Kitchen playtime: Easter weekend

Hubby and I always look forward to Easter, which we feels gives us the opportunity for some serious kitchen playtime. We start discussing the menu weeks in advance, and there is a careful selection of recipes as well as strategizing what to pick up where. Yes, I just made up a word.

So first, the cooking wine:

Yes, that is the 2013 Blanc de Syrah Brut from Wolf Mountain Vineyards here in Georgia. They make fabulous sparkling wines, and while they do have one sweeter one, the rest are nice and dry. This one is like spring strawberries in a glass.

And now the recipe sources:

Those would be the November 2014 Cooking Light (chard salad), John Sarich's Chef in the Vineyard (roasted lamb with cherry sauce), and perennial favorite Brother Rick Curry's The Secrets of Jesuit Breadmaking.

Of course the first part of the meal to be started was the yeast rolls since they rise twice. One thing to remember about the recipes in this book is that the dough tends to be very soft when you turn it out to knead. My best trick for dealing with this issue in this particular recipe is after the initial mixing/kneading period, switch to the dough hook and knead for two more minutes adding 1/2-3/4 cup more flour. It really helps. So, here they are. Rise, my pretties!

And baked. Seriously, I love this recipe.

And now for the Chopped Chard Salad with Apricot Vinaigrette:

This is a great salad for when the farmers' markets are still full of wintry stuff. Yes, come on, spring! I'm ready for some good spring and summer produce. The salad is just as good with feta instead of goat cheese. And hey, it's Cooking Light, so it's healthy.

Finally, the roasted leg of lamb with cherry sauce. Being half Belgian, I'm a sucker for meat/fruit combinations. I might have gotten a little too into the stabbing it before stuffing the herb mixture into the crevices and rubbing it:

But stab, stuff, and rub I did. Here's the cooked leg of lamb:

And Hubby engaged in his own knife work:

Ta da! Easter dinner (salads in bowls on the side):

The cherries in this sauce added more tart than sweet notes and made for a nice acidic foil for the meat. 

And, of course, the Easter wine, the 2012 Les Serrottes from Languedoc-Roussillon, France. Yes, this one is unfiltered and needs to be decanted for at least 30-60 minutes for that reason and to let it smooth out. Once it did, though, it went great with the roasted meat and cherry sauce.

Whatever you did, I hope you had a lovely Easter/Passover/spring weekend!

Lent is over...and there is much rejoicing! Oh, and recipes, too!

I always get a kick out of irony. Sometimes it even kicks me back.

Last Sunday started way too early, as Hubby and I decided to hit the 8:00 Easter Mass so as to minimize exposure to fussy children who were hopped up on the Easter candy they'd been downing all morning. We returned home mid-morning, and after making the components for and assembling the Black Bottom Banana-Cream Pie, which needed to chill, I started on brunch, which was to consist of blueberry pancakes, bacon, and grapefruit. Hubby pulled out the bacon, which he usually cooks because when I try to do it and pancakes simultaneously, the bacon tends to get burned, and gave it the nose test. He passed it along to me, and...bacon fail! I guess that's what happens when you keep it around too long and ignore it.

So Hubby rooted around some more in the drawer and came up with the veggie bacon -- fake-on? -- that we'd used for a recipe during Lent. It did in a pinch and gave us the chance to finish it, but that meant my Lenten sacrifice was prolonged, at least for another couple of hours. He ran to the Dekalb Farmers' Market and got five slices of Applewood Smoked Bacon for the Syrah-Braised Lamb with Olives, Cherries, and Endives we had for Easter dinner. A bite of that bacon is what I used to joyfully return to my omnivorous practice.

Now that you have the recipes for the main dish and dessert, here is the side dish:

Cecilia's Roased Potatoes with Green Garlic
Serves 4

1 dozen small red-skinned potatoes (about 1.75 lbs)
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 bunch Green Garlic, greens sliced off, and bulbs chopped
1 Tablespoon Rosemary, chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut potatoes into 1-inch pieces. Toss with the rest of the ingredients and bake in a baking dish for 40 minutes or until brown, stirring occasionally.

Yeah, it's simple, but quite tasty.

And wine... Before dinner, we pulled out a bottle of our most recent wine club shipment from Sapolil Cellars in Walla Walla, Washington. We happened to stumble into the winery when we were out there in 2007 and were so impressed with the reds, mostly Syrahs, that we joined their fledgling club. The "Papa Loves Mambo" is a blend of 70% Syrah, 20% Sangiovese, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, so it's fruity, smooth, and structured all at the same time. With dinner, we had the 2006 Syrah from Sapolil, which was a bit spicy but went well with the lamb.