Spring Time Celebration

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day here.  Perfect spring day and perfect day for having friends and family over for dinner.  Dinner turned out pretty good.  Our menu was grilled lamb chops and chilled asparagus soup for appetizers, baked ham, scallop potatoes, green beans, salad, rolls and for dessert a lemon cake filled with a lemon curd whipped cream and strawberries.  The hits of the day were the lamb chops, chilled asparagus soup and the dessert.  The other hit and for a future post were chocolate chip cookies.  On the downside were the scallop potatoes that did not set up right, while flavor was good it was not pretty.  Not sure what happened and will have to try again.  

The recipes that I am going to share from this dinner are the hits for the day.  First up is the lamb chops.  The recipe is adapted from Gourmet magazine.  Gourmet is a great magazine for your daily dose of food porn.  I purchased the lamb chops from Costco and they were tender and flavorful.

Grilled Lamb Chops with Rosemary

Lamb chops (I used a package that contained 7 lamb chops)

3/4 cup balsamic vinegar

6 Tablespoons olive oil

6 cloves of garlic minced

3 Tablespoons fresh rosemary chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Place lamb chops in large ziploc bag.  Add the rest of the ingredients.  Seal bag and mush everything around to blend.  Marinate in refrigerator for a minimum of four hours and no more then six hours.  (Longer then six hours could make the meat mushy and make the balsamic flavor a little overwhelming.)  Heat grill to medium high heat.  Remove lamb chops from marinade and throw away remaining marinade.  Place lamb chops on grill and cook for 3-5 minutes per side or until desired doneness.  You want an internal temperature of 140 degrees.  Let chops sit for 5 minutes before serving.  Lamb chops are best served medium rare to medium. 

In the next couple of days look for the Chilled Asparagus Soup and the Lemon Strawberry Cake Roll.