Cinnamon Lamb Stew

I've never cooked lamb before, but felt I should try. This recipe also fulfills my desire to incorporate cinnamon into more dishes other than deserts, so it was win-win. Plus, stews are really easy to make and it's almost impossible to overcook a stew. It tasted really good, it's a much sweeter stew than the beef one I've made before.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds boneless lamb stew meat - cubed
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 cloves garlic - minced
• 1 onion - diced
• 2 carrots - diced
• 2 celery stalks - diced
• 5-6 baby potatoes
• 1 28oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 bay leaf
  

Directions

1. Place the lamb in a bowl or baking dish and toss with cinnamon, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Cover and place in refrigerator for up to 24 hours, or cook immediately.
2. In a heavy saucepan or Dutch oven, sauté the pieces of lamb in the oil. Meat should be browned on all sides.
3. When all of the meat is browned, add the garlic, carrots, celery, potato, and onion, and cook for about five minutes, stirring, until vegetables start to soften . 
4. Add tomatoes, wine and bay leaf. 
5. When mixture begins to bubble, reduce heat to low and cover. 
6. Cook for 2 hours, stirring occasionally or until meat falls apart when squeezed. 
7. Serve with toasted hard rolls (10min at 350 degrees in the oven)

Thoughts:
This is a stew, so like I said, it is easy. I added the potatoes to the recipe and during the process, I added about 1/2 a cup of water about half way through, since the liquid had really cooked down. The recipe also said you could use either red or white wine, but I can't imagine making this with a white.

The recipe originally called to be served over couscous, but I couldn't be bothered to make it, and I like my stews in a bowl. I contemplated adding some flour to the mix at the end to thicken things up, but I decided against it and I think that was a good choice.

Next Time:

• Add 1-2 cups of water while the stew is cooking to produce more broth. (Don't if serving over couscous)
• Add a 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of red pepper to add a little kick.
• Maybe add peas at the end to provide some color
• Maybe swap the nutmeg for allspice
• Buy actual stew meat as opposed to lamb on the bone and cutting the meat out.

Snickerdoodles

So, tonight was my first attempt at Snickerdoodles. I had heard good things about them, but have never tried them.

Recipe:
I got this from the internet, but I altered the recipe somewhat from what I found based on previous baking endeavors.

Makes About: 4 dozenish

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar - I used White Vinegar instead

Coating:

• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 3.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar.
   
3. Add the eggs and the vanilla and mix together.
   
4. In a seperate bowl, sift together the flour, soda, and salt.
5. Add dry ingredients a little at a time to wet bowl and mix well.
6. Add vinegar and mix in, being careful not to over mix.
   
7. Shape dough by rounded half tablespoon scoops into balls.
   
8. Mix the 3 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon in a ziplock baggie. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets covered in parchment paper.
9. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

Additional notes for my kitchen: I have an airbake cookie sheet, which needs longer in the over, so the cookies went for 10:30 on it, and a non-airbake which only went in for 9. My oven is woefully imbalanced in terms of heating, so I let things go a little longer than most recipes call for.

Thoughts:
While they smell awesome while cooking, the flavor isn't as strong as I would have expected, they seem a little bland to me. Maybe that's a good thing? We shall see what the judges think.

Next time:

• Don't knock cooked cookies into the oven causing burning and a frantic attempt to pick out cookie bits of a 400 degree oven.
• Maybe a little more salt to add flavor?
• Maybe a touch more vanilla? The cookies don't have brown sugar like most others, which could be part of the deficit of flavor.
• Perhaps instead of 1/2 cup shortening, using butter flavored shortening? Or maybe just 1 whole cup of butter instead.