Farmer Fridays - It all started with a lamb or two

Although I'm sometimes known as the proud pork mom and love me some pigs and pork, my 4-H livestock career began with 2 lambs and actually a few rabbits.  Although my mom had grown up on a hog farm and both of my parents showed pigs in 4-H, when I started 4-H at age 10,we didn't really have a place to keep pigs, but we thought we could make it work with a few lambs, Chip and Dale.   (Real creative I know.)  Eventually, it would work out that I would be able to show pigs in 4-H, but it all started with sheep.

Now that being said, I will admit I have never been a fan of lamb so I was a bit nervous when it was announced that the secret ingredient of Ott, A's February Iron Chef Challenge would be lamb.  But I was up to the challenge especially since it was lamb chops and I had never tried lamb chops.  

So now I was on a mission much like I was with the duck challenge of January to find an easy to prepare, kid-friendly recipe.  Thanks to allrecipes.com I think I succeeded and with my good friend, Leah at Beyer Beware, as inspiration and the hints on the website, I even made a few tweaks to the recipe.

Baked Lamb Chops - Ingredients

3 eggs

1 1/2 t. Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 t. Soy sauce

12 (5.5 oz.) lamb chops

2 cups dry bread crumbs

garlic powder 

freshly cracked black pepper

fresh parsley

Now I started with 4 lamb chops, so I cut the recipe back by 2/3 and only used one egg, a 1/2 teaspoon of each of the sauces, and about a cup of breadcrumbs.  

So before I did anything, I preheated the oven to 375 degrees.

Then in a medium bowl, combine the egg and Worcestershire sauce and Soy sauce; stir well.

Dip each lamb chop in the egg/sauce mixture.

Then lightly dredge in the bread crumbs.  (Since my breadcrumbs were not flavored, I added some garlic powder to the bread crumbs prior to dredging the lamb chops.)

Then arrange chops in a 9x13 baking dish and top with freshly cracked black pepper.  

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, turn chops over, and cook for 20 more minutes, or to desired doneness.  (Now based on some of the tips on the website, I did line my baking dish with foil, but I don't know if I would recommend this as some of my breading from the chops stuck to the foil.)

After baking for first 20 minutes

Pretty easy if you ask me.  

Now last night was a weird night at this pig pen as Big Sissy was asleep by 5:30pm as she came home from school complaining of a sore throat.  (When she woke up at 8:15pm, we headed to urgent care where she was diagnosed with strep throat.  Not fun, but I'm glad we went last night as she just woke up this morning and is already like a new kid.)  Bubby fell asleep on the couch before dinner was ready as he has had 2 busy days of hanging out with Cousin N and Cousin E.  So it was just Little Sissy, The Farmer, and me to try the lamb chops.  We really didn't know what to do in such a quiet house.

Baked Lamb Chop with Fresh Parsley Garnish

Any way, the lamb chops were a hit; although, The Farmer did ask if I could try the recipe with pork chops next time.  So it wasn't a complete conversion with The Farmer, but thanks again to Ott,A for making us live outside our comfort zone once again.

And be sure to check back in 2 weeks from today, as Ott,A, will be doing a guest blog right here for Farmer Fridays.  In the mean time, if you want to learn more about sheep or lamb, be sure to check out her blog as it is full of information.