Bitey face & birds

Post 1. Tess & Lucy love a good game of bitey face. This is one of their more tame moments. Notice Willow in the background. She likes to keep a low profile during one of these sessions. They can get out of hand hehe.

Post 2. Our yard is usually the focus of of lots of parrots. They come for the food but stay for the ambience. There were king parrots, rosellas and cockatoos. D took some photos of them having a good old feed.

Sorry the birdie photos aren't the best.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

tailwags

Noah x

Food Glorious Food # 3

I made Moroccan lamb shanks the other night and it was a hit with Bryan and with me. I tried my hardest to put the recipe on facebook but alas the technology to do so was beyond me so I'm putting it here because I think it's worth making and I know there are a few cooks out there.

You need:

2 large lamb shanks

2 potatoes chopped into chunks

2 carrots chopped into chunks

2 small onions chopped

3 cloves garlic crushed

400g tinned tomatoes

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 cup orange juice

2 cups chicken stock

4 fresh dates

2 tablespoons Tagine Spice Mix

Pre heat oven to 160 degrees C.

Coat the lamb shanks in some of the spice mix and brown in olive oil in a casserole dish. Add remaining spice mix.

In a separate pan, saute onions and garlic till soft. Add to the casserole dish with shanks. Add vegetables, tomato paste (cook this out a little). Then add OJ, stock, tinned tomatoes, salt and pepper. Cover and bring to boil, then simmer and place casserole dish in the oven for about 2.5 - 3 hours. I left mine in there for the full 3 hours. After 2 hours you can add the dates as they dont require the full length of cooking. They turn to mushy. Have the oven on low, 160 degrees C.

I didnt serve this with anything as the veg are part of the dish.

I found the Tagine Spice Mix from a great little spice shop in Sydney called Herbies. They have an online shop and they have an amazing range of spices. The tagine spice mix is actually a blend of Paprika, coriander seed, cassia, allspice, chilli, cloves and cardamon. Noice!!!

D x

A tag, an award and a goodbye

G'day maties,

Crikey, we've been very slack lately. We received a tag from several of our buddies and we're embarrassed because it's taken us so long to put it on our blog. From our buddies Hershey, Jazz & Dixie and Tinkerbell, Tucker& Oscar we received the International Bloggers Community award.

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Copy the image, rules and questionnaire.
3. Post in your blog.
4. Answer the four questions.
5. Pick seven (7) friends to share the award with.
6. Come back to Blogginstainfocorner at http://bloggistame.blogspot.com/ and leave the URL of your post in order for your blog to be added to the master list.
7. Have fun.
Here are the questions:

The person who tagged you. Hershey http://hersheyandkaci.blogspot.com/

Jazz & Dixie http://jazzanddixie.blogspot.com/

Tinkerbell, Tucker & Oscar http://nibblestreats.blogspot.com/
Date you were tagged. May 19, 2009 -

Person you tagged: We've decided to tag:

the Barkalot boys Jake & Just Harry,

Molly & Taffy,

Mack,

Eric the square dog,

Khyra and

Marvin the Hollowhound.

Now if you've already been tagged you have to do it all again....haha nah just kidding!!!!!!!!

We also received this award from the lovely Asta. Thank you so much Asta. We're thrilled that you consider us your good pals and that we are worthy of this award.

Last but not least we received this award from our new pals Fergi & Jake. We're glad to be your pals and thanks so much for passing this award onto us.

Today our good friends Marylin & John Harries came by one last time. They along with their dog Colin, head off on their big adventure around Australia. This leg of their trip will have them driving all the way up the east coast to the top end of Queensland before driving all the way back down by the end of the year. They will be back in the Blue Mountains by December and that's when we will see them again. Of course we'll be keeping track of them because Colin Harries has a dog blog so we can all follow their adventure http://colinharries.blogspot.com/

Drive safe Marylin & John. Colin you be a good boy and listen to what your pinkies tell you.
We'll miss you guys. D says boo hoo she has too cook on Monday nights now haaa haaaa.
Have a great time and enjoy everyday!

Love Denise Bryan Noah Willow Tess & Lucy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx