lamb chops with pasta

hi friends! what a wonderful evening. the end of the warm weather...molting into cooler fall weather. i look forward to chilly days, warm home, yummy food, watching movies, and snugglin'.

i arrived home around 5:20 and my girls had been home about 10 minutes. all happy i am pleased to report. (you never can be certain with numerous teenagers in the house)

justy and i had planned on cooking lamb chops we picked up at costco on sunday. they were very cute. like miniature beef t-bones.

we started off the evening with a glass of wine (for me...twisted zinfadel) and a gin and tonic for justy. we visited out on the deck...on the south side in the sun. the sun was warm but i had goose bumps. big V (mother in law) came over and drank a glass of wine and visited.

then we got dinner on.

i googled a recipe for lamb chops. i highly recommend it. here it is.

in a bowl mix:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp minced garlic

1 T finely chopped rosemary

1/2 lemon juiced

1 tsp course kosher

1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

dip each little chop in the mixture and place on cookie sheet. take out to preheated grill. place on grill 4 minutes each side.

after the 8 minutes bring into the house and put in preheated oven 400 and bake 5 minutes for rare to medium rare.

OMG...this is so damn good!

for a side dish we did cheese stuffed tortillin with our homemade mushroom and white wine sauce.

so here is the pasta sauce...in case you missed it before:

in some olive oil and 1-2 tsp butter toss in 1 shalott diced, 2 cloves garlic minced, and 6-8 baby portabellos sliced. saute until starting to stick to the pan. pour in about 1 cup white wine. cook until reduced by half. add about 1 cup cream and cook another minute or two.

drain pasta and toss with sauce. sooooooo damn good!

~bon appetite

chinese egg plant

home from red lodge tonite. had a lovely weekend. on our way to billings we stopped at the rest area. the keys got locked in the car! we had to borrow a a cell phone from someone stopped at the rest area also. we called a wrecker company and they drove out and opened up the jeep. but it did not crush our excitement for the weekend plans. we kicked it off on friday nite with dinner at pug mahones. live craic was playing. it was super! justy and i enjoyed a guinness and we all had fish and chips, except izzy...she had irish cream tiramasu!
on our way home today we stopped in at brans to see her and little hugh. he is very precious.
it felt good to be home tonite. i was ready to make something simple. i took chinese eggplant and sliced it the long way. i drizzled olive oil on it and baked it on high heat until it began to brown and then i flipped it over and baked it longer until it was browned on the other side as well. while this was cooking i made a sauce. i took 5 cloves of garlic and sauteed them in the oil with one shallot. after a couple of minutes i added one can of stewed tomatoes and a couple inches of totatoe paste. i simmered this for about 15 minutes.
i placed the browned eggplant in my le cruset braiser, sprinkled parmesan on it, poured my sauce on, and added more parmesan. i put it in the oven for about 15 minutes.
very good and simple.
i just finished a beautiful Swedish foreign film; everlasting moments. a film about forgiving and adapting. it occurs in the early 1900's. i highly recommend it!
~bon appetite