Recipe - Venison Boulangere.

Last weekend there was a farmers market in Fleet and we picked up a beautiful piece of venison rump. I decided to cook it in a similar way to Gordon Ramsay's Lamb Rump with potatoes boulangere.

Here is my version of the dish, which served two of us with leftovers. The venison weighed about 600g and as well as that I used:

400g potatoes, peeled and very thinly sliced in the food processor then soaked in cold water for an hour
2 small onions, peeled and very thinly sliced
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
25g butter plus a small knob (about 5g)
1 tsp light olive oil
about 200ml beef stock
seasoning

Pre heat the oven to 160 C, 140 C fan, gas  mark 3
Heat the 25g butter in a frying pan and fry the onions gently until soft then increase the heat for a couple of minutes until they start to brown at the edges. Then stir in the balsamic vinegar and boil hard for a minute until it has mostly evaporated, stirring well to coat the onions with flavour.

Layer the potatoes and onions in a wide, shallow ovenproof dish, seasoning between layers unless your stock is already well seasoned, and making sure you finish with a layer of potatoes, then pour stock over to almost cover. Cover the dish with foil or a lid and cook in the oven for 1 hour,

Score the skin surface of the venison then heat the oil and remaining butter in the same frying pan you used for the onions and sear the venison, skin side down, for a few minutes, then turn to lightly brown the other surfaces.

Remove the foil from the potatoes and increase the temperature to 190 C, 170 C fan, gas mark 5. Place the lamb  on top of the potatoes and press the potatoes around it down slightly so any liquid in the dish runs over them. Pour the pan juices over the potatoes.

Roast for 45 minutes (for medium, longer for well done) then remove the venison from the oven and let stand for 15 minutes before carving. Return the potatoes to the oven to crisp the top while the venison rests.

Ready to go in the oven

It tastes (and smells) better than it looks - honest it does! 

Tender, succulent and delicious  - just as venison should be

We had this with red cabbage that had been slowly braised with raisins, red onions and cloves,  and for a brighter, fresher contrast, some steamed leeks.

One for the boys

Isn't it hard to think of cards for men? So when I spotted this great card on Pinterest I had to repin it to my own board, I knew I would need it for inspiration some time! (It's the first time I've ever embedded a pin  - I hope I've got it right and managed to include links to the creator and original pinner. Many apologies to both of them if I have messed up!) d

Source: melstampz.blogspot.com via Mary on Pinterest

And within days I saw that this week's challenge at Addicted to CAS is "Masculine". It didn't take much mental energy (thank goodness) to translate this into a clean and simple design.

I'm also playing along with CAS-ual Fridays where the theme is Hi-Ho Silver

A giveaway at Going Buggy

There's a lovely set of skintone Flexmarkers up for grabs at Going Buggy. You have until March 5th to join in.

That's all from me for now - I'll be back with a recipe later on.

The Streets of London

The current Craft Room Challenge is "Something for a man" so I am sharing the birthday card I made for my son-in-law Juan, whose birthday is today. He and my daughter met when they were both studying in London, so the city has some very special memories from them, and the gorgeous new X-Cut Build-a-Scene dies of the London skyline were perfect for his card.

Wish Upon a Star

This week's challenge at CD Sundays is "Hugs and Wishes". I thought it would be a perfect challenge for a first outing for the Forever Friends Black  & Gold CD that was free with Simply Cards and Papercraft a year or so ago - I think it is a taster of one available from Docrafts.

The trouble is, I've never made  a digital card before. Using the design tools was quite a steep learning curve, but this is what I came up with

However I tohught it looked very flat, and I didn't like the way the edges of the star had pixellated (I think with hindsight they were menat to look distressed) so instead of treating it as a purely digital creation, I printed it out and mounted it on an A5 card then added some glitter.

However I still wasn't happy with the lack of dimension - the shadow of the star just wasn't enough  to create the illusion. I also couldn't work out how to flood the frame around the text with white space in order to make the text show up (any tiops welcome!). So I  decided to print out the elements I wanted separately, framing the main image first and cutting it out in one piece. That would give me chance to raise the inages from the background and give it some depth. At the same time I reduced the size of the background a little to give a white border, to give the whole card a little lift, and reduced the size of the main image and star to keep the balance. I made the resulting design up into a card and defined the border with peel offs.

Just for comparison, here are the two finished cards side by side

I'm just taking my first baby steps into the world of digital crafting. I think I still have a long way to go (and anyway, what good is crafting if you don't get messy?)

Meal Planning Monday 25th February - "Home alone"

This week Mark will be away for a few days, so I'll be able to indulge in fish while he is away. And when he gets home, after several days of hotel food, he will be craving veg!

Monday chicken "Nigel Slater style" - I don't know why we always call it that, as he has written hundreds of chicken recipes and this doesn't follow any of them, but it's a family habit that has stuck. Pan fried chicken with mushrooms in a creamy sauce, with rice, baked tomatoes and green beans. I'll cook extra rice to make fried rice tomorrow.

Tuesday while the cat's away, the mice will play!  Sweet chilli prawns with red peppers - Mark's nightmare meal but I'll be able to enjoy it all to myself, with fried rice made from yesterday's leftovers.

Wednesday I have a piece of salmon in the freezer, earmarked for salmon and broccoli mornay, but I might go out to buy fish and chips instead - I've been fancying some fish and chips for months now but seldom get the chance to have them.

Thursday Mark is due home late evening and will be tired and hungry. Comfort food is called for - and comfort food that won't spoil if his flight is delayed and he gets in late. So I'll make macaroni cheese - I can make it in individual portions. Then if he's late I can eat at my normal time and not throw my blood  sugar levels into a state of confusion.

Friday I'm planning to try cheesy lentil pie with cornmeal pastry  which we'll probably have hot with lots of veg on Friday and cold with salad for weekend lunches.

Saturday I expect Mark will be cooking, so the choice will be up to him

Sunday grilled Merguez sausages and vegetable tagine with couscous

I'm joining in the linky over at At Home With Mrs M  - why don't you?

Less is More 108 - Paper Piercing

Challenge #108 at Less Is More is paper piercing.

I've never used paper piercing before except as an aid do embroidery, so I wasn't quite sure what to do for this week's challenge. An insect flight path? A border? For the flight path I would have needed  to so some freehand drawing and I'm hopeless at that - that's what drew me to stamping in the first place.

So I had a go at a border. Several attempts ended up in the bin, before I realised I needed to measure out where to place the border before starting the piercing!

I'd hoped the dark card would show up through the holes better - perhaps I should have wiggled my pokey tool a bit more? (oooh Mrs!) and I still think the holes would have served better as the basis for some stitching.

So I decided to try a completely different angle and pierce an outline. First of all I used a rosebud stencil sponging the design through the stencil. Then I outlined it with piercing. This too involved several attempts - at first I was so keen to produce a sharp outline that I pierced the holes far too close and ended up perforating the image so it could be punched out of the card! Here is my finished effort - I think if I were to do this again I would try to improve it by adding in some of the detail such as veining on the leaves and separate petals on the bud, but then we're getting back to the freehand work that I'm so bad at!

Well, I gave it a try - but I think from now on I'll be leaving paper piercing to the parchment craft experts and the wonderful things they do with it!