Don't be silly...lambs can't knit.
Monday happens to be my grocery shopping day. I usually try and get all the stuff we need for the week and half-way plan meal ideas in my head. Lately, I have been trying to get more daring during the weeknight and cook up more creative dishes.
Typical lazy weeknight dinners:
Pasta with sauce or whatever leftovers are in the fridge (sausage and broccoli, peas and ham, garlic and butter, spinach and goat cheese....maybe throw in tomatoes into some of those...etc. etc). Grilled fish, Quinoa, and roasted veggies. Stir Fry (ie. throw in all veggies, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame seeds, and pile on top of rice). Grilled cheese and tomato soup. Nachos (chips baked in the oven, covered in shredded rotisserie chicken, peppers, onions, black beans, salsa, and cheese...one of the hubby's favorite).
Tonight, at first I was thinkin' tacos but then I went to the store and saw pita and thought Roasted Lamb Gyros. A lot of the ingredients for these can be altered based on what you like to stuff your pita with, so, gyro-ish.
Here's what you need:
Inside:
meat (I am using 1 slice (cut) of lamb shoulder, anything would work. Don't feel like lamb? Try simple grilled chicken, steak, shrimp or veggies (still delicious) with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper)
3/4 cup red wine (for lamb, I had some Cab-Sav open...pinot would work well too, any excuse to open wine is a good one)
2 tablespoons of rosemary or some 2-3 sprigs if you have it fresh. (for lamb)
lettuce (I am using romaine)
tomato (I've got some grape)
green pepper
feta cheese
Tzatziki (sauce):
8 large dollops of plain greek yogurt
2 dollops of sour cream
1 english cucumber grated (I did half fine, half large grated)
juice from 1/2 a lemon, squeeze it fresh
1 teaspoon of fresh chopped dill
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 teaspoon of pepper
1 teaspoon of white vinegar
Outside:
whole wheat pita
I looked up some recipes for roasting/braising lamb shoulder and ended up following-ish Alton Brown's recipe from the Food Network here.
Heat up a iron skillet to medium. Take lamb shoulder chop(s) out and rub with vegtable oil.
Once your skillet is hot, sear each side of lamb shoulder chop(s) for about 1 min per side.
Flip.
Transfer to clean plate to cool while you get out the red wine.
Yes, get out some red wine. I did not have any fresh rosemary on hand, so I used 2 tablespoons of dried. Bam, toss, dump rosemary into 3/4 cup of red wine.
Mix and let soak until your shoulder chop cut has cooled down a bit.
Place cool-ish shoulder cut into heavy duty plastic bag or dish (like me) if you have no such bags on hand.
Dump in red wine-rosemary mixture.
Cover (or seal up) and place in fridge to hang out for as long as you can or 1-3 hours.
While you are still in the kitchen, and the shoulder is off marinating, go ahead and make Tzatziki. Get out your ingredients.
Put 8 large dollops of plain greek yogurt in a bowl. Cut and grate 1 English cucumber (I did half fine, half large grated), pat dry, then add to bowl.
Add in 2 dollops of sour cream (you can put the sour cream in with the yogurt before you add the cucumber, order doesn't matter).
Juice 1/2 a lemon. Don't forget to juice into a separate container so you don't miss any seeds.
Chop 1 teaspoon-ish dill. I was able to get some fresh.
Peel and chop garlic. I like to smash first, then chop the ends, and then the peel usually comes off pretty easy.
Add lemon juice, dill, garlic,1 teaspoon of kosher salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper, and 1 teaspoon of white vinegar to bowl.
Stir.
Taste. (resist the temptation to chug) And add more or any ingredients to get your Tzatziki to taste. (extra lemon juice, extra dill...etc.)
After 1-3 hours, get the marinated lamb shoulder chop out of the fridge,
it's time to party in the pan. 
Get your skillet.
Place marinated lamb shoulder chop in skillet. No need to transfer marinade. It will make its own juicy party in the oven.
Cover. Bake for 3 hours at 250 degrees(or a little more for more chops, this one was plenty for our gyros, for 2 people). I took it out and flipped the meat every hour, but you don't have to.
Meat after 3 hours. Take it out of the pan and let it rest under cover of same foil while you prepare the gyro toppings.
Prepare toppings. (resist urge to eat all of the topping, you're almost there! so close!) Hoo-ray for pre-crumbled feta.
Chop lettuce to desired choppyness for desired stuffyness.
Chop green pepper. Top, the bottom, seed, then slice to desired slicyness.
I decided to half my grape tomatoes for smaller bites. Do as you choose, let the force...err, the tomatoes guide you.
Now, the best part, the main show, what you've been waiting for, drooling about and dreaming of. THE LAMB!!!!! Time is now. Take your lovely, well rested lamb and get to shredding. I enlisted the help of my hubby so I could shoot pictures while he was shredding (but if you shred by yourself, you get to do more pre-dinner snacking, just a thought).
Take out the bones first.
Pack your pitas! call them gyros! Eat them! Yay!
Nomnomnom
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