Easter Dinner
Apr. 5th, 2010 12:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetWe had a relatively small gathering this year, but that meant that we were able to all fit around the table.
We started with the creamy artichoke soup that I first made in February. For this larger group, I doubled the leeks, potatoes, garlic and chicken broth, but only had one package of frozen artichoke hearts. Then I forgot about the simmering vegetables and let them go for an hour instead of twenty minutes. And I went ahead and put about 4 oz. of marscapone straight in, instead of messing with garnishing it. And in the end, it tasted almost exactly like the one I did in February. Which is why I prefer cooking to baking.
For the traditional leg of lamb I went with this recipe. It was tasty, but something is up with my oven or my meat thermometer or something. It took half again as long as it should have to get to temperature and then was much more cooked than I like it. This in contrast to the pork loin I made last week that took twice as long to cook and when I decided that the thermometer must just be wrong and cut into it, was still massively undercooked. Gonna have to figure out what's up with that.
As a side, I decided to try a pilaf of orzo and rice. Despite increasing the rest of the recipe by a quarter without upping the butter, because it seemed pretty excessive, it was swimming in butter at the end. OK, not the worst problem in the world, but next time I think I will try it with about 1/3 cup. I went with shallots instead of scallions, because I had them on hand and that was fine. And I threw in a teaspoon of Egyptian ground saffron, because I never remember to use that. Next time I would add some parsley or something to make it more visually interesting.
In celebration of spring, we had asparagus, roasted according to this recipe. I threw it in after the lamb came out, when I turned the oven up, so it was only at temp for about half the time and was, predictably, a little underdone. But that gave it a little more texture and springiness, so I wasn't unhappy with the result.
For salad, I started with this recipe for "Absolutely Fabulous Greek/House Dressing". I started with a red onion, about a dozen halved olives marinated in lemon, a bunch of little vine-ripened tomatoes, a couple of peeled/seeded/cubed cucumbers and some feta. That didn't leave a lot of room for greens, so it was more of a chopped-style salad, but no one seemed to mind. The dressing didn't blow my mind, but it was solidly good and people commented positively about it.
All-in-all, this meal didn't thrill me like Christmas dinner did, but it was a lovely day and nice to sit around the table with all the windows open and the breezes carrying away the heat of the oven. Huge props to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jason237 for all his assistance and to muffyjo for pitching in to help out in so many ways.
We started with the creamy artichoke soup that I first made in February. For this larger group, I doubled the leeks, potatoes, garlic and chicken broth, but only had one package of frozen artichoke hearts. Then I forgot about the simmering vegetables and let them go for an hour instead of twenty minutes. And I went ahead and put about 4 oz. of marscapone straight in, instead of messing with garnishing it. And in the end, it tasted almost exactly like the one I did in February. Which is why I prefer cooking to baking.
For the traditional leg of lamb I went with this recipe. It was tasty, but something is up with my oven or my meat thermometer or something. It took half again as long as it should have to get to temperature and then was much more cooked than I like it. This in contrast to the pork loin I made last week that took twice as long to cook and when I decided that the thermometer must just be wrong and cut into it, was still massively undercooked. Gonna have to figure out what's up with that.
As a side, I decided to try a pilaf of orzo and rice. Despite increasing the rest of the recipe by a quarter without upping the butter, because it seemed pretty excessive, it was swimming in butter at the end. OK, not the worst problem in the world, but next time I think I will try it with about 1/3 cup. I went with shallots instead of scallions, because I had them on hand and that was fine. And I threw in a teaspoon of Egyptian ground saffron, because I never remember to use that. Next time I would add some parsley or something to make it more visually interesting.
In celebration of spring, we had asparagus, roasted according to this recipe. I threw it in after the lamb came out, when I turned the oven up, so it was only at temp for about half the time and was, predictably, a little underdone. But that gave it a little more texture and springiness, so I wasn't unhappy with the result.
For salad, I started with this recipe for "Absolutely Fabulous Greek/House Dressing". I started with a red onion, about a dozen halved olives marinated in lemon, a bunch of little vine-ripened tomatoes, a couple of peeled/seeded/cubed cucumbers and some feta. That didn't leave a lot of room for greens, so it was more of a chopped-style salad, but no one seemed to mind. The dressing didn't blow my mind, but it was solidly good and people commented positively about it.
All-in-all, this meal didn't thrill me like Christmas dinner did, but it was a lovely day and nice to sit around the table with all the windows open and the breezes carrying away the heat of the oven. Huge props to
jason237 for all his assistance and to muffyjo for pitching in to help out in so many ways.
