Rack of Lamb

Allow 1 rack for each couple.

Ingredients:

For Crust:

1/2 C Italian Bread Crumbs

4 T Minced Garlic

1 T Finely Chopped Rosemary

Zest of 1 Lemon

1 T Dijon Mustard

2 T Olive Oil

Mix together and set aside.

For Lamb:

1 – 7 bone Rack of Lamb, frenched

Olive oil

Kosher Salt

Coarse Pepper

Directions:

Start gas grill warming – our goal is to reach a temperature of 450 degrees. If you don’t have a barbeque you can cook this in your oven at 450 degrees.

Mix together crust ingredients and set aside.

Cover rack of lamb with olive oil, salt and pepper. Heat up cast iron skillet and sear all searable sides (bones curve the wrong direction so you cannot sear that side).

Let cool 5 minutes.

Slather crust mixture on lamb, then put on top rack in BBQ, bone side down.

Cook for 15 minutes or until instant read thermometer reads your desired doneness.

Remove from heat, cover with foil and let rest 10-15 minutes.

Carve between the ribs and serve.

Being in my fifties, I have been hounded lately from medical practitioners to get a mammogram. I have never believed that this is a safe practice and have always avoided it. When I was in my forties, I refused the screening, then come to find out that they are now recommending waiting until after fifty. The more I hold out on this “unsafe screening” the more information comes out against it. Dr. Mercola just posted a very informative article on this issue.

Today I was blessed with a full body massage. It was so wonderful. What is it about getting a massage that always makes me hungry? I don’t get it but it happens every time. The hard part about today is that Randy had a massage right after me so I have to wait to have lunch. We had some bratwurst and sauerkraut today complete with onions and jalepenos. Even though we had buns, we ended up having to use a fork and knife because we added so much sauerkraut.

Tonight we will be heating up some leftover soup. My favorite dinner. Along with the soup we had some toasted cheese sandwiches made with baguette bread and black label sharp cheddar. Cooked them up in my cast iron pan with a little coconut oil. Can I just say I love my cast iron pan?

Today the AC guy showed up to do the service and replace a couple of motors. Now the house is not too humid and not too hot. Very nice. For lunch we will be having Monchong, zucchini, caprese salad and steamed broccoli with grated cheddar cheese. Got the barbecue started and now it is time to season the fish. I will use olive oil, some mixed herbs for fish (seems to be primarily dill), salt and pepper. I wanted to try something new with the zucchini, so I thought about a little fried squash. I sliced the zucchini in 1/2″ slices, sprinkled with salt and pepper, tossed in egg wash, dipped in Italian Bread crumbs, then lightly fried in coconut oil. It turned out super yummy. I put the fish out on the grill at 350 Fahrenheit for about 12 minutes on the top rack. I didn’t want to over cook it. After letting it rest for 5 minutes, we were ready for lunch.

Worked the rest of the afternoon then enjoyed a nice cheese and cracker snack. We have some nice Maui fillets to fix for dinner tonight, but first a dip in the jacuzzi. Actually I did season the steak with some Montreal steak seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, oyster sauce and dill weed before going out to enjoy the sunset. Let it marinade nicely while I marinade in the jacuzzi. Got the barbecue up and running and cooked the steaks for 3 minutes on each side. It was a perfect medium rare. Since it was a later than normal dinner, I only served up one of the steaks. We’ll save the other one for breakfast. It’s a good thing that I put the second steak away because we would have been tempted to eat it. I served it with Kale salad and some leftover garlic mashed potatoes.

Since we are pressed for time we decided to make tacos for breakfast. A couple of corn tortillas and some leftover fixings will do just the trick. After breakfast, we did a little work and then off to Wailuku. While Randy was shooting, I ran a couple of errands that we had in Wailuku. Then it was off to Fedex. We were pressed to get there before 12 noon as that is their cut off for shipments. Back in the day, we had until 5pm for inter island shipments, but not any more. All packages must be at the base by noon. By this time I was hungry and I knew since I was going grocery shopping I should eat first so I didn’t over buy. Last night we watched a show on the Cooking Channel about hot peppers and ever since Randy has had a real hankering for the spunk. So when I mentioned that I was hungry, Randy’s first reaction was let’s do Pinatas. So it looks like I’m not cooking lunch today. We ordered a chicken salad and chili rellenos and shared both dishes.

After that, it was time to shop for some groceries. Had to stop at Costco and Whole Foods and then it was time to go home and think about dinner. Well, about 5ish or maybe later, Melissa  calls to ask it she can invite some friends over for dinner. What am I supposed to fix. I was only prepared for dinner for 2 maybe 3, but to make dinner for 5? Well, fortunately, we had picked up some pizza dough from Whole Foods so tonight we will have BBQ’d pizza. The great thing about teenagers and/or young adults is that they engage well in “cooking lessons”.  I get the Whole Wheat Pizza dough from Whole Foods and cut it in fourths to make four pizzas out of one glob of dough. Well, I have to say that it was a really fun pizza party and everyone enjoyed the interaction of the chopping, sprinkling and throwing on the barbee. We did also heat up some of the leftover soup and now I’m done.

In the middle of my lawn mowing, a customer arrived and parked right on the grass. Therefore, I had to wait until he was finished in order to complete my job. By the time I was done and showered it was already 11am. Melissa made us breakfast this morning. We had scrambled eggs, Canadian bacon, steamed zucchini, and toast with coconut oil and honey. Thank you Melissa.

Randy and Melissa went to deliver some artwork and I stayed here and started to work. When Randy returned, we had some mounting and laminating to do. Since he has been doing a lot of framing lately, all of our work tables are completely covered. This kind of reminds me of mowing the lawn in that the actual job cannot be done until the prep work is complete. Your really need to start with a clean environment in order to avoid getting noogies in the laminate. After we cleaned off the tables, I made the mistake of looking down at the floor. Yup, it’s time to sweep. Then we had to dust of the laminators and wipe down the tables. Now I think we are finally ready to “do the deed”.

I had thawed out a pound of ground beef for lunch so we thought we would have a taco salad. Well, by the time we were finished cooking, you guessed it, it was really dinner time (5pm). There goes another day with brunch and linner instead of Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. We still have some of that yummy cookie dough left, so around 7pm Melissa cranked up the oven and we had some cookies. Now it’s time for a dip in the jacuzzi and off to bed.

The next job on the list was to shave Roxy. If her fur gets too full it gets all matted up and she collects stickers from our walk. After the job was done and I swept it up in a pile there was so much fur that it almost looked like she was actually laying there. While I was working in the “Fur Salon” Randy was outside doing a little weed eating. I think if we just eat this elephant one bite at a time (weed eat a little every day) we will eventually have success.

Randy had an appointment to go to so we waited on lunch until after his appointment. When we shopped at Whole Foods, they had just put out some Lamb from a local Maui Rancher. I took one look at them and decided I want to have this lamb, this week. Whenever we shop for the week, I choose several choices of meat (not previously frozen) to serve within the next 3 or 4 days. This way, not all the meat has to be frozen and we get to experience some that is “fresh off the chopping block”. We have tested the difference and it really does matter whether it has been frozen or not. When purchasing your meat please pay attention to the term “previously frozen”. That pretty much means that it is not “fresh”. Anyway, a little Italian seasoning and Worcestershire sauce on the lamb, a really hot grill, and a sliver of one of those spent cedar planks made for some good smokey grilled lamb. At 500 degrees you only need about 2 minutes on each side then done deal. To compliment our perfectly grilled lamb was some steamed cauliflower with grated cheese. I remember when I used to think that you had to make cheese sauce to put on broccoli or cauliflower, but now that I am reformed…just some plain old grated cheese works wonders.

Once again we have finished up lunch much too late to be concerned about what to fix for the next meal. Ended up with just a little cheese and crackers plus a handful of pistachio nuts. Costco has these really awesome pistachio nuts that are flavored with salt and pepper as well as a slew of other spices. Once I tried them I didn’t want to buy the plain ones again.

I went straight to work and it was around 10am that I reminded Randy we had decided on a coconut for breakfast. I know we usually do not eat until 9:30 or 10am but that is when we have a big breakfast planned. To wait that long and still nothing is a little difficult for me. After I mentioned the coconut thing, Randy was totally on it and whipped out the nut. Well worth the wait.

After breakfast, Randy delivered some work to a gallery in Makawao and he got home about 11:45. I asked him if he was ready for lunch and he gave me an enthusiastic thumbs up. When we shopped on Sunday, we had picked up a really nice piece of Monchong (A somewhat exotic fish with a flaky, tender texture and mild flavor. It is served broiled, sautéed or steamed.). It is a beautiful light fish that is so moist and just melts in your mouth. While we were waiting for the bbq to warm up, I thought a little caprese salad would be a good snack. Randy helped me arrange the tomato on the plate and then he cut up the mozzarella cheese. Add to this a little salt, pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, as well as a nice fresh basil leaf, and wow, is that a good snack. The fish was cooked low and slow on the barbee. I put it on the lowest setting and cooked it on the top rack. To compliment the fish we had some lightly steamed asparagus with no extra seasoning. According to Dr. Gina Kim in her book “The Power to Heal Yourself“, we should actually eat asparagus daily.  According to her studies, this can help the body be more alkaline, dissolve kidney stones, and help with arthritis and even cancer situations.

Now it’s time for a little afternoon power nap and then back to work. When 5pm rolls around, I remember that the dogs are still in the kennel. When I go outside and check the gates to make sure they are closed, I see the tent panels that have been laid out to dry. Thinking that I really don’t want them laid out another day, (if we don’t put them away now the evening dew with moisten them again), I interrupt Randy in his framing and ask for his assistance in folding them up and putting them away. Thank you Randy for your help – that would have been a real tough job by myself. With the tent panels stored, the gates closed and the dogs out of the kennel, it is now time to make a batch of soup.

Tonight’s soup with be a leek curry soup with butternut squash. It’s kind of a variation of last night’s soup, but I also add in chunks of butternut squash. You can use any type of winter squash or small pumpkin and get the same effect. What I like about adding the squash is that when it starts to get soft you can take a potato masher and it breaks up into the soup making it naturally thick and rich. We had some Parmesan crisps with our soup tonight. The ones we had tonight were store bought, but they really are easy to make. All you have to do is grate some Parmesan cheese, put a pile on a parchment lined baking sheet, pat down a little and bake for about 3-5 minutes (until golden brown) at 400. I usually fit 6 piles on one baking sheet. This is a perfectly carb free “cracker”.

I got to have my favorite breakfast sausages today. They come from Whole Foods and are simply called “Pork Breakfast Sausage”. I just love the flavor they have. Next was the eggs. We are having scrambled eggs today with spinach and scallops. Yup, scallops in the eggs. Last night when we had soup, we thawed out some scallops to cut up into the soup. There were two leftover that we didn’t use so I used them up in the eggs. I cooked the scallops in the sausage pan while they were cooking. Then I sauteed up some spinach added the eggs, chopped scallops and of coarse some cheese. Sounds like a good day for a piece of toast with coconut oil and honey.

After cleaning the kitchen, I went to work for a few hours. Today we need to leave the house around 5pm as Melissa is coming in. We never did unpack the car from the craft’s fair so we still have to do that. We decided that we would unpack the car after lunch. For lunch we had a couple of small fillets and some yummy green beans. We had a little garlic ghee leftover from the lobster yesterday so I put some of that on the beans along with a little salt and pepper. Simple perfection. Then Randy remembered we had a couple of bites of lobster left and what do you know – another surf and turf. For dessert we had a little cheesecake with some fresh blackberries.

One of the things that Melissa requested upon her arrival was to go to A Saigon Cafe for dinner. While there we enjoyed the shrimp wontons, green papaya salad, and chicken roll your own burritos. Our kind waiter treated us to some coconut tapioca for dessert. Now, being completely stuffed, it is time to go home and rest up for tomorrow.

I was thinking those leftover crab stuffed mushrooms would be really good in scrambled eggs. Along with the scrambled eggs we had some Canadian Bacon and a piece of toast with coconut oil and honey, and of coarse some wheat grass. I actually remembered to get out our vitamins today so we had a bowlful of those as well.

Today, I am planning on Spaghetti Squash with red sauce for lunch which really takes a little time a effort to prepare, so here I go. Started out with one pound of mild Italian sausage from Whole Foods.  That amounts to 3 sausages. This is the easiest way to make meatballs. I simply squeeze the meat out of the casing and make meatballs. Done. In the pot I put a couple slugs of olive oil (extra virgin and enough to amply cover the bottom). Then I added the “meatballs”. I almost feel guilty about these meatballs as I do absolutely nothing other than rolling them up. To this mixture I added onions, garlic, turmeric (yes! turmeric. Although it is not an “Italian” spice it can be added to a red sauce without even noticing), a little jarred marinara sauce, chopped tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, chicken broth, bay leaves, crushed red pepper, honey, basil and oregano. My trick to a great red sauce is starting off thin, being patient and ending up with a flavor that is to die for.

Spaghetti Squash is a fabulous creation that God made. I’m thinking that man discovered spaghetti squash and decided to make spaghetti to mimick it. Super simple to cook and very much like “real” spaghetti, this winter squash is the perfect base for my red sauce. All I do is trim the two ends off, cut in half length wise, put upside down in a 13×19 glass pan with 1/2″ of water. Bake in the oven at 375 F for about 45 minutes or until fork tender. Once the squash is done, you simply turn it over, and using a fork, scrape out the insides. It naturally turns into these lovely spaghetti type strands. For those of you that are gluten-phobic or heaven forbid…gluten intolerant, this is the perfect dish to satisfy your Italiano side. Well, except for the fact that I did serve it with some bread. Nothing sops up that extra liquid like bread. Of coarse, the whole thing was topped off with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese and Henry added a really big sprinkle of those dried pepper flakes.

Just as a side note, since the oven was preheated, and I did still have cookie dough in the fridge, I thought that it would be “green” of me to use the heat in the oven to bake some cookies. Mmmmmm, it worked. By the way, when I make my cookie dough I only bake 1 cookie sheet at a time (12 cookies). I then store the cookie dough in the fridge and whenever I have baked something, hence heating up the oven I will throw in a batch of cookies. This way, the cookies are ever fresh and delightful. Nothing worse than a stale cookie.

Because lunch was so late today, we decided to just enjoy a little cheese and crackers for dinner. We had one of those meat and mozzarella rolls in the fridge so we just had a few slices of that and some of those super yummy Rain Forest crackers. The good thing about eating like this is you don’t go to bed with a full stomach and you sleep better.

When Randy got finished with the initiation of the “machine”, it was time to think about a little sustenance before doing anything else. Although he had already opened a coconut, we needed some real food. Hmmmmm…we do have some snow crab that we purchased for Sunday brunch. I think it’s time to crack these bad boys open. The best way to steam crab is with beer and water. I really don’t like beer, but I like what it does to seafood.

So breakfast today was Snow Crab and Cauliflower, steamed and topped with cheese. Just to set things straight, the cauliflower was topped with cheese but the crab was not. Now I have the energy to get these floors in order. Ickipoo would be a good word to use on my house today. I’m thinking I have the ability to change ickipoo into OOH WOW! So that is exactly what I set out to achieve.

After achieving OOH WOW…It was time for lunch (albeit 2pm but who’s looking at the clock?). Last shopping adventure we picked up some Sockeye salmon and decided today was the day that we would try it out. I have a cedar plank from Whole Foods and started soaking it before I hopped in the shower. Shower done, fully clothed and ready to face the salmon. I started the seasoning on the skin side with olive oil, salt, pepper and dill. Flipped the fish over and did the same. The barbee is started and waiting for the heat to arrive. Once the Barbee is heated 450 F or above, put the plank on for 3 minutes to warm it up. Then flip the plank over and place the fish on top. 15 minutes later I took off a perfectly cooked piece of salmon that was to die for. Along with the salmon, we had steamed broccoli topped with cheese.

Randy made dinner tonight. He made crab stuffed mushrooms and caprese salad. A perfect way to end the day.