Here is the recipe for the Irish Stew I made for St. Patties Day, it turned out pretty good. I listed at the end what I changed about the recipe.

Where I found the recipe:

http://homecooking.about.com/od/soups/r/blss32.htm

Let your crockpot do the work on this hearty Irish stew made with lamb and vegetables. This recipe may easily be converted to oven or stove-top methods.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 hours
Total Time: 10 hours, 15 minutes

Ingredients:

•2 pounds boneless lamb cubed, browned, and drained
•2 teaspoons salt
•1/4 teaspoon pepper
•2 cups water
•1 small bay leaf
•2 medium carrots, peeled and cut in 1/2-inch slices
•2 small onions, thinly sliced
•4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
•1/4 cup quick-cooking tapioca (optional - see Note)
•10 ounces frozen peas

Preparation:

Sprinkle browned lamb cubes with salt and pepper. Place lamb in the crockpot along with water, bay leaf, carrots, onions, potatoes, and tapioca. Cover and cook on low for 10 to 12 hours, adding peas to the stew during the last hour.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Note: If you do not wish a thickened gravy, omit the tapioca.

What I Changed:

First I didn’t add any peas because I HATE PEAS! Unless they are uncooked, fresh from the garden.

Instead of using tapioca I used corn starch mixed with some water that I mixed in a couple hours before the stew was finished cooking.

I also added an extra carrot because 2 didn’t look like enough.

I then added about 1/4 to 1/3 cups of cooking sherry and a sprig of rosemary to give it some flavor.

Nugget is no more! We had to cull one of the little chicks about a week ago, I was afraid he was sick with something contagious but it turns out he was a victim of Nugget's aggressive behavior. So this past Saturday, even though he could have used a few more weeks to fatten up, we took Nugget out back and made him into, well, nuggets. I would have taken pictures but it was dark out and it was cold, so we were trying to get it done as fast as possible. But here is a picture of the final product. Look at all that nice, dark leg meat!

So last night I cooked up the bird and some potatoes, carrot and celery and tonight we are having chicken and dumplings. I use bisquick for the dumplings and they always turn out well. The trick with making the stew flavorful is to slowly cook the chicken (with listed seasoning), bones and all, until the meat falls right off, then remove the bird and debone. I then return the meat back into the pot and ad the vegetables. I added 2 bay leaves, some parsley, and a little rosemary for seasoning along with salt and pepper. The stew thickens a little because of the potatoes and dumplings, but I normally add a little flower dissolved in warm water to the mix prior to dropping the dumplings in to make it a little thicker.

Recipe found here http://www.backwoodsbound.com/zduck47.html

Best Way Mallards

~ 2 whole mallards, skin on (I am not using the ones without skin)
~ 2 apples
~ 2 medium onions
~ 1/2 cup water or wine
~ 1 can cream of mushroom soup
~ 1 can cream of celery soup
~ 2 bay leaves
~ garlic salt
~ black pepper
~ lemon pepper seasoning
~ long grain wild rice

Cut an apple and onion in half and stuff them into one of the ducks. Repeat process with other duck.

Place them in a crockpot and season liberally with the garlic salt and pepper. Season to taste with the lemon pepper.

In a bowl, mix the water and soups together. Pour mixture over the ducks.

Add the bay leaves and cover.

Cook on low 6 – 8 hours or until meat starts separating from the breast plate. Remove.

Strain the juices into a sauce pan and thicken with flour or corn starch for gravy.

Remove the meat from the bones and discard the apples, onions and bay leaves.

Serve over long grain wild rice with the gravy on top.

This was soooooooooooo good! I added a little cooking Sherry and only ended up using one apple and one onion. I could barley fit half an apple and half an onion in each.