Easter Weekend Dinner

Inspired by Mark Bittman's recipes for lamb three ways in last Sunday's New York Times, I decided to make my first leg of lamb this weekend down in Kiawah. I discussed the options with my father who voted for lamb with herb paste and spinach. Both ingredients and equipment can be a problem down here, but the resulting dish was delicious, easy, and definitely something I would make again.

Instead of a food processor, we recruited the margarita-ready ice blender. The recipe called for sautéeing the spinach and bread crumbs in our non-existing roasting pan, so I used some of the runover fat in two frying pans. And without a roasting pan and rack, we used a broiler pan. 

The resulting dish was delicious. The lamb stayed moist and the breadcrumbs and salad complimented the lamb perfectly. Not exactly the most simple one-dish dinner, but worth making again!

Steak, Salad, and Snacks

One of the aspects I love most about our apartment is the open kitchen. Small by outside-of-New York standards, yet mid-sized in the land of high rents and small spaces, the kitchen's winning element is the kitchen counter ledge that serves as a bar--and the perfect place for friends to keep me company while I cook, without getting underfoot. 

Two days before having Louisa, Sonya, and Chris over for dinner, I cooked sirloin steak for Lewis and me. We didn't even get close to finishing the meat, so I used those leftovers to make simple open-faced sandwiches, a riff on roast beef and swiss, as pre-dinner snacks. To revive half a baguette I had frozen from the earlier dinner, I ran a little water over it (this is a trick I learned from a friend's mother). 

After cutting the baguette into thin rounds, I placed them on two baking sheets and drizzled olive oil and sprinkled fleur de sel over them. Those went into the oven at 350 for 10 minutes, until they toasted. I cut the steak into thin slices, placed a slice on each baguette round, topped with a slice of provolone or cheddar, and put them under the broiler when Chris and Louisa arrived.
 I also served different meats (soppressata, copa, and 18-month-old prosciutto) and cheeses (asiago fresco, bel paese, and piave) from Eataly with cashews (courtesy of Lewis' client).

 For greens, I served a simple salad of arugula, pistachios, and parmesan. While I usually use a vegetable peeler to create shaves of cheese of ideal thickness, feeling lazy this time I just quickly chopped the cheese into small dices. Chris commented on the size of the cheese, and halfway through my apology, told me he preferred the cheese this size because it was easier "to mine." Something to keep in mind for the next salad. For the main course, I served the last steak, well-peppered, with a reduced red wine sauce of sautéed onions and garlic.

Conversation bounced from how a two year age difference is so significant in high school and meaningless now, our upcoming Tabard reunion (which Louisa was dreading and Sonya was eagerly anticipating), and how as ignorant college students we thought Butter was only a club before moving to New York and learning it is primarily a restaurant. I suppose we're easing into aging...