What You Should Have Eaten #45

Lamb Chops and Early Spring Salad

This was my first mint julep. I made it specifically because I had some fresh mint to crush up. I doubt I’ll be doing it again, though. I kept spiting mint pieces out after each drink.

I made my own sugar syrup years ago. I have no idea how long I’ve had the bottle that I made, but I was married at the time I made it, and I might have had one less kid than I do now. It’s easy to make, and it doesn’t seem to go bad.

Didn’t buy any radicchio. It was $10 per pound, and what the store had looked awful. I got extra romaine hearts, though, so there will be enough salad.

I also didn’t buy a fennel bulb. I didn’t even look for one. I’ve got a jar of stuff labeled fennel, and I don’t know if it’s seed or leaves or what, but that’s what I used. And I didn’t use a lot of it. Fennel has a licorice taste to it, and I hate licorice. I also hate radishes, so those were left behind also.

I could not find any ricotta salata at the store, so a quick web search (what did we do before smart phones?) told me I could substitute Queso Fresco. It seemed to work, and now I know what to get next time this problem comes up.

This is the first and probably last time I’ll be buying racks of lamb. I’m supposed to have two small racks, but one small rack set me back $20, so that’ll have to do. Looks like I’ll be filling up on salad.

This was probably the easiest recipe ever to make. All the prep work had to do with the salad, and then it was all just dumped in the salad bowl and tossed together. Although I love to cook and really get into it, sometimes I like something relatively easy.

The lamb ended up being pretty fatty, so I didn’t get a lot of meat from it. I liked what I had, though. The salad was just okay. Since this will probably be the only time I purchase lamb like this, I wish it would have ended up in an overall better meal.

Also, in case you've forgotten: When I can remember to add this to the bottom of my posts, I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But when you click ads, I get a little bit of money, and as a single father of three, every penny from every source helps...especially with Christmas looming on the horizon. So I’m going to keep this tiny bit of begging at the bottom of my posts, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. The only thing it costs you is time. :) Thanks so much!