My Dad’s Birthday Dinner

Two weeks ago was my dad’s birthday. October 6th exactly! When he was celebrating his birthday, he was out of town on a business trip, but he did get to go out with his sister, mother, and brother-in-law.  My family usually always makes him a birthday dinner.   So we did so!  The menu you may ask!!! Here you go!

I started by making some LAMB.  Yes… lamb!  I’ve never tasted lamb, made lamb, or even touched a lamb (raw or alive!). I started by seasoning it with rosemary leaves, salt, and pepper.  Then I got my panini press back out to be doing some searing again! I used it a few months ago, for something else. Oops… I can’t remember what I used it for! Oh well! Anyway, so I did that, and then cooked it in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes.  Then I took that out, and put the chops (they WERE lamb CHOPS) on a plate, and covered them with foil. Then I made a sauce to go with it. I deglazed the pan with some white wine and water. Then just let it evaporate a little, then skimmed off the fat, and it was good to go! My lamb was finished. But I have more!

For the sides, everything I made, you have probably already heard about.  I will name them in case you haven’t! I made Honey Lemon Glazed Carrots (previous), Rice Pilaf (previous), Cous Cous (new), and of course, some good bread!!! Now the Cous Cous was really easy to make. I’m not going to say good, because it wasn’t, and it wasn’t a recipe in my cookbook either. But what I did was boil 1 cup of water, 2 tablespoons of butter, and half a teaspoon of salt. Then when that boiled, I added one cup of Cous Cous, and let it sit for five minutes! Then I FLUFFED (don’t you love that word!!?? FLUFF!!!) it with a fork… and that was it!!!! Then I think you’ve heard about everything else! So happy birthday to my daddy, and even though he didn’t get to see us on his REAL birthday, he still got a nice, home cooked meal from his favorite Junior Chef! That’s me!!

The Little Things

Well, I haven’t written a post for a while so I decided to just blog about the little things going here! I’ve been a little busy, but not like I used to be! It’s summer, and pretty much all I do during the summer is hang out at my house. And “hang out” usually mean sit on the couch and watch TV all day… but that’s because I don’t have much to do! But anyways. I’ve made a few things lately. Last night I made an Asian Pork Tenderloin. It’s pretty much just a pork loin with Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Aka EVOO) and a special Asian seasoning from Pampered Chef, and then thrown in my magic pot, and cooked for about 18 minutes! It was good, and it made the most amazing juice. All that juice came out of it, so I let it just absorb all of the juice, because it was sooo good! The other night, I made a pretty good meal. I made Teriyake Chicken, and Rice Pilaf, and then I cook the chicken in some rice, and teriyake sauce, and onions, and that turned out really good. Okay, so I have this little habit of turning up the heat on my stove, with out even knowing it, so what I thought I did with the rice pilaf was I covered it, and thought I had it on low just to keep it warm until everything else was ready, but I accidentally put it on 5, and left it that way, and then I hear this really lord sizzling sound, and the first thing that came to my mind was “OOOhhh no!” and yes, I burnt the bottom of my pilaf. Yeah, so that was a bummer, but my meal was still really good! The chicken was really juicy and good, so that made me pretty happy!!!
Anyways, that’s an update, I guess! Enjoy the post!