Passover Preparations And Resurrection Sunday

This morning(Saturday) I was sitting on the porch eating my leftover homemade pizza from last nights' Shabbat celebration (I know, not very traditional) as my thoughts wondered to our preparation for Passover. We had to go back to town yesterday to purchase the rest of the supplies for the Seder and Passover meal. I believe that we purchased the last lamb shank in town. It was about 2 am yesterday morning when we returned home from a trip, so we stopped at the Super center (you know the one) and they did not have any lamb at all, none, zip. Apparently, they don't carry lamb at any time of the year. They were the only store open at that time of the morning, so we had to traipse back into town to find out that two other stores were out of shanks. Number One called the last one in town and reserved their last shank. He is my hero....

I have not cooked lamb shanks before, so I checked out a few recipes online and watched a YouTube video. Hopefully, it will turn out great. Number One does not care for lamb, but he has not had it cooked with love or rosemary. I didn't care for lamb either, until I had it prepared with rosemary at a women's retreat. I look forward to the challenge of a new recipe....

Heat some olive oil in a skillet, salt and pepper the shank,
brown on all sides.

You will have a captive audience.

Prepare your vegetables and spices.
(Onions, potatoes, bay leaf, thyme and rosemary)

Saute onions and spices in the same pan the shank was browned in.

Add one cup of red wine or stock.

Simmer 10 minutes.

Pour wine sauce over lamb shank and potatoes.
Bake at 325* for 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
Lamb should fall off the bone.

We all feasted and naps were served for dessert.

I am also preparing the Resurrection Sunday meal (Pics and recipes coming soon) at the same as the Passover meal. Both meals require long cooking times in the oven, so I will roast them at the same time to save on fuel and solar power. Our Resurrection Sunday meal will be a roasted hen with homemade smoked deer sausage stuffed under it's skin, roasted potatoes, carrots and steamed broccoli.

Scenes from our Passover celebration

Matzah (unleavened bread)

Sideways Seder layout

Seder plate

We are attending a Sunrise service in the morning at the church where I have been attending a woman's bible study. This will be the first time that we have attended a Sunday service there and we are looking forward to the fellowship with other believers in Christ. They will be serving breakfast after the service, yummy!

The sunrise service was beautiful. We saw elk and deer on the way to the service. We also saw a newborn calf that the momma was just cleaning up on the way home. Breakfast was tasty and the fellowship was welcoming.

Sunrise service came early...