Recipe Catch Up

I realized that in a couple of my recent posts I mentioned recipes ”to come”.  Well it’s about time right?

First off will be the amazing lamb marinade that I used to marinate the 6+ pounds of lamb that Brian and I made for dinner 1 night on our trip to the Outer Banks.

I am told that my mom or one of my aunts found this recipe in a magazine or some place way back in the day and everyone loved it so much it became sort of a regular occurrence at any family gathering.  That is until everyone had too much of a good thing and got sick of it, therefore I really do not remember said lamb.  That and I don't think I was too keen on eating lamb as a kid anyways.

My mom dug the recipe out for my Bridal Shower actually!  There was a Greek/Mediterranean theme to the food so this was perfect…as was my shower :)

Anyways…the Marinade:

Leg of Lamb in Mustard and Herb Marinade
(this is slightly altered from the original recipe, but very close, and easier)

1 tablespoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons water
3 medium garlic cloves peeled and minced
crushed red pepper (I added a few shakes)
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh rosemary leaves
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
3 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 teaspoons dried oregano
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
approx. 6lbs boneless leg of lamb

The method I like to use is to place lamb in a large ziploc bag (or multiple large ziploc bags if needed)

Combine all other ingredients in a bowl, stir to combine, and then pour marinade into bag(s).  Let sit preferably 24hrs, or at least overnight.  You can also place bags of lamb/marinade in the freezer until ready to use. 

Grill lamb to desired doneness…I prefer medium – medium rare.  I’m no expert in the cook time of meat, so I’d recommend checking a cookbook or online for cooking times based on amount of meat you have.

Next!

This lamb was served with an orzo salad that had lots of delicious veggies and feta cheese.

Here’s what I did:

Mixed Veggie & Orzo Salad with Feta
(my version fed 13 people…so obviously scale down if needed)

• Veggies to Grill (I used zucchini, red bell pepper, and red onion, but you could use anything you like….summer squash, eggplant, etc.)
• olive oil (for grilled veggies and  I used about 1/4 c. for salad)
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1 box Orzo
• 1 bag Baby Spinach
• 1 package cherry or grape tomatoes
• 1 cucumber
• fresh dill (finely chopped)
• fresh parsley (finely chopped
• salt & pepper
• 4 oz. Feta, crumbled (or more to taste)

  
Cut up veggies to grill, and brush them with olive oil, and sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper.

• Grill veggies, let cool
• Cook orzo according to box
• In a large bowl, place baby spinach
• Pour hot Orzo on top of spinach to wilt the spinach
• At this point you may want to add a drizzle of olive oil to prevent orzo from sticking
• Chop up grilled veggies
• Chop fresh veggies
• Add all vegetables to salad
• Combine lemon juice and olive oil in a small bowl and whisk to combine.
• Pour dressing over salad
• Add chopped herbs
• salt and pepper (don't be shy with the kosher salt)
• Don’t forget the FETA!!  Add crumbled feta
• Finally, toss this huge mess of salad gently until everything is somewhat evenly distributed
• Add additional herbs, salt, pepper, lemon juice, or olive oil as needed.

The salad was a hit!  So simple, yet so good.

The other item I made that night was the Key Lime Pie.  For this I used Barefoot Contessa’s recipe for Frozen Key Lime Pie.

My modifications were:

• Cut the butter in the crust down to 4T, plus 1-2T of water
• As I didn’t have time to freeze the pie, after the filling was placed into the baked crust, I BAKED the pie for 15min at 325 to set the filling.
• I THEN placed it in the freezer to cool down for an hour or so
• Made homemade whipped cream before serving :)

As nervous as I was cooking dinner for 13 people, it all worked out and everyone loved the food (so they say anyways).

I still have 1 more to go, the muffins, but this post has blown up before my eyes…and these eyes need to sleep!

Sweet dreams…about muffins :)

p.s. I’m trying my hand at cold-brewed iced coffee tonight.  Let’s hope that goes well!

Out in the Outer Banks

This was the first time I had ever been to the Outer Banks!  One of our friends organized a group trip and 14 of us rented a big house in Avon, NC for a week!

felt kind of like Real World, without all the craziness…well a little craziness

We drove.  From Massachusetts to the Outer Banks (OBX), and that should be roughly a 13-14 hour drive.  Of course I have no luck when it comes to traffic, and even though we split the drives over 2 days (staying in a hotel in Delaware), it was rough!!  I hate that my last memory of the trip is being stuck in a car going 8mph through NY and CT, so hopefully this post we make me remember the fun stuff!!

(I will say I am going to think hard before doing another road trip that long again…I’m a flying kind of girl ;)

Our first “taste” of N.C. came in the form of this baby:

We all stopped at Morris Farm to stock up on fresh produce rather than dealing with what may or may not be available once everyone and their mother hits up the grocery stores down there. 

That pecan roll was heavenly…not greasy or anything just soft dough with cinnamon, sugar, and pecans!

We at at the house for nearly every meal, and most of my mornings started off like usual…

Greek Yogurt + Fruit + Granola.

I brought plenty of TJ’s Greek Yogurt to last me the week :)

And those PEACHES!!!  OMG!!!  I wish I brought back bags and bags of the peaches we got down there….best I’ve ever had!!

Most everyday was spent basking on the sandy beaches and playing in the water which was a perfect temp.

Speaking of peach, this guy was deliciously refreshing:

Each night one of the couples or groups of people would be in charge of dinner.  I wanted to go first to get it out of the way so we cooked that first Sunday night!

I really wanted to do something “different”, not crazy different but not your standard “group dinner”.  I did want to grill and wanted to make sure there were lots of veggies involved :)

(check out these ginormous zucchini’s from our garden we brought!)

To set our meal apart we went with lamb!  I know that’s not very “different” but turned out that almost half the group had never tried it before!  I LOVE getting people to try things!

I knew they’d love it because it had been marinating for about 2 days and this marinade was AWESOME.  Recipe to come!

To accompany the grilled lamb, Brian and I did grilled veggies plus an orzo salad with more veggies and Feta!  I’ll have to save the actual breakdowns for another post, this one is too long already!

(excuse the classy paper plates and craptastic picture, most were taken with the old camera)

The verdict?  Everyone LOVED it!  Score.

I also whipped up a homemade key lime pie that came out sooooo good.

Other adventures of the week included:

A trip to one of those fabulous beach stores to get the boy new sunglasses as he sacrificed his to the waves.

You know, the place where you can get anything airbrushed on a t-shirt??

A mini crab-fest by the pool…mmmm I love crab meat!!

A Ferry over to Ocracoke for the day.

A little thunderstorm

Boogey Boarding!!

And a final delicious dinner out with Brian on our way home at Ocean Boulevard Bistro

I got a GIANT crab cake, it was divine.

Such a fun trip with great friends!!

Wish my tan would stop fading though ;) 

So much food so little time

The past 24 hours have provided me with an influx of delicious food-filled material to post for you guys. First there was the delicious Mexican feast at my co-workers house last night and then today was an Amazing blogger event at Starbucks! In order to keep this post from becoming ridiculously (good-looking) long I am going to save all the Starbucks awesomeness for tomorrow (because tomorrow is not going to bring me any good food pictures anyways).

I will say this though, it was so fun to meet some of my fellow bloggers out there who you almost feel like you known just from reading their blogs everyday... Tina, Elina, and Shannon it was so great to meet you and we should get together again soon! There were also some other great bloggers there too that I met and will give you all the details tomorrow.

Mmmm Tea Lattes!

Rewind back to Friday...I remember now I was writing my last post as I was eating an incredible bowl of oats. I really think one of the biggest reasons this was SO good was that I cut back on the water a smidge.

• 1/3 cup oats, a not quite full 1/3 cup skim milk, 1/4 cup water salt
• 3/4 of a banana
• 1 tsp TJ's pumpkin butter stirred in

Topped with:

• Zoe's Honey Almond Granola
• few golden raisins
• 1 or 2 candied pecans, chopped
• dried unsweetened coconut
• spoon of White Chocolate PB

I want to taste more coconut next time, so I may add it in before cooking...I'll let you know.

After work, Brian and I headed to my co-workers for Friends and Fajitas night! He brought me a sweet treat too ;)

I had a few bites but then gave him the rest...those things are big!

If you remember from last post I had made Ina's Guacamole...and man did it go fast, by the time I thought to whip out my camera there was about 3 bites left, I think you can imagine what Guac looks like :)

The Fajitas we actually more like taco's...no complaints here...and there were a multitude of toppings that left me piling my plate to my hearts content.

The heart of the fajitas were right here:

The two bowls on the left had a mixture of ground lean turkey and beef with seasoning. The bowl on the right was a rice/spinach/black bean/spices mix! This stuff was money! I'd make it on it's own.

From what I can remember we had:

• Turkey/beef
• rice/beans/spinach
• red and green bell peppers
• lettuce
• onion
• avocado
• shredded cheese
• mango(!!)
• fresh cilantro (!!!!!)
• 3 types of sour cream (full fat, lite, and fat free hahah...the girl who brought it didn't know what to pick)
• mango/peach salsa
• regular salsa
• Hmmmmm I think that might be it.

Not too shabby! I definitely went back for seconds. My favorite topping had to be the fresh cilantro...I forgot how much I love that stuff!!

Now I gave you a few hints to the dessert I was making...pretty easy hints actually, and a few of you got it right!

Key Lime Pie!!! This was based off of another Barefoot Contessa Recipe for Frozen Key Lime Pie. My tweeks involved:

• Using Ellie's recipe for a graham cracker crust: much less butter and no added sugar...delish!
• I wanted to use low fat condensed milk, but couldn't find it
• I used 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks instead of 6 yolks

All in all it was really refreshing and delicious!! You just can't leave it out at room temp for very long. It doesn't freeze, per say, but like ice cream it kind of melts after a while.

I also made fresh whipped cream...a MUST with this pie in my opinion :)

I can't believe I'm blogging this late but Brian and I were at Pre-Cana all afternoon/evening, and will be there ALLLLL day tomorrow (hence saving the tea post til then). It's the Catholic marriage-prep course required if you want to get married in the church. Poor guys isn't even Catholic but he hasn't complained once :)

Today also involved: Hot Yoga!! and got my hair done!! Fun fun!

I also found these:

And proceeded to buy 1 other flavor of them, and 2 packs of the smaller kids size versions!!

So I ate this for late lunch...Flat out, buffalo turkey, havarti dill, and spinach

And this beautiful orange...

Ok, Must.Sleep.Now