Leg of lamb is in the oven

[eleny]

It's the sirloin end. Garlic and fresh rosemary sprigs studded inside. Ground pepper and summer savory on the surface.

Low key holidays around here these days. But with hubby looking forward to a roasted lamb dinner I'm delighted. The sides are plain sweet potatoes baked in the oven and fresh coleslaw. The extra garlic head and cloves are also baking, sprinkled with olive oil & covered, in the oven.

Dessert is babka bread made in the machine. It's got dried cherries in it. I made a bunch for our neighbors this year. Husband said that this is the kitchen fragrance he remembers year after year in the wintertime.

I hope whatever you're making today comes out just the way you want it to.

[hippywife]

1. Hi, eleny.

Pretty low key here today since we're snowed in. Your dinner sounds really good. I guess we're both giving the gift of a special meal to our hubs this year.

I brined my duck last night and it's sitting uncovered in the fridge since this morning to dry the skin out. I'm getting ready to boil my beets and have bread rising. Gonna make some jasmine rice with a little dried fruit and pecans, shallots and fresh garlic in it and a spinach salad.

Hope you both enjoy your day and your special meal together, too. That really is the nice part, just being together without any place to be or anything to deal with.

:hi:

[eleny]

3. Oh boy does that sound good

Beets must go great with duck, too. Just seems like a natural even though I've never paired them. Everything sounds like you took it to the next step!

[hippywife]

7. I wouldn't have either

and then kestrel posted about making them. That made me think it might be good together.

[grasswire]

2. leg of lamb is in the marinade here

Marinating in California zinfandel, fresh garlic, black pepper, kosher salt, a Meyer lemon squeezed and cut up, a splash of olive oil, bay leaves and rosemary. (I wish I had fresh bay leaves!)

Sides will be roasted asparagus and roasted baby yukon potatoes, a wild rice/cranberry dish, maybe a fresh spinach salad with bleu cheese crumbles, and hot dinner rolls.

I made a pumpkin pie last night. We only had one small piece at Thanksgiving and left the pie with our hostess. So we needed more!

We had part of our traditional breakfast -- poached eggs with tarragon cream, a dish of summer garden raspberries thawed, sausages, english muffins. I traditionally make an apple strudel, but didn't this year.

I love to hear about everyone's meals. Thanks for starting this thread, and Happy Holidays!

[eleny]

4. I've never marinated lamb

But I will next time. :D You're having a whole day of delish!

[hippywife]

5. Yours sounds really lovely, too, E.

And that breakfast sounds awesome! :hi:

[NMDemDist2]

6. we had chinese take out

:evilgrin:

I promised mr.K that when I get the desk job, I'll make him goodies, but not this year.....

[EFerrari]

8. I forced them to buy me a pizza last night.

LOL

My uncle has this great tradition: his wife never cooks on Friday night or the day before a holiday and HE came up with the idea. (He's also an awesome cook himself.) Too bad cloning was too late for me. :)

[hippywife]

10. I'm always up for Chinese

no matter what day it is. :9

I hope you both had a great meal and a great day together. :hug:

[hippywife]

9. Duck!

We're going to eat in about 15 minutes when the rolls are done but I had to take a pic of my first duck. LOL

Those specs are cilantro. I veered away from the recipe I was using and decided to baste with a mixture of fresh orange juice, zest, honey, plum sauce, soy sauce and cilantro. You can see where I just couldn't wait to taste a little piece of it. :rofl:

[grasswire]

11. oh lordy lordy

As Rachel Ray would say: Yum-O! I want to nibble one of those wings!

Great job, HW!

[hippywife]

14. Thanx, E.

It's really exciting to have such a good result on something the first time. How's your dinner coming? I'm still thinking about that breakfast. I can imagine the berries adding such a sweet taste to all the rest. :9

[grasswire]

23. you know, I'm at the point where a bowl of cottage cheese and...

...a piece of toast would have made me perfectly happy tonight. I'm honestly a little tired of "making festive" and ready for some days of extremely plain and simple. That tuna casserole down thread looks yummy -- if someone else would make it for me. Ha!

Next week is the big family gathering at the retirement home where my mother's two sisters still live. Potluck, so I think I will just take a pie and some kind of salad or vegetable casserole. I am tempted to make my grandmother's favorite cake, a Lane cake, but it is kind of fussy and I shouldn't let myself be tempted. I doubt that anyone in the younger generation of the family has ever tasted a Lane cake, though.

Are ya still snowed in back there?

[hippywife]

26. Sweetie, I know what you are talking about.

My lower back near my right hip is killing this morning. And, yes, still snowed in. We are out on a rural county road which gets no attention during times like these. LOL

How sweet to have a celebration for your aunties. In your sitch I would be tempted with the cake, too, for such sentimental reasons, and to continue a tradition. From what I've learned of you, I think you are pretty sentimental, yourself. Maybe give yourself a little rest this week and see how you feel when the time comes to prepare? I know whatever you decide will be delicious and much anticipated by your family. :hug:

[EFerrari]

12. Look at that color!

Beautiful!

[hippywife]

15. Thank you, Beth.

How did your gingerbread houses turn out? Are we gonna get to see them? I hope so! :hi:

[EFerrari]

17. My nieces aren't back from their trip to the Other Grandma

until Sunday so I thought I would shut down the assembly line for freshness sake. You bet I'll post pixs. :hi:

[hippywife]

18. Cool!

I'll look forward to it. :hug:

[elleng]

13. Sounds like a great baste!

AND how WAS it????

[hippywife]

16. It was!

I separated some of it into another bowl before I started basting and used it as the dressing for the spinach salad with scallions, chopped forelle pears, clementine segments and sliced almonds. Yum!

The duck tasted wonderful! I would have loved to have the skin just a wee bit crisper but I really can't complain at all. Bill was thrilled with all of it.

How has your day been? :hi:

[eleny]

19. You butterflied it!

It looks good enough to eat. Heh...heh...

Seriously, the color is beautiful. I can taste the crispy sweet. Now if I could just reach in and nip off the tip of that wing up there. Oh yum.

[hippywife]

25. I did!

And I saved a wing just for you. :hug:

[eleny]

29. Yay! You're such a ...

[pengillian101]

20. I am so stuffed...

with a big ham dinner and just recently with a snack of Swedish meatballs and gravy wrapped up in lefse - but dang that drumstick is calling me.

Hippywife, you certainly outdid yourself - it's just gorgeous :-)



When again did you say that you were coming to visit?

[hippywife]

31. I would love to come visit you, gilli.

But the way the weather is now, I feel like I'm already there. :rofl:

[Tab]

21. I hope it's good

I've had so much success with so much meat EXCEPT for lamb. I don't know if it's how I season it, or cook it (I tend not to use recipes, which may be a mistake here) but it's always oily, or mis-seasoned.

[hippywife]

28. I just never cared

for the taste of it much except, as gilli says, in gyros. But my only encounter has been my own cooking, making osso bucco with shanks. It was okay, good even, but I'm just not enthralled enough with the flavor to make it again. But it could have been just my own prep of it, too. :shrug:

[pengillian101]

22. Leg of lamb...

is just Greek to me ;-) - I've never had it. I've only tried lamb in gyros and didn't care for it.

Being of Norwegian descendant, I just eat --- tuna hot dish, don't ya know?



But it's always nice when you can make hubby happy, eh? Glad you both had a good day!

Uufda Minnesota:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptCLlwKdqdc

[hippywife]

33. So, I take it that

hotdish is just another word for casserole? I always just hear the esteemed Mr. Keillor say "hotdish" without any descriptors so I am left to assume that's what it is.

A little tuna hotdish sounds pretty good on this very cold day. Brrrrr!

[pengillian101]

34. Yes, exactly.

Hotdish in the midwest states is a casserole by non-Scandinavians living elsewhere.

Tator Tot hotdish



Hotdish is a delicacy enjoyed by the inhabitants of the upper midwestern United States. For those of you who haven't spent a lot of time in the flyover states, hotdish is a dish typically baked in one pan and contains a meat, a starch, and a vegetable with optional cheese or onion crisps.

Edit to add - a necessity is a can of cream of mushroom soup!

It's what the rest of the US would call a casserole. Hotdish is the food of my people.
***

Keep warm hippywife and all. We have quite a winter wonderland in northern MN. It must be two feet of snow. It is quite pretty from inside the house, lol.

"I always just hear the esteemed Mr. Keillor" - oh that just always cracks me up that he has a following nation-wide when the humor is so local. I watched him live in-theater decades ago. What a hoot that was!



Did you ever watch the Prairie Home Companion movie? Very true to life.

[eridani]

24. I came down with some kind of nasty bug

SILs insisted that I keep my paws off the utensils and not breathe on the food too much. We had a sliced ham wiht pineapples, Greek salad, baked potatoes and lovely sirloin tip flattened and rolled with mushrooms, peppers, onions and garlic. All was excellent!

[hippywife]

27. Wow! It sounds like it was all excellent!

I hope you are feeling better and taking care of yourself. :hug:

[eridani]

30. Lots of Satsuma oranges with vitamin C in all of our stockings

I'm looking to be able to sleep it off, and the leftovers have been fantastic too.

[hippywife]

32. So...

how did everyone's lambies turn out? Baaaaa!