I’ve been made redundant nearly a month ago, but I’m still loving every single weekend off, when I can cook and do as  I please, stay in bed till 11 and not give a toss in general.

Sunday is all about nice food. Today it was lamb shanks. Got some nice ones from Waitrose, checked up recipes on the net, got the best out of all of them and got cracking. I browned my shanks first nicely, all over, then put them in the casserole with some fried shallots, celery and carrots – fried in the same pan and meat juices. Added some white wine ( next time it will be red, the gravy is nicer ), rosemary, chicken stock, enough to cover the meat, a bay leaf, some peppercorns and stuffed it all in the oven for 2,5 hours.

The meat was just as I wanted it to be, no knife was needed to get the meat off the bone, it was so soft it came off on a fork. I served it with steamed rice, some nice broccoli and an onion salad, that my Mum invented for lamb specifically- very complicated; chopped shallot or onion with lots of paprika, vegeta and pepper, a touch of olive oil. Done.

We popped in to Majestic and stocked up on wine, only there they have this nice Rioja Marques de la Concordia, the most awesome wine with red meat. We damaged a bottle to dinner tonight.

Next time, red wine and much more space in the stomach!