Kosher Salt & Mint Crusted Leg of Lamb

When our church announced we would be moving locations for Sunday mornings to a Jewish Temple, we knew we wanted the first church lunch there to be inspired by the Jewish culture.

Clearly, lamb would HAVE to be on the menu.

After some research, we found an amazing local farm with fresh lamb available weekly. To order your own, go here.

RECIPE: Kosher Salt and Mint Crusted Lamb

Ingredients:
1 leg or shoulder lamb roast (with or without the bone)
1 large bunch of fresh mint
1/3 cup kosher salt
2 tbsp kosher salt
up to 1 cup olive oil

Method:
1. in a blender, blitz the mint, 1/3 cup kosher salt, and add olive oil until the mixture blends into a thick, liquidy mixture

2. place the lamb roast and the mint mix into a ziplock bag and allow to marinate for one day

3. once you are ready to cook the lamb, preheat the oven to 190ºC or 375ºF

4.  place the lamb in a roasting pan and pour over the remainder of the marinade then sprinkle 2 tbsp of kosher salt over the works

5. roast until cooked through - the FDA suggests a temperature of 145ºF or 63ºC

6. slice the roasted lamb and serve in the roast drippings

Satay Chicken

RECIPE: Thai Satay Chicken

This is currently my favourite thing to eat!! I have also recently shared it with several groups of friends and family. This posting is for those who have been hounding me for the recipe and for those who want a super simple, incredible dish that is certain to impress every time.

Herbes de Provence

It sounds so yummy - so French - so... complicated and intimidating. But it is not complicated. It is simple and delicious. You read right; French, delicious, simple.

This is a chicken thigh over salad. Super easy, incredibly flavourful.

Comfort Soup

At my house, we have been sick for a week. My husband has been mostly home since last Thursday (he went in twice but came back home soon thereafter). It is one of those colds that have hit all of us, all at the same time and it has been awful.

Trying to cook or eat when you are sick is not a simple task. Our week has been full of soup, grilled cheese, and skillet-browned boneless chicken thighs and rice. 

Tonight we had soup with a broth that has simmered since yesterday. It was simple and delicious and took (maybe) 5 minutes.

Company's Coming!

We stayed home all weekend (it was snowy outside) and lazed around, not doing much of anything. It was 10:04 am on Monday and I realized that friends of ours were coming for dinner. I had not cleaned and there was no plan for dinner. There was a whole turkey in the freezer... if I turn on the oven right now...

Simple & Classy

When I make dinner, my goal is usually to make one thing that is special and make everything else simple. This makes the meal feel classier and takes little effort.

A few weeks ago, dear friends of ours came to visit with their four children. We then had six children in the house, ages 8, 7, 6, 5, 5, & 5 as well as four adults.

What do you feed to an active bunch like this?

Prepare Ahead: buying larger quantities of meat to pre-marinate, spice, dice, and sauce them yourself!

About once every week or two I buy several larger packages of meat and end up spending about 20 or 30 minutes with them.

How do you know what is a good price for meat? Start by looking at the price per pound or the price per kilogram. The price per kilo for regular ground beef will usually be the cheapest; the price per kilo for boneless skinless chicken breasts will be the most. 

With beef, watch the prices per kilo and compare them to other cuts - when I bought these “marinating” steaks, they were $1.20 per kilo cheaper than cubed stewing beef!!

Another important thing to watch is the “best before" date or the “packed on” date. I always want to take home the freshest meat, so next to the price per pound, that is the next most important.

This week, I bought one package of marinating steaks and one package of chicken thighs with the bone in.

In our family, lunch is leftovers from dinner the night before, so when I am packing up meat, I am actually packaging one dinner and one lunch for four. 

This is a wonderful opportunity to plan ahead if you are cooking for one or two or if there are several nights of the week when you need to throw something in the slow cooker or the oven on low before you run out the door for a few hours. This pre-planning has saved us from eating dinner out and spending nearly $40 when the dinner in the oven costs less than $10 and will also feed us lunch tomorrow.