My Favorite Dinner

Happy Valentine's Day friends. This morning I woke up to roses, that boyfriend is so sneaky, and sweet. Lots and lots of cooking going on. Last night I made my absolute favorite dinner of always. It is any kind of lamb with yogurt sauce (we had lion chops last night), tuscan salad and rice (well the rice isn't really a favorite or a special it's really just the lamb and the salad). It is so good. I also made a very pretty and pink strawberry cheesecake, here is the recipe, from Martha, of course. Then this morning I made a very special 100% homemade eggs benedict, but you are going to have to wait for my next post for that. Yesterday, I also bought a very amazing, hand mixer (the Cuisanart 9 speed) at my favorite store, Williams and Sonoma. I have already used 3 of the attachments and I am completely obsessed! Here is how you make my favorite dinner, stay tuned for my favorite breakfast...

Lamb (for 2):
1 lb of Lamb lion chops, bone in
1 handful of rosemary, chopped.
1 handful of thyme
Salt, pepper, garlic powder

Pre-heat the boiler. Coat the chops in chopped rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper and garlic pepper. Put on a broiler pan and cook on one side for 6 minutes, flip and cook for 3-4 minutes on the other side. Lamb will be medium rare. That's it. Alternatively, this tastes amazing grilled in the summer.

Yogurt Sauce:
1 6 oz container of low fat (or fat free) Plain yogurt
1/2 a lime
1 handful of fresh mint
Salt, Pepper

If you have a muddler (we do since Christmas!) use that to muddle the mint and lime juice (think mojito with no sugar) if not chop the mint as small as you can. Mix the yogurt, mint and lime juice. Add salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until serving.

Tuscan Salad
1 container of cherry tomatoes (or regular tomatoes, if they are in season)
1 cucumber
1/2 a red onion
1/2 Lime
Salt, Pepper
1/4 a baguette, day old or fresh
Feta Cheese

Cut the cherry tomatoes in half, or give tomatoes a rough chop. Cut cucumbers and onion into roughly same size pieces. Mix all the veggies in a bowl. Salt and pepper to taste. Squeeze lime juice over the veggies and toss. Thickly slice the bread and toast/heat in the oven/on the grill. Rip the bread into pieces around the size of the veggie (or you can cut the bread). Approximately 5 minutes before serving add bread and feta to the salad and toss to combine. The bread absorbs the juices. Absolutely delicious.

Well there you have it, my favorite dinner. Hands down. It is so simple to make and so delicious. In the summer when tomatoes are so succulent this is incredible, but in the winter if you can find good cherry tomatoes, it is almost as magical. It is the perfect meal to enjoy with a nice red wine or mojitos (or both, which we did last night).

Well that's all for now, but stay tuned after my lovely Valentine's day I promise I will discuss cheesecakes and a breakfast made with my very own homemade biscuit recipe.

Happy Eating

Snowed in Roasting

Tuesday night in anticipation of the third epic snow storm of season I went to the market (not quite as pre-apocalyptic as I expected) and what happened to be on sale?! The most beautiful, perfect, 2 and a half pound boneless ribeye roast. What could be more comforting and delicious on a cold winter, snowed in day. We lost power on Wednesday, which threatened to ruin dinner, but fortunately it came back on in time for me to roast. The roast was so delicious and succulent. And with all things roasting (perhaps why it is my favorite method of cooking) it is so simple to do, and tastes like a full days worth of effort. Here is my recipe:

Ribeye Roast:

2.5-3 Lb Boneless Ribeye Roast
1 Large Yellow Onion
3-4 Cloves of Garlic
4-5 Sprigs of Fresh Thyme
2-3 Tbsp of Brown Sugar
1 Cup Beef Stock
Salt and Pepper

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Give Onions a rough chop (very large pieces) and throw in the bottom of a small roasting pan (I used a small Pyrex one, so The higher sides would keep the juices from spreading). Peel the garlic and smash a bit, throw in pan in large chunks. Salt and pepper the roast on all sides and sprinkle with thyme. Rub brown sugar onto the meat, and put the meat in the roasting pan. Put in the oven and roast for 20 minutes. Then turn heat down to 325 degrees and pour beef stock over meat and onions. Make sure the onions are not stuck to the bottom of the pan. Roast an additional 25-35 minutes (depending on how rare you like your meat). Let stand covered 10 minutes before serving. Use the onions and drippings as gravy if desired. Serve and enjoy.

Like I said before this was wonderfully delicious and comforting. I served it with garlic steamed broccoli and there were no leftovers (and only 2 of us). Roasting in the middle of the week felt so decadent, but as I will miss my Sunday roasting because it is Valentine's Day (and I am being taken out) I'm glad I got my chance. I will be making Eggs Benedict for brunch on Valentine's Day and also making a strawberry cheesecake (assuming I can find worthy berries). So until then...

Happy Eating

Blanket!!!!

Tad-dah! The blanket is finished! I feel so accomplished. I ended up making it a bit larger than the pattern called for and adding a small garter section to the outside, which may not have been the greatest idea because it has a tendency to roll, but I love it anyways. It is so pretty. Right now it is drying in the closet, so the cat doesn't get it (please excuse the laundry and shoes, but it is a closet). Jeeves loves the knitting so much, he keeps trying to attack the needles and poke his whiskers in the yarn. Very cute, and very annoying. So my next knitting project is a hat, and I am half way done, but I ran out of yarn and I had to order more. So after that, my plan was to make a baby hat and booties for my cousin whose is expecting (well for baby boy no name). So while I was snowed in, I needed to knit, I decided to "practice" the booties with the left over blanket yarn. Then after I made one and I just kept going and now I have four. The boyfriend and I tried put the booties on Jeeves. Kitten mittens anyone? He wasn't having it, but the booties are adorable, I can't wait to make them in the real yarn (which is a baby blue super soft light weight merino-cashmere blend). Happy knitting!

Chicken Tales

On Monday, I made the best roast chicken of my life, and realized I have no idea how those pop out thermometers work or how to tell if a chicken is done. I should probably invest in a meat thermometer, that at least I could operate.

The skin was crispy perfection, the meat was juicy and tender, and the gravy was lemony and delicious. However I took the chicken out like 30 minutes before it was done, because I temporarily lost my mind, and also because I cannot tell when the little white thing has popped. So the end result had some deep gashes in it from checking to see if the meat looked raw, but I make shift patched them with onions, and the chicken turned out really well. I served them with the potato hash I made last week (that I had ridiculously paired with tuna) and spicy sauteed green beans. My inspiration for this chicken was The Barefoot Contessa's "Engagement Chicken" I was watching the show at the gym, earlier in the day and she informed me that if you roast lemon pieces in the bottom of the pan they become edible, rind and all. Now, after tasting them, I have to disagree that you would want to eat them, particularly the rind, however they made the drippings so delicious that I will definitely be putting them in again.

Roast Chicken:
1 whole chicken
3 cloves of garlic
1 large yellow onion
2 lemons
Fresh Thyme
Olive Oil
Salt, Pepper
1-2 cups Chicken Stock

Cut the lemons into quarters, reserve half a lemon for inside the chicken and cut the other half into smaller pieces (not to small) and put in the bottom of a roasting pan. Give onion a rough chop and save a couple of pieces for in the chicken and toss the rest in the bottom of the pan. Salt and pepper the onions. Wash the chicken and remove innards. Pat dry. Stuff chicken with lemon, thyme (a good amount), and onion. Salt and Pepper the chicken, inside and out. Pour some olive oil on the skin. Roast the chicken at 425 degrees for 20-30 minutes, when the onions look like they have begun to burn pour some stock in the pan. After another 20 minutes baste the chicken with additional stock and lower heat to 350. Continue cooking, basting as necessary and cover with tinfoil if the skin starts to darken too much. Let rest 10-15 minutes before carving. Serve with the drippings from the pan (which are lemony delicious) and onions and if you are brave enough to try it, the cooked lemon.

Happy Eating!