100 Recipes - #34-38 Easter Dinner
I decided to host my family for Easter dinner today--any excuse for new recipes!
#34 Herb-Stuffed Boneless Leg of Lamb It was this recipe that initially inspired me to do this dinner, although I ended up using the cooking method from the other lamb recipe. It was very tasty and the pounding and marinating made the meat very tender. Next time I would use fewer breadcrumbs in this one.
#35 Leg of Lamb Stuffed with Wild Mushrooms and Greens Since I needed enough lamb for 14 people, it made sense to try this one as well. The stuffing was very good, but I think I would use more breadcrumbs the next time.
#36 Greek Style Potatoes I'm always looking for different ways to jazz up the basic potato and this recipe was very flavorful and adapted well to being cooked at 425 instead of 350. Two oddities: 1)the recipe calls for peeling the potatoes although in the photo they clearly used unpeeled red potatoes and 2) it calls for the potatoes to be covered in the oven, which just seemed wrong to me. I left them uncovered and they browned up nicely and most of the liquid cooked off, leaving them coated in wonderful flavor. We had gravy, but it was really unnecessary--this is a good recipe for times when there's no other sauce.
#37 Green Beans with Feta Cheese Sticking with the vaguely-Greek theme, I tried this recipe, to which I also added some chopped basil, after my discovery last week. It was pretty good--the vinegar gave it a very bright, spring flavor--but I would have cooked the beans a little longer or possibly even sautéed them after blanching.
#38 Baklava I worked from this recipe, using a mix of cashews and pecans since pistachios are hard to come by in these recall-ridden days. My mom came over yesterday and she actually built the layers out of what I made. Despite several errors (we realized after the first half hour that somehow I had managed to turn the oven off and later realized that we were supposed to have cut it before baking) it came out really well. Next time I would try adding either more honey or less water and September suggested brushing the layers with walnut oil. I'd also like to try using macadamia nuts sometime. The recipe said not to cover it, lest it become soggy, and that meant that it was still lovely and crispy.
The latter was served with the Oatmeal Carrot Cookies from Friday night and deliciously creamy homemade vanilla ice cream, courtesy of muffyjo. She also showed up bright and early this morning to take the savory cheesecake over to her house for baking. For the many of you who've expressed interest, the recipe for that is here. She also did yeoman work cleaning up.
Anne & G. brought a huge salad (and another guest, Divia) and heliopsis brought biscuits and sartorial splendor to the occasion. bex77 brought beautiful blue hydrangeas and took Alice off for the morning while we were in last-minute prep frenzy.
Special mention also goes to my father, who sat and picked thyme off the stalks for about two hours yesterday. He picked more thyme than I needed--about a cupful--which was just amazing and luxurious!
And many thanks to bookly who dropped by yesterday, all unsuspecting, and ended up snapping all the beans for a meal she couldn't even stay to eat.
Lastly, Jason continues to be my hero--he helped so much all around the edges and listening to me talk out the various decisions and then entertained Alice all evening after our guests had left so that I could get a much-needed nap.
I love making big meals for the family, but it's especially nice for it to be such a joint effort.
#34 Herb-Stuffed Boneless Leg of Lamb It was this recipe that initially inspired me to do this dinner, although I ended up using the cooking method from the other lamb recipe. It was very tasty and the pounding and marinating made the meat very tender. Next time I would use fewer breadcrumbs in this one.
#35 Leg of Lamb Stuffed with Wild Mushrooms and Greens Since I needed enough lamb for 14 people, it made sense to try this one as well. The stuffing was very good, but I think I would use more breadcrumbs the next time.
#36 Greek Style Potatoes I'm always looking for different ways to jazz up the basic potato and this recipe was very flavorful and adapted well to being cooked at 425 instead of 350. Two oddities: 1)the recipe calls for peeling the potatoes although in the photo they clearly used unpeeled red potatoes and 2) it calls for the potatoes to be covered in the oven, which just seemed wrong to me. I left them uncovered and they browned up nicely and most of the liquid cooked off, leaving them coated in wonderful flavor. We had gravy, but it was really unnecessary--this is a good recipe for times when there's no other sauce.
#37 Green Beans with Feta Cheese Sticking with the vaguely-Greek theme, I tried this recipe, to which I also added some chopped basil, after my discovery last week. It was pretty good--the vinegar gave it a very bright, spring flavor--but I would have cooked the beans a little longer or possibly even sautéed them after blanching.
#38 Baklava I worked from this recipe, using a mix of cashews and pecans since pistachios are hard to come by in these recall-ridden days. My mom came over yesterday and she actually built the layers out of what I made. Despite several errors (we realized after the first half hour that somehow I had managed to turn the oven off and later realized that we were supposed to have cut it before baking) it came out really well. Next time I would try adding either more honey or less water and September suggested brushing the layers with walnut oil. I'd also like to try using macadamia nuts sometime. The recipe said not to cover it, lest it become soggy, and that meant that it was still lovely and crispy.
The latter was served with the Oatmeal Carrot Cookies from Friday night and deliciously creamy homemade vanilla ice cream, courtesy of muffyjo. She also showed up bright and early this morning to take the savory cheesecake over to her house for baking. For the many of you who've expressed interest, the recipe for that is here. She also did yeoman work cleaning up.
Anne & G. brought a huge salad (and another guest, Divia) and heliopsis brought biscuits and sartorial splendor to the occasion. bex77 brought beautiful blue hydrangeas and took Alice off for the morning while we were in last-minute prep frenzy.
Special mention also goes to my father, who sat and picked thyme off the stalks for about two hours yesterday. He picked more thyme than I needed--about a cupful--which was just amazing and luxurious!
And many thanks to bookly who dropped by yesterday, all unsuspecting, and ended up snapping all the beans for a meal she couldn't even stay to eat.
Lastly, Jason continues to be my hero--he helped so much all around the edges and listening to me talk out the various decisions and then entertained Alice all evening after our guests had left so that I could get a much-needed nap.
I love making big meals for the family, but it's especially nice for it to be such a joint effort.