Rack of Lamb with Greek Salad

Well hidey-ho! This past Sunday we had a truly delightful family dinner. Alex sat with us and ate what we did aside from the lamb. She's eaten lamb before, I think twice. The first time she cried. The second time was all indifference due to her running around the house like a wild animal, me stopping her mid-sprint, making her take a bite and sending her on her way.

That's also how I'll get her to sign up for cotillion classes!

Anyways, we had what you see in the photo above: delicious, succulent rack of lamb with a wonderfully brirght and summery Greek salad that my darling friend Kendra came up with after tweaking several recipes she'd come across. I too made a few tweaks, depending on what I had available and due to my healthy addiction to garlic.

So here it is folks, a BFF fusion meal.

Rack of Lamb with Greek Salad

serves two because who gives up two of their chops for a couple of friends?  ***

2 large sprigs rosemary, leaves stripped and chopped fine (I snipped them to smithereens in a ramekin)

2 large cloves garlic, chopped fine

1 tbsp olive oil

1 1lb rack of lamb, some fat trimmed

Salt and pepper to taste

1 cucumber, sliced and diced (I diced the larger slices into nine pieces, for reference)

12oz +/- cherry tomatoes, quartered

2 tbsp fresh chives, snipped

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dill

Drizzle olive oil

Drizzle pinot grigio vinegar

1/2 cup feta crumbles

2 pieces naan flatbread (optional)

Set the oven to 375. Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat and while it warms up, mix your rosemary, garlic and olive oil, muddling them in that selfsame ramekin used for the rosemary. Using your hands, rub the mixture into the lamb. Nay, massage it! Really let it know that you care but draw the line at buying it flowers. You don't want it thinking you're already picking out china patterns, do you?

Add salt and pepper.

When the skillet is nice and hot, toss in your lamb and sear it on all sides. Then pop it in the oven and set your timer for 15 minutes.

Wait, would you send the flowers to the lamb or to the herb mixture? I don't know, man. Ask Dear Abby. Or Julia Child.

So, while your lamb cooks, and to keep you from excitedly pacing around your kitchen wiping anticipatory drool off your chin (I did that anyway), assemble your salad. Mix everything together in a big bowl, save for the feta. Put the bowl in the fridge to keep cool, and I don't know, man, set the table or yell at your kids or something. Anything to keep yourself distracted.

Here, this will distract you. Why on earth in the first Harry Potter movie does Hagrid go all "That is VERY important, Harry, you STICK TO YOUR TICKET." Like, why Hagrid? Nobody collects the tickets at platform 9 3/4. Not that I recall. I've read the books about five times through, Hagrid. I mean, if you can figure out how to walk though a damn wall, then I think that trumps holding a damn ticket. Amiright?

After the timer goes off, remove your lamb and, sigh of all sighs, let it rest at least five minutes and if you're really brave, about ten. This is important, as the meat is still cooking and there's the whole thing of letting the juices, that had accumulated in the center, escape onto your cutting board.

Remove your salad from the fridge and add your feta, tossing to evenly distribute. Plate the salad and carve the lamb. As that is happening, quickly warm up your flatbread in the microwave and cover with another plate to keep warm.

And... you're done. YOU GET TO EAT THE LAMB.

If you don't, I will.

***

Tomato Salad

This is so refreshing on a warm day. It's a great appetizer, or for a salad after dinner or a snack like I just enjoyed. It's just so simple and quick to prepare, but it's also really pretty, and rather elegant on a crisp white plate:

Tomato Salad
serves one

2 roma tomatoes, sliced
1 slice yellow or red onion, finely chopped
1 tsp finely snipped fresh parsley
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper


Arrange sliced tomatoes. Sprinkle the parsley and onion on top, drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil and sprinkle lightly with the vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste and you're done. Viola!

Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is.

Epic Salad Awesomeness.

It's not super fancy, it's not overly indulgent and the ingredient list does include crap like tamarind paste or edible flower petals. But I swear, this salad is my new all time favorite lunch.

Remember my pork marsala post, how it was a recipe taken from Cook's Country 30 Minute Suppers? This is an adaptation from another one of those 30 Minute Supper cards.

Salad with Mustard Dressing and Egg
serves one

1 - 1.5 cups chopped or torn romaine
1 - 1.5 cups baby spinach
1/2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp mustard
Garlic powder (or 21 Seasoning Salute), to taste
Shredded carrot
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Thinly sliced onion
2 slices avocado
Sprinkle of shredded parmesan
1 egg
salt and pepper

Rinse and spin your greens and plate up in a large bowl. Mix the oil, vinegar, mustard and garlic (or 21SS) in a small bowl and drizzle over your greens, tossing to coat. Top with the veggies and cheese. I add the dressing to the greens before the extras so the toppings don't hog all the dressing.

Heat a small egg skillet over medium high and coat with cooking spray. Add your egg, being careful not to break the yolk. Cover with a lid and cook until sunny-side-up. Remove from heat and add right on top of your salad. Add salt and pepper to taste, and dive right in.

This salad is super delicious. The egg mingling with all the flavors is just divine. The only trick is getting the egg in that salad, and eating it, before the yolk cooks any more. A nice runny yolk is ideal, unless you're not into that sort of thing.

The Man Salad or as Todd says, the Anorexic Feast

Now before I offend anyone with the glib (hi Tom Cruise) use of the word anorexic, let me first explain. Todd, my darling husband, is 6'7", very lean, and very active. So when he starts copying my lunch style of eating mainly big salads, I referred to them as his anorexic feasts since he just doesn't need to worry about calories, much like those suffering from the actual disease. Anyways, the more polite term is Man Salad and so I'm going with that.

Here is a classic Man Salad

Within the cool embrace of our favorite salad bowls is a cacophony of color, a coda of nutrients, and a tasty piece of marble rye slathered with (in my case) Smart Balance light or in Todd's case, Trader Joe's unsalted butter, the fat slob. And since I just finished this delight, and since it came out pretty nicely on my LG flip phone camera, I thought I'd share with you.

Man Salad/Offensively Named Salad
serves two, 300 calories a serving (unless you're Todd, in which case you need to add an extra 150 calories for the gallon of ranch he uses)

Romaine lettuce, enough to fill two big bowls that were originally intended to be serving dishes (see picture above)
1/4 bell pepper, diced
1/2 gala apple, diced
2 sticks of sting cheese, sliced
2 servings of oven roasted turkey lunchmeat (we get the thick sliced kind from Costco, 50 calories a serving)
A handful of baby carrots, sliced
1/4 yellow onion, sliced
1 roma tomato (or three stunted tomatoes from your struggling, backyard desert veggie garden)
1 serving of Kraft Light Zesty Italian (no HFCS!)
1 slice marble rye bread (I just picked this up at Costco, a little over 4 bucks for two loaves, only 70 calories a serving!)

Throw that crap together and enjoy!