Over the last several days, we have made a number of dishes. I did not host Thanksgiving this year, so all we had to do was make potatoes- we made mashed and Pommes Anna.

I made the Belgian Beef stew that I have made before and it was excellent. I roasted a chicken, with a little twist this time: it was already quartered, and I put in on a rack in a shallow baking sheet over carrot, onion and celery, and used the juice-soaked vegetables for a gravy base- it was easy and very good.

My failure this week was trying to get away with shortcuts making the Indian lamb stew . In the end, I ground up the meat and made a shepherd’s pie; this time with caramelized onion, sliced tomatoes, mashed potatoes, and hard Italian cheese. It was much better than the Lamb stew.

I will make the same stew again in the next couple of weeks, and when I get it down, I will post the recipe. So far, I can say that it is important to start with very small pieces of lamb when making a dry stew, and be very careful about cooking time.