December 20, 2009

Twas the Saturday Before Christmas

Snow and wind flurrying about. It looked so gentle from the window. It was not so gentle.

While most planned for their Saturday hibernation with bread, milk and toilet paper, I planned with lamb chops, fingerlings, carrots, cremini and cipollini.


There's not much that one can do, but wait for it, the snow, to be over.

Roberto waited, rather impatiently, by trudging over to Di Pasquale's for a fresh baguette, some sangweech fixings and...well, I can't say what else, else I might spoil a certain Christmas surprise.

I waited by bringing butter to room temperature and rallying other ingredients for chocolate chip cookies.

Upon Roberto's return we made our lunch and set about to hibernate. Under layers of flannel and fleece we each found a sofa spot and promptly fell asleep.

At just half past five we started our prep. Roberto with the lamb, I with the veg.

We chose a simple, I thought, rustic approach. A marinade of shallot, garlic, white wine, parsley, rosemary, salt and pepper for the lamb. Some of the garlic chopped to a fine mince, other cloves just left whole. The rosemary, entire sprigs.

The vegetables, cremini quartered, carrots and fingerlings cut to equal size, whole cipollini. All coated with extra virgin olive oil, parsley, rosemary (again, whole sprigs), salt and pepper.

Everything set to roast, in their respective pans, in a hot 400° oven until done. We just kept an eye on things, like one does when they don't use recipe.

Yes, the vegetables, they were roasted to perfection. The lamb, finished off in the broiler, was succulent. The perfect hearty, stick to your ribs meal. With some nice bread and a little red wine. No pasta. Can you imagine?

Now, don't be fooled by our presentation. Our plates, emptied, we went for seconds.

Followed up with pistachios, espresso and chocolate chip cookies.

As you can see, we're really hoping for less snow in the future.
A lot less.

13 comments:

  1. I love that picture of the roofs! I took a ton of pictures on Saturday, and was hoping to get some from my neighbor's roof deck of the park. Sadly I was waylayed by a bottle of wine on their first floor... :-)

    Looks like you had fantastic food for the hibernation!

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  2. Tracy, that sounds like a perfect snow day feast.

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  3. I love this!! The roasted things look marvelous and suit the snowy day perfectly :-)

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  4. Oh snow we don't have any here and I am not going back to London this christmas so I'm feeling deprived. Oh great, I think it's just started raining again... damp and soggy all that
    What a delicious looking suppper, those lamb chops and the veg all look perfect, perfect.

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  5. Oh it was a wonderful snow and a perfect excuse to hunker down and hibernate and rest before christmas. happy holiday and thanks for stopping by on Friday.

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  6. That marinade sounds divine! I'm a huge fan of rosemary!

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  7. I love being snowed in and that is a perfect meal for a snowy day. I also love that rooftop picture! Stunning.

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  8. Oh how perfect! That meal looks soooo good. And yes it would be nice to get less snow next time, but I really think it was a great time.

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  9. I adore the combination of delicious food and the snow photographs. I couldn't help reading this as if you were reading the christmas poem. Beautiful!

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  10. The snow!! I wished I will be experience at least one white Christmas :) It's always scotching hot in Sydney during Christmas. Lovely pictures and great meal you had!

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  11. Looks gorgeous and so does Baltimore. I've never been there, but I'm a big John Waters fan so I feel close to the city nonetheless!

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  12. oh those look finger-licking good. the cipolline onions look PER-FE-CT!!!

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  13. what an amazing scene! i love those wintry nights where everything is still and silent. the world seems to stop for a moment, quit whining about shoveling, and be amazed at how gorgeous snow is. and you REALLY know how to live up a storm! your neighbors envied you that night.

    cheers,

    *heather*

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