Lamb Chop Vegetable Soup

I ate 2 of these 8 gorgeous lamb chops with steamed vegetables the night before, so I used 6 chops for this recipe. Season and roast at 375° until they're browned and sizzling. After they cool, cut away the fat (I chopped a little bit of that, well -shown in the glass custard cup- and mixed it with my dogs dry food). Drain the fat into a 5 quart pot. Add the chops and pour 4c warm water over everything. Let that stand 10 minutes or so.

Remove and chop the meat for the soup, put all the bones and majority of the fat back into the pot. This will become some lovely bone broth.

Add some bay leaves, peppercorns, 1/4 - 1/3c red wine vinegar, then bring to a low boil. Reduce heat to just a small occasional bubble. Simmer this way for 2-5 hours. Remove all the solids from the water, strain several times then chill in the 'fridge or freezer until the fat can be scraped off the top.

Later that day or the next morning. . .scrub and prep the vegetables, cutting everything into nice sized chunks or slices. I used the following, adding them in the order listed to a different pot with 3T single source EVOO. Simmer 15 minutes after each addition.

3 med. carrots
3 stalks of celery (save the greens for later)
a little bit of a lg. purple onion

6-8 tiny red / Yukon gold potatoes

10oz. baby Bela mushrooms
3-4 big cloves of smashed-sliced garlic
the rest of the purple onion
finely chopped celery greens

Add the strained bone broth and lamb, simmering another 5 minutes before serving.

It's Soup Time! . .Lin

Italian Lamb Stew - For One

2 sm. lamb chops

1 med. carrot

1 red potato

1 sm. onion

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4 oz. good beer

4 oz. good red sauce

1t-1T Italian seasonings

fresh ground salt and pepper

Some day, I have hopes of going vegetarian, or maybe even vegan.  Yet, for now, the craving for a little really good quality meat is still something I still contend with a couple times a week.  I deal with this by trying to buy meat that's healthy and has been humanely raised.  Today, I had lots of vegetables, cooked and raw as well as some of that Really Loaded Cornbread I made yesterday.  However, now, it's 'dinner' time and the craving just wouldn't leave, so. . .I'm making my own tiny little pan of lamb stew!  Mmmm. . .  Living alone, I often will throw something together, just for one serving, so if this looks good to you, extrapolate. . Make it for 3 or 4 or 6!

Trim all the fat off the lamb, cut the vegetables into the appropriate size for their cooking time.  Mix up the sauce, pour it over everything in the pan, cover and simmer.  Beer is what I have currently.  Red wine would be great, as would Vodka.  Even white wine, which I usually have here, but I need to grocery shop!  That'll be tomorrow.  This involved almost no prep time, and went from stove to plate in about 20 minutes.  Good, healthy food doesn't have to take a lot of time.  Nor does it need to be expensive, which is how many view lamb.

At our grocery store, there's a small section in one of the frozen food 'bunkers' where meat that's getting close to its 'sell-by' date is marked down, and frozen.  These two chops cost me $3.70!  Be Resourceful!  Be Creative!  Happy Cooking! . . .Lin