Lamb Bolognese

3 tbsp. light olive oil
2 cups celery, diced
2 cups carrots, diced
2 cups onion, diced
1 sprig rosemary
1 sprig sage
5 cloves garlic, smashed
1 cup white wine
2 lbs. ground lamb
2 cups red wine
2 cups marinara sauce
1 cup tomato paste
salt and pepper, to taste
1# fettucine noodles, cooked according to directions.

Heat a large sauce pan over medium high heat, add olive oil and allow to heat up on the flame.
Add celery, carrots, and onion, rosemary and sage and cook until caramelized.
Add crushed garlic, then deglaze with white wine and reduce to almost dry.
Add ground lamb and cook until no traces of pink can be found.
Add red wine to deglaze and reduce. Add marinara sauce then tomato paste, and reduce
until thick and rich. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Serve over fettucine.

Rabbit over Fettucine

1 whole rabbit
Olive oil
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 carrot, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 medium sweet onion, diced
1 cup red wine
1 T fresh rosemary, chopped
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
1# wide fettucine noodles, cooked according to the package
Grated parmesan

Cut the rabbit into 6 pieces. Cover the bottom of a saute pan with olive oil and brown the pieces of rabbit on both sides in the saute pan and set aside.
Now cover the bottom of a stock pot with olive oil and saute the garlic and toss in the bay leaf, carrots, celery and onions and sweat until cooked through. Increase the heat to high and add in the wine. Reduce until there is very little liquid left and then add in the rosemary, tomatoes and the rabbit.
Cover, cook for about 1 hour, remove the lid and let cook for another 20 minutes on low to medium heat.
Serve over fettucine, sprinkle parmesan on top

Baked Lamb Gyros

¼ cup chopped onion
½ pound ground lamb
½ pound ground beef
1 teaspoon minced garlic
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon dried marjoram
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon dried rosemary
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Place onion in a food processor; pulse until very finely minced. Transfer to paper towels and squeeze out excess liquid.
Transfer drained onion to a large mixing bowl; add remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly with hands. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 300°F. Transfer lamb mixture to a greased small meatloaf pan, pressing down and smoothing top over.
Bake until meat reaches an internal temperature of 165°F, about 45 to 60 minutes. Cool 15 minutes on wire rack; invert and remove from pan to cool completely.
Slice lamb loaf into very thin slices. Serve inside gyro pitas with lettuce, yogurt sauce, and chopped vegetables.

Tuesday Lambs

Caliope and her twins; a ram and a ewe named Britton. It was
really cold this AM, so I put matching coats on them until they dried.

China and her daughter, Flairlie, sired by Xcel.

Monday's twins and the rest of the quads

The rest of the set of quads.  These are both ram lambs.  The bigger one
is 12.5#, and the smaller one is 9# so the set weighs just shy of 40#.
 That's mama Hannelore's side; she was busy eating. 
Both of the girls have taken to the milk bucket and are doing well.

Shivaree and her twin rams born Monday.  They are Xcite lambs.

Weekend lambs

We awoke to an Easter surpise this morning.  The bunny had
delivered a basket full of lambs  to Hannelore - four in all.
These are the girls, Tiara and Tilda.  They were wet and chilled,
and I grabbed them up and put them in the warming box while
we got Hannelore and her 2 sons into a dry pen.   Hanna is older,
and we decided to pull the ewe lambs and leave the 2 whopping
big ram lambs with her, since they were warm and nursing on
their own.  She will do much better just raising 2.  Adagio was
nice enough to donate enough colostrum to fill both the girls, so
all four lambs will be off to a good, healthy start.    I took a picture
 of Hanna and her sons, but it was not terribly flattering of her, so
will post one later.   You lug 40# of lambs around, then squeeze
them out, and see how you look half an hour after giving birth!  LOL
Tiara is 8#, and Tilda is 8.5, and they look tiny compared to the biggest
lamb.  I'll weigh the other two tonight and get a total number of pounds.

Poor Asia, in the excitement of the quads, she and her
son got little attention. 

Just as we were loading Clio up for the mad dash to the vet's office,
Sarabande turned up in the barn with a bag of amniotic fluid dangling.
By the time we returned, her daughter Saoirse had been born.
 Click on this photo to see Saoirse smiling in her sleep.  Dreaming of milk,
I suppose.

This is Clio and her remaining triplet daughters, Kipling and
Kimbolton.  They required a 30 mile (one way) trip to the vet
Friday morning to have him assist in the delivery.  The third
lamb, also a ewe, had died and was tangled up with Kim, trying
to come out at the same time.  Once we got them home again,
they slept for a few hours, and Clio awoke starving!    They are
all three doing very well.  These are Xcel lambs.

Saturday evening, Adagio's daughter, Inca arrived.

Here we have Chuck and his lamb, Henry. 
He must be Chuck's because no lamb of mine
would be so loud, demanding and beligerant.
He looks sweet in the picture - don't let him fool
you; just put him down, or forget to feed him first.
He is Rosalie's first lamb, and she has no interest in
him whatsoever, so he is a bottle lamb.

 

Happy Easter!

Potosi #17 Carrah with her twin rams

These were born around midnight last night.  They are both
gorgeous and doing really well.  Carrah is certainly feeding
them well!

More pictures later of this morning's batch of lambs - single ram
from Somerhill Rosalie, triplet ewes from Somerhill Clio, and
a single ewe lamb from both Somerhill Sarabande & Adagio.

Braised Rabbit with Lemon Sauce

1 (2 1/2 pound) dressed rabbit, cut up
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup lemon juice
5 tablespoons cold water

In a large skillet over medium heat, cook rabbit in oil until lightly browned; remove and keep warm. In the same skillet, saute onion and garlic until tender. Stir in the broth, thyme, pepper and bay leaf. Return rabbit to pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30-45 minutes or until meat is tender and a meat thermometer reads 160 degrees F.
Remove rabbit to a serving platter. Discard bay leaf. Combine the flour, lemon juice and water until smooth; stir into pan juice. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Serve with rabbit.

Latest lambs

Wilkie had a big set of twins about 5PM.  They are doing great!
A ram and a ewe named Mimosa.  They are sired by Xcel.

A young Potosi ewe - Elsie #25.  She had triplets in the evening,
 and the tiny girl in the sweater got pretty chilled by the time the third lamb was
 delivered.  It was stillborn - a ewe.  :^(   Little brother was in the middle, and he is
doing really well.  Tiny girl is holding her own, but still waiting
to see if she is strong enough to make it.  She has the biggest,
blackest shining eyes. She certainly has the will to live.
(and yes, Kathy, she had them way out in the back of the pasture - HEHE)

Bess and her huge twins.  They are also sired by Xcel.  They
were born this morning, and already looking like the are a
few days old.   There is a ram, and a ewe named Eden.

Veggie Tales - The Bunny Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS0T57GOwPo

Listen to this as you try one of my delicious rabbit recipes!  

Somerhill Xray

This is Somerhill Xray.  Also an AI son of Llwgy X1 E+, he
is a twin to Xtra, and codon tested RR.   His dam is Somerhill
Ballad from Laird/Jamie lines.  Ballad just had a nice set of
twins again this year.  He will be for sale at the BFL national show
in May.   That's his twin, Xtra on the right. 

Lamb update

Born waaaaaaaaaaay out in the middle of the pasture during the
night, I had to go out during a hail/rain/lightning storm this
morning to haul these two big, heavy lambs into the barn.
This is Potosi #20 with her twins - a ram and a ewe named Glen Rock.
These are the first lambs sired by Xalt - the rest of them have
all been by Xcite.  

A reprise of Friday's baby - this is Ilse and her daughter, Harper.

Ballad's twins, born yesterday AM.  Ram and a ewe named Valentina.

Vivace's twin rams born yesterday afternoon.

Just what I wanted

Saw this in the window of a downtown Cambridge
antique shop.  What would cause someone to mount
some deer antlers, and then have 4 stuffed squirrels
clinging to them?
And the strangest part?
I want one!  LOL