Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Behold the Lamb

There has been a delay in my travel plans.
It's rainy.
I don't want to drive 500 miles-plus (with a dog) while it's raining, no.
So we're planning on a Friday getaway; maybe Saturday.
Which meant that we had a day (today) to hang out in the kitchen.
Not too much hanging out. After the initial preparations, you just set the lamb shanks and their aromatics and liquids on the stovetop to simmer, and walk away. Until fally aparty. The lamb, not you. Though I feel a little fally aparty myself.
Partway through the cooking, you set up a mini crockpot to cook some polenta. Again, you just walk away and wait.
And then you eat. Well, you take a picture first.

SAD NOTE: I am being attacked by a huge proliferation of comment spam, in Chinese. What's the point? I can't read it. Is somebody using my blog to communicate with Klaatu? Well, knock it off.
I tried not accepting anonymous comments, but the Chinese spammer immediately used a registered name. Wish I knew how to block him. (Ideas?)
For now, I've activated comment moderation. Sorry.

13 comments:

Ms Brown Mouse said...

Don't fall aparty. Sticky lamb should hold you together.
No idea about the spam, but I have spotted it around the traps.

Jen Yu said...

oh hon, i get thousands of spam a month (some in arabic, some chinese, most in english). this may or may not be helpful but... i run my blog on wordpress and there is a great plugin for catching spam. i wonder if there is a similar thing for blogger? just a thought.

Steph F. said...

ohh, sorry about the spammers. Irritating buggers.

How did you make polenta in a slow cooker? Is there a method?

limoncello said...

Sorry for the delayed travel, and sorry for feeling fally apparty. I got over that after I quit margaritas, but that's a different conversation.

Lamb and polenta - now *that's* an answer to a rainy spring day!
Meself, I had lunch in your old 'hood, then a happy visit at Omnivore Books on Food, and then toasted coconut ice-cream at Bi-Rite.
Lamb and polenta sounds better.

Zoomie said...

One of my very favorite dishes is lamb shank. You can do them in a crock pot, too, and walk away. Easy. Nice. Delish.

Sorry about the spam - mischief for no reason! I think you can report the source to Blogspot or at least flag their blog as a troublemaker. If enough people do that, Blogspot will take them down.

Anna Haight said...

That's why I have my comment moderation on too. The only English I see often through the characters is a 3-letter word recognizable throughout the world. Lamb and polenta looks great!

cookiecrumb said...

Mouse: The lamb helped a lot. Oh, it was good, and so easy.
Spam... We'll keep exploring options.

Jen: Thanks for the tip. I'm going to have to do a little investigating, but I suspect that wordpress is a lot more user-helpful than blogger.

Steph: Polenta in a slow cooker is illegally easy. You don't even stir it (well, once or twice). Put the proper proportions of polenta grains and water in a small crockpot and mix. We use a cooker designated for party dips; it doesn't even have a temperature setting -- you just plug it in. It makes about two cups-plus. Let it go until you think it's really close to done, and then you might want to stir in a little more water (stir deeply through to the bottom). Wait a few more minutes, taste for tenderness... and voila.

Limoncello: Sounds like you had a good day!
Yeah, we have leftover lamb. I'm thinking George Foreman Grill sandwiches!

Zoomie: I know! You've told me. I have GOT to give cooking shanks in a crockpot a try. Thanks for the reminder.
As for the troublemakers, no blog. Simply a stealth operation to BOTHER me. But I appreciate the advice; I may be able to report them somehow.

Anna: I guess it's a pervasive problem. I wonder why it took so long to invade MY blog. Blessed innocence, lost. :(

Kate said...

Ah well. Spam. What can you do?

Fally aparty. I likey. I've got some lamb shanks in the freezer that I may try this with. Thanks.

Kalyn Denny said...

Before I switched to comment moderation, I sometimes had 50 spam comments when I woke up in the morning. Yes, it can be a hassle to moderate the comments, but better than deleting all those comments by hand. Actually I like comment moderation better now that I'm used to it. Maybe I'm just the controlling type, but I like seeing the comment before I let it go on the blog.

Just a tip though, you don't need the captcha letter with comment moderation. So I would pick one or the other!

cookiecrumb said...

Kalyn: I was overwhelmed. The very moment I switched from barring anonymous comments, the spammer came back with about 20 new comments with a "name" (in Chinese characters I can't read).
So this is good for now. Thanks for the encouragement, and ESPECIALLY for the tip on removing captcha. I would never have thought of it.
xxx

Steph F.: I should add. Crockpot polenta takes about two hours, and you need to salt to taste.

Greg said...

I got a whole mess of the same spam in my email but it did not show up on the blog itself. Would love to reach out to the spammer and discuss my thoughts on the penalty phase of our judicial system.

cookiecrumb said...

Kate: My lamb shanks came from the freezer too. They behaved well in a hot wet bath.
As for spam, the perpetrators are lying low for now.

Greg: I need a bodyguard. You busy?

michael, claudia and sierra said...

fally aparty?
ummm, ok

the polenta making tip is freakin genius. i've got one of those little crocky potty things.

see? i can do it too...