Best Bag Ever Last week, another shipment of Girl Scout Cookies arrived at the office. Awesome. That night, I carried home a bag with three boxes of cookies plus two bottles of wine from work.
"If something happens between here and home, I'm golden." I imagined the train breaking down and we are all stuck there and I point out that I have cookies and wine and save the day. Yea! Boy with wine and cookies saves us all!
Yes. It was the best bag ever.
Lamb I adore rack of lamb. The first time I had a proper rack of lamb was in high school on the night of my senior prom. My friend Joel (Joel, where are you?) worked at our town's swanky restaurant as a waiter and so we went there for dinner since they would treat us all royally and stuff. It was swell and I don't remember anything about the meal except that: 1. My prom date drove Joel and his girlfriend crazy 2. It cost a lot of money 3. It was really really good
True Fact: My parents recently revealed that they were so anxious/nervous about my driving their brand new car to the prom that they *happened* to drive by the restaurant (granted, it's across the street from my dad's office) to check up on me.
Oh, my prom date. I don't remember much about her. There was high-school drama as I couldn't take my actual girlfriend as she was a sophomore or something and it was only junior and seniors so I asked this girl who I think I knew. Or had just met. Or something. It's all fuzzy. In fact, I think it was then as well.
She made me a really dark mix tape and wrote a letter that was vaguely suicidal (or at the time I think I thought it was). She was also kind of goth-esque, so maybe that was it.
True Fact: I remember judging her a bit because the brand of cassette she used was crappy.
Oh, where was I?
Lamb For Sunday night dinner, we made lamb. First, I love, no, I adore... No, love is good. Love lamb. I also love having a proper butcher shop around the corner. We went in today and bought lamb chop things. Or racks. Or lamb racks. Or ramb lacks. They cost some money.
Here's how we did our first attempt at lamb. (note that we make lamb burgers all the time and I once made a lamb stew thing, but this is the first time we made proper lamb)
Step One Get the "How to cook everything" cookbook out that I may of given you as a wedding gift. Read chapter on lamb. Fall asleep on bed. Be startled awake when wife comes in to ask you to recommend place for chinese food for people on phone.
Step Two Open bottle of wine. Pour into fancy decanter because you don't use it enough. It's Robery Sinskey's Vintage Reserve (1999). Note that you find the percentage of Cab Franc to be overwhelming everything else (but realize that you are a dork for thinking that (much less "blogging" it)). Take photo of the deposit's residue on the bottle.
Step Three Start potatoes. When they are almost done, have Mrs. Robot start up a large pan of olive oil and do this fun thing with rosemary, garlic and the potatoes (it's in the cookbook).
Step Four Do the ol' hot pan on the stove and then in the oven thing. Since our apartment is small and our kitchen has crap ventilation, we are always trying to find ways of cooking fun stuff without stinking the whole place up. We turned a burner onto high and put the fancy frying pan on it and let it sit for about five minutes. It got really hot, but since there was nothing in it, it didn't create much stink. Then we threw some crunchy salt on the pan, then the lamb chops and a little shallots. Our pan is large, but these chops were monsters and it was a bit of a puzzle to get them all on there.
Then they go into the oven that had been sitting there at 500 degrees for a while. It, too, was quite hot. Five minutes and then flipped them for another five. When they were almost done, we threw the potatoes back in to get them hot again.
Step Five Quickly clean off kitchen table. Pour wine. Plate lamb and taters. Serve. Become covered in lamb juice. Gnaw on bones. Share bits with cat.
Last week, another shipment of Girl Scout Cookies arrived at the office. Awesome.
