Grilled Lamb Chops and Veggies

Katie here!  It's summer and the grills are being fired up all over town.  Honestly I have been alittle weary of using the grill in the past. I love the results but was scared of manning the grill on my own.  My husband is an excellent grill master and over years past has cooked everything that I prepped. I recently was taken under his guidance to learn the ends and outs of grilling.  This week I tackled one of our go-to-tasty meals.  Super easy and really healthy.  My Son devours lamb every time we cook it, so needless to say this meal was a huge hit.  American chops may be bigger in size, but the little New Zealand chops have more powerful flavoring. I used indirect heating on the grill to cook the chops with low heat at the beginning to get the sear marks since the lamb fat tends to make the grill flame up and char the chops.  The veggies were cooked on direct heat.

Lamb Chops:
1.5 lbs lamb chops
5 large sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped
Sea salt
Olive Oil

Veggies:
2 medium size zucchinis, thickly chopped
pint of cherry tomatoes
15 - 18 large mushrooms
sea salt
olive oil

Mince the rosemary.  Generously coat the chops with olive oil.  Sprinkle sea salt and rosemary on chops and rub to blend in the flavors.  For the veggies, coat with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt to taste.  String on a skew for cooking (if using a wooden skew, soak in water before hand). Heat grill to medium high heat (I had it around 400 degrees).  Place the veggie skews on the direct heat burners.  Cook the veggies for 10-15 minutes until tender, turning once.  Cook the lamb chops for approx. 5 minutes, turning once to sear on a low flame. If the grill starts flaming up, move chops away from flame.  Turn off burner under chops and cook using indirect heat from the veggies burner for approx. 10 minutes, until desired wellness is achieved.  Remove chops from grill, cover with tin foil and let rest for 5 minutes.

Provencal Leg of Lamb

Katie here!  After a few months off from having a baby I'm excited to be back in action again!

With Easter on the way I thought I would share one of my favorite Leg of Lamb recipes.  It is so easy and packed with flavors.  It comes from the Barefoot Contessa's How Easy is That? cookbook.  Highly recommend this book.  Tons of tasty recipes to enjoy.  This dish is always a crowd pleaser and people think you spent hours slaving in the kitchen, when in fact it is a fix it and forget type meal. I served it with steamed green beans and boiled red potatoes.

6-7lb bone in leg of lamb - fat trimmed
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
9 cloves of garlic chopped (don't be scared by this amount.  It isn't garlic heavy in the taste)
1 tbs fresh rosemary leaves chopped
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
3 lbs red tomatoes, cored and thickly diced
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup honey
1 large onion sliced
4 sprigs Thyme
2 sprigs Rosemary
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Place the leg in a large roasting pan, fat side up.  Combine the mustard, 1 tbs of the garlic, the rosemary, balsamic vinegar, 1tbs salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Spread on the lamb.  Place the tomatoes, olive oil, 1/4 cup of honey, onion, remaining garlic, 2 tbs salt and 2 tsp of pepper in a bowl and toss.  Put the mixture around the lamb in the pan and add the sprigs of Rosemary and Thyme.  Drizzle the lamb with the remaining 1/4 cup of honey.

Roast for 20 minutes.  Turn heat down to 350 and roast another 1 to 1 1/4 hours, until meat registers at 135 degrees on a thermometer.  Place lamb on cutting board and allow to rest for 15 minutes.  Serve lamb with tomatoes and juices.