Lets begin with the best lamb shanks!
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| Natural lamb shanks from Whole Foods. Two chopped in half. Rinse before cooking!!! |
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| Lamb shank toppings - Hoisin Sauce, three levels of chili powder, olive oil, honey, and organic molasses. |
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| Slather the ingredients on the lamb shanks |
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| Dash here, Dash there. Almost equal proportions of all ingredients. It might sound spicy, but it does not turn out too spicy. |
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| It looks so good I'd eat it raw if I could. |
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| Lastly add the olive oil. All these ingredients will caramelize it and turn out nice and smokey! |
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| Wrap up really tightly in aluminum foil so that it retains its moisture. |
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| Oven at 375 for 2 hours. |
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| 2 hours later. |
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| They turned out moist and juciy. Most importantly you need to remember to suck the bone marrow out!!!! ITS SOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD. MY FAV! |
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| Ahhhhhhh! |
Now its time for the Baked Ziti!
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| Get two raw pork chorizo sausages and squeeze them out of their casings on to a medium hot pan. Then heat on medium organic pasta sauce (any, but I use a nice generic Whole Foods brand). |
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| Crisp the outside of the sausage. |
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| Add bay leaf to your sauce. |
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| Add a half cup or so of olive oil to the sauce. If too thick, add some organic chicken broth. It will not only make it a little less dense, but it will add a ton of flavor! |
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| Start making your organic Ziti. |
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| Add your sausage to your pot. If you sausage is not cooked all the way its ok cause your simmering in the sauce will cook the rest of it. Make sure to simmer untill the sausage is cooked - non cooked sausage is dangerous!!! Simmer for about 25 min. Take the pasta off when its done, just in case you forget. I mean there's a lot going on right now. |
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| Grate some cheddar cheese, enough for three or four layers of the Ziti. |
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| Prepare your components: pasta, cheddar cheese, sausage sauce, and bake ware. The first layer of your Ziti is pasta, then cheddar cheese, then sauce. Make sure that you remove the bay leaf from the sauce before or during this process. Repeat until your bake ware is filled up to the brim. I used a pie dish - worked out great! |
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| For your last layer do pasta, sauce, then Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 min or until all the cheese is melted. Make sure not to burn. |
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| Baby is waiting for food. |
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| I served it with cold soda. Did not feel like ice tonight. |
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| A bit spicy, but oh so good and oh so lazy! |
On to Christmas cookiesssssss.......
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| I GOT MY FIRST MIXER FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!! It is a real KitchenAid mixer. It was only $150 at WalMart. I have wanted this for two years! I finally got this at a price that I could afford. Originally $300-350!!! |
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| 300 Watts baby! MADE IN THE USA!!!! YAAA!!! |
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| Ok now we will make organic honey Christmas cookies! NO SUGAR! JUST HONEY TO Sweeten!!! YAAA! Start with 1 cup of vegan organic butter (earth balance organic) and 3/4 cup of honey, annnnddd instead of adding all the baking soda and powders, salt etc... I did this the lazy way and used three cups of Organic Buttermilk Pancake mix. THIS IS AS LAZY AS IT GETS! The buttermilk makes it taste like clouds. |
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| Add 1 cup of vegan butter and 3/4 cup of honey. |
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| Beat until fluffy. |
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| Instead of liquid vanilla extract I used real vanilla beans (I found them in a bulk section for cheap, I was realllly lucky!). You only need half of one bean. Slice down the center and skin beans. Add to mixer. |
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| Baby waiting for cookies now! |
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| Add one egg and beat. |
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| Add three cups of the flour mix slowly. |
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| Beat on low. I LOVE THIS MIXER! When all combined stop and roll out. |
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| Roll out and cut shapes. You could put in fridge for 30 min so that the dough is easier to work with, but I never do. I go right from the mixer to the rolling and it works out great for me. Just be gentle when transferring your cookie pieces to your tray. |
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| I used a Silpat - fancy french silicon mat. BUT you should use non-bleached parchment paper. I think I like the parchment paper better. Bake at 350 for like 8 min, you should watch these - they cook super fast. |
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| Sprinkle with powdered sugar and done!!! REMEMBER - YOU ONLY SWeetend these with HONEY and used VEGAN butter! So that means you can go crazy on these and not feel guilty! |
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| Make a couple of thumbprint cookies and add jam in them to diversify your cookies. |
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| This is me after cooking for 4 hours. No makeup, just tired and hungery! lol |
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| Honey cookies are awesome! |
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| Don't forget to leave some for Santa! :-) |
