Reuben sandwich in my future for lunch tomorrow (and the next day, and the next day...).

Update: All kids liked it, but my oldest daughter thought the meat was "bouncy", but the youngest daughter really enjoyed it. The youngest son enjoyed the "stinky" cabbage, so yet another crockpot hit!
 
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Why not add a sheep or two to your livestock??

We raised two sheep when I was a kid. They are easy. Dad purchased and raised 2 lambs for about the price of 1 leg of lamb and ended up with 4 legs and several racks.

Good point, here are my excuses.
1.) Our farm yard is small about 13 acres and I already have 4-6 cows and calves, 2 pigs and about 150 chickens. Two are milk cows. So someone would have to go.
2.) I was told that if I ever got sheep it would be expected of me to sheer them and weave my own yarn. Because then it would make no sense to buy yarn. Though I love attaining new skill sets, this one isn't on the priority list.
3.) I would need to re-fence our property for sheep so they didn't get out. To many other projects.
4.) Mostly, I have never tried it so what if it just tastes like chicken to me.

I will never say it won't happen because I said we would never have milk cows either but as long as my son drinks raw milk his allergies are gone and he rarely has a cold. As soon as the cow drys up, he is sick again. So you never know what might happen on the farm.
 
Pics or it never happened right.......... Rules are rules!

Cincinnati Chili! One of Mrs. IB's favorite dishes growing up, although she is not from the mid west by any means!. It is a Mediterranean-spiced meat sauce used as a topping for spaghetti (a "two-way") or hot dogs ("coneys"), both dishes developed by Greek-Macedonian immigrant restaurateurs in the 1920s.

Went down pretty well with some fermented grape juice from somewhere in the PNW....... :)

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Well, here are some pictures of the "Alliance of the Lambs" dinner. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of anything except the lamb. :slp Not the massive table, none of the veggies, nothing of the people crowded into my house drinking too much. Oh, well.

@bakervinyard , I let a few guests bring dessert. There were some pies, and an extremely rich strawberry shortbread cake that I had a slice of. (I am not much of a dessert person.)

I mentioned a lot of this already upthread, but let me recap the menu. I made two legs of lamb. One was a whole leg (both shin and femur bones), about 8.5 lbs, purchased at a halal grocer, and prepared with North African spices (harissa, caraway, coriander, cumin, etc.). The other was a semi-bonless leg (only had the femur bone), about 6.5 lbs, purchased at a normal grocery store, and prepared with European mediterranean seasonings (garlic, lemon zest, rosemary, thyme, etc.) I also made a chutney for the lamb from ho-made preserved lemons, shallots macerated in lemon juice, olive oil, and mint.

I roasted the legs moderately low-and-slow, viz., 250F for ~2 hours, until 130F internal temp. Then I took them out and let them rest for 45 minutes, while I did other things. In the meantime, crank the oven to 500F, and put the lambs back in for 20 minutes before serving. (“Reverse sear.”) Both lambs were delicious, and were mostly deep pink, just the way I like it. Of course, due to natural variations, there were parts that were light pink and even more well done for those miscreants that like it that way. :)

One of the side dishes was a pearl cous-cous dish from the cookbook Plenty. DW did most of the prep work on this the day before. It is called “green cous-cous” because it has TONS of herbs in it: dill, tarragon, mint, parsley, cilantro, scallions, arugula, etc., and it topped off with crumbled feta cheese. Finally, I made braised lacinato kale, with onions, garlic, ho-made chicken stock, and seasoned with coriander, ground fennel, cayenne pepper, and a bit of lemon juice. I have a huge chef pan, and I still had to do it in 3 batches! Another guest insisted on bringing a middle eastern dish of meatballs, baked eggplant, and saffron rice. This was really outstanding, perhaps better than the other dishes. I also made roasted garlic, and served this and commercial hummus on bread. And lots of wine. LOTS of wine.

Two of the guests had just gotten married, so we feted them with 3 bottles of some cheapish Piper Sonoma Brut champagne I picked up; I felt this punched WAY above its weight. Would definitely purchase again for less than $11. I served a Cline Viognier to a guest who won’t drink red wine, and some of that may have made its way into my stomach, too! Another guest brought a forgettable Shiraz, but the most notable wines were from a different guest, who brought a few quite nice bottles. First, a little vinfanticide with a Sebastiani 2014 Cab Sauv from Sonoma. He also brought a couple bottles of H & G Limited Production Red Blend from Napa (2012). This guest was from Europe, and so picked these as a pig-in-a-poke, but they were, to my tongue, very nice, bold, rich wines that stood up to and enhanced the lamb. He was totally unfamiliar with Washington wines, so I opened a H3 Cab for him; we probably didn’t need any more wine at this point :) , but still we persisted by tasting my CC Showcase Amarone. He was kind to say that he really liked it, but I think our palates had been “softened up” by all of the previous bombardment.

First pix are raw, the last pic is after roasting.

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there were parts that were light pink and even more well done for those miscreants that like it that way. :)
Thank you for my word of the week, now I can enjoy my Friday evening.
First, a little vinfanticide with a Sebastiani 2014 Cab Sauv from Sonoma. ... they were, to my tongue, very nice, bold, rich wines that stood up to and enhanced the lamb.
Last time my Mom invited us to the Country Club, the 2012 Sebastiani was their house red, it was quite tasty, especially with prime rib.

Paul, thanks for the pictures, it looks like you and your DW pulled it off, bravo!
 
Tomorrow, I'm going to be doing my first tea smoked duck. I'm psyched and will hopefully remember to take some pics.
 
Jim, pictures or it didn't happen.

Stayed pretty nice today, so I got to grill up my chicken wings (and a fajita chicken breast for my wife's salads, love da breasts, and a lone Nittany Lion frank for the youngest). Most of it used Sweet Baby Rays bbq sauce, rest used Buffalo wing sauce. Has been a month or more since we had wings, so there are very few left over. Served with ho-made mac 'n cheese (used NY sharp cheddar for some bite) and some fresh green beans (from who knows where). Nice early Spring meal. Will be even better when I can drink a beer while grilling.

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Tea smoked duck tacos, Part I

Got the duck cleaned up, then trussed (ducks need trussing much, much more than chickens - see below for before and after). The rub is made up of sugar, salt, black pepper, five spice, coriander and cinnamon. A little goes into the cavity of the duck, then it gets trussed up. Once that's done, the duck is rubbed with sesame oil and the rest of the rub is applied. The smoke mixture just smells intoxicating. It's brown sugar, white rice, black tea, cinnamon sticks, star anise, and some tangerine or orange peel, topped off with some cherry wood. Smoker is going - set up in the gazebo, as it is supposed to rain this afternoon. Duck is on and we're chilling. See you in a few hours.

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I'd seriously rather have some of those crawfish in the picture above...I see a live FedEx delivery in my near future. So since it wasn't raining as hard as they had predicted (so far just a mist), fired up the small charcoal grill and then the Weber gas grill and made a cheap roast beast dinner, complete with corn and twice baked taters. A little overdone for me, but perfect for the "girls" in the family. Wife was very appreciative (happy wife, happy life).

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Tea smoked duck tacos, part II

After a couple hours, Daffy was looking like this. Gave it a brushing with some sesame oil and let it go a while longer.

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Took it off the smoker and let it rest a few:

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Sliced it up and it was tender, moist, and absolutely delicious!!!

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Plated up some tacos with cucumber, cilantro, carrots, scallions and a little hoisin barbecue sauce. Winner!

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We made three kinds of bacon from our pigs we grew last summer. Marinaded all week. Most of the spices were grown from the garden last summer. One was pepper bacon, a sweet bacon and a recipe with bourbon that had no name. So I named it I don't know bacon because then when I ask "What do you want for supper?" and they answer "I don't know" then that's what they get. DH smoked it for 4 and 1/2 hours and we had it for supper. Always wonderful.

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We made three kinds of bacon from our pigs we grew last summer. Marinaded all week. Most of the spices were grown from the garden last summer. One was pepper bacon, a sweet bacon and a recipe with bourbon that had no name. So I named it I don't know bacon because then when I ask "What do you want for supper?" and they answer "I don't know" then that's what they get. DH smoked it for 4 and 1/2 hours and we had it for supper. Always wonderful.

Few things in life are better than homemade bacon. :HB
 

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