Not sure if it’s a happy 21st Day.

Just as expected, Dave has awoken feeling blah. He hasn’t gone to work and has only just got up and showered. It’s really not too bad all things considered, but not nice to go through none-the-less. I have spent the morning doing work budgets and emails and some compulsory on-line staff training. All has kept me well occupied but Dave is now up so we might go out for a bit soon.

Tonight’s dinner is in the slow cooker. I bought a boned and rolled shoulder of lamb, and have browned it all over, added some fresh rosemary, dried mixed herbs,garlic, onion, a little water and some gravy mix and set it for ‘low’ slow cooking which will take about 6-8hours I think. The gravy mix was because I didn’t have any stock or wine or other flavourings, it is Dave’s flat you know and the pantry is way less well stocked than my own 😉 I’ll buy some baby potatoes whilst we are out and add them in a few hours, along with some carrots and sweet potato I already have. A few green veggies boiled and we should have a delicious dinner.

If you have never tried to make home-made sausage rolls you should. As I said in yesterday’s post I made them last night for dinner and Dave thought they ere great. Recipe as follows.

A quick disclaimer. Dad’s partner, Pamela, is a world-renowned sausage roll maker. We all love them. I am sure her recipe is better, but I didn’t have access to it so made up my own. Perhaps I’ll ask her and compare.

 INGREDIENTS

• 200g sausage mince
• 150g chicken mince
•  1/2 onion, very finely chopped
•  1 clove garlic, crushed
•  1/2 carrot, chopped very finely
• 1 slice frozen bread, crumbled into breadcrumbs
• 1 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon other chopped fresh herbs
•  Salt & pepper
•  1 large egg
•  1.5 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed

METHOD

• Mix minces, onion, garlic, chopped carrot and herbs well.
• Whisk egg lightly in a bowl. Place  about 2/3 of the egg into the mince mix, reserve the rest for brushing pastry.
• Cut the full sheet of pastry in two so you have 3 pieces of pastry.
• Roll 1/3 of mince mix into a log until length of pastry. Place down the centre of pastry. Repeat for other 2 portions. Brush edges with remaining egg mix and roll up.
• Lay onto lined baking tray seam side down. Cut each log into 4 or 6 with a sharp knife but don’t separate each piece.
• Brush tops with egg and bake for 15 mins, reduce heat to 180°C, and cook for another 10 minutes until golden.

Note that I chopped the carrots rather than grate them… I didn’t have a grater and actually it stopped them getting wet which I think was good. You just need to chop very small!

PS: I have an amazing story for you all, but don’t have time now to describe it in detail so I will put it in tomorrow’s post. It’s a story about my dog. I am still blown away and confused as to how it all happened.

In short, yesterday my sister went to my house to drop in some mail at around 3pm. She went to the back door to say hello to Darryl, and found both Darryl and HER DOG LEROY at the back door. They were locked in the backyard. She lives a 2km walk through bush away. We have NO IDEA HOW HER DOG GOT TO MY HOUSE…. more tomorrow 🙂