What a yummy dinner or what two new knives will do to motivate me to cook!

Not a RRR dinner, but it was a great dinner none-the-less.

After a week of nothing but salad with only lemon used for a dressing, I thought it might be time for me to try something else. First, I have to say that I did buy some flounder, cooked it the way my mother did, which was yummy, of course, and then broke it up into bite-sized bits to put on those salads -- at least the last three.

So, I'm salad-ed out. I love fresh greens and crunchies such as radishes, mushrooms, cucumbers, and not-so-ripe avocado toss in with the greens and lemon juice, but enough is enough.

Are you getting excited about what I'm about to tell you I cooked today and which, if there had been any more, I would have gobbled it up.

But first....

Yesterday, I realized why I have someone do my food shopping for me. I needed just a few things (actually three plastic bags of stuff, one of which was full of Puffs for Alan's nose). So I went and got just what was on my list and added one other item, the item about which I will tell you in a minute.

Anyway, I was so wiped out by the time I got to the check-out -- AND YES, I RIDE ONE OF THOSE RIDING CARTS -- that I said to myself: This is why you have Tamara shop for you. You could kill yourself if you did this every week.

Now to the "meat" of the BLOG:

I made lamp chops that tasted exactly like the rack chops you get at Outback. They are so good, and it was the sauce (jus) they serve with the rack that had me stumped, but I figured it out.

First I seared four chops and then put them in the oven at 400 degrees to bake for 20 minutes, then I turned on the broiler for the last 5. PERFECT, medium rare chops.

To make the sauce I had very finely chopped two stalks of rosemary and sprinkled that along with the salt and pepper on the chops. Then I arranged the chops in the pot and put whole cloves of garlic in the center (when I popped the pot in the oven, not before). I was left with a wonderful jus (syrup?) to which I added a tablespoon of Kitchen Bouquet and 1/2 cup of water. This I brought to a boil and then put in a light slurry of cornstarch and water. Perfect viscosity for the jus -- not thick, not watery, and oh, so yummy.

Alan and I dipped our chops in the jus (did you know that lamp chops have a wonderful handle to hold on to when you're eating them in the privacy of your own home?) and were moaning and aahing and oohing with each bite. What a combo. I added fried noodles and tomatoes mixed.

Just boil the noodles to al dente, and then drain. Put them in a frying pan with 2 T of melted butter. Turn the heat on high and turn the noodles frequently for about 3 minutes. This will give most of the noodles a nice crunch, but they will still be noddle-y. The tomatoes to be served over top of the noodles was just cherry tomatoes (I used 20) sliced in 1/2, and added some sweet basil finely chopped, salt and pepper, and a few drips of EVOO. YUMMMMMMM.

What can I say? It was a fabulous meal.

ttfn