Oven Roasted Lamb

We decided this year to try something new for Easter dinner. My husband asked if we could cook lamb, and after a little research...we decided to give it a go. Years ago, another Army family shared Easter dinner with us with lamb as the main dish. It was delicious! Now it was time for us to try our hand with a dish that is not an everyday meal for our house.

After seeing the prices, and gathering all the needed ingredients we decided to do an Oven Roasted Lamb breast with a new brussel sprouts dish as the side.

Even the boys house guest enjoyed this meal! (And boys...thank you for being so cooperative as we try new recipes - love, Mom)

Ingredients:

• 3 lb lamb breast
• 2 TBS dried rosemary
• 3 TBS dijon mustard
• 3 TBS olive oil
• 3 TBS mince garlic
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 cup chicken broth

Directions:

1. In a large zipper storage bag, or covered baking dish combine rosemary, dijon mustard, olive oil, garlic, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Mix well. This will be the marinade for the lamb.
2. (If desired, or needed) Cut the lamb into desired cooking size pieces. The piece we bought I cut into 6 pieces. Put lamb into marinade for 4-6 hours or overnight in the refrigerator sealed in the zipper bag or covered in a baking dish.
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
4. After marinade time is complete, heat a skillet or grill pan to med-high heat and brown lamb on both sides before placing into a baking dish.
5. Add to baking dish, 1 cup chicken broth. (Should not cover meat.)
6. Bake for 1 1/2 hours, until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees for medium doneness or 170 degrees for well-done.

Hint: We served Spring Brussel Sprouts, boiled potatoes, and transformed some leftover hamburger buns into garlic bread for this meal. If you are cooking with a new ingredient for the first time, do a little research before starting. Ask the grocer, or the butcher where you buy your food for tips and insight. We went looking for roast, only to find the price to be nearly 5 times that of the breast. We were able to have a sufficient amount of meat, that was very tasty without breaking the bank. May your family enjoy this recipe as much as we did - Happy Easter!

Sourdough Garlic Croutons

The sourdough bread I baked last Saturday needed to be used up.

Instead of letting it go to waste, I decided to use it to make croutons.



After for looking online for crouton recipes, we finally decided to kind of use bits and pieces of each recipe to make our own.

We started by preheating the oven to 300 degrees F.

So we sliced the remaining loaf of bread into 1-inch slices.

Next, we gathered the ingredients to finish the croutons:

1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup butter (or margarine) melted
1/2 cup minced garlic
Italian seasoning mix*



Mmmmmmm, garlic!



In one small sauce pan we combined the olive oil and garlic and simmered for approximately 10 minutes.

Next we added the melted butter and mixed it until it was completely combined.

While I was mixing, Jon diced the slices of bread.

He did a really good job. Knowing my track record in the kitchen today I probably would have cut my fingers. Or something.




In a big mixing bowl, we tossed the bread cubes in the oil/butter/garlic mixture.

Then spread the drowned bread cubes were dumped onto the cooking stone. Once on the baking stone I sprinkled them with Italian seasoning mix. More or less according to your tastes. Ours were pretty strong.

After I cooked them for 5 minutes in the oven, I decided to switch them over to a wire rack over a metal baking sheet. That would allow the excess oil and butter to drain.

My advice - go straight to the wire rack over the metal baking sheet or baking stone.

I should have.



In the end, they cooked in the oven for 25 minutes at 300 degrees F.

Within 2 hours they were half gone.

I'm afraid to go see if there are any left now.

The boys are on fall break right now and no food is safe in our home.

At 10:30 this morning I caught the middle one making himself a cup of coffee.

At least now I know why I'm out of coffee...I'm really just glad it wasn't me that drank it all!!