From 5280 to Home Cooking

So my wife and I lived in NYC for 4 years and ate out a lot!  It's about twice as expensive as Denver.  So the 150 dollar Denver meal is equivalent to 300 in NYC.  I never had a questionable $300 meal in NYC, but the number of $150 questionable meals in 9 trips to 5280 restaurants was shocking and disturbing.  We loved getting out but the value was not there.  So that's it, project dead.  Oh I was notified that 5280 rated restaurants pay for the privilege.  Makes sense.

Now when I say project is dead, I only mean the blog schedule and trying to hit all restaurants in 52 weeks.  We will hit some and I will review them when we do.  I love the critique process.  I also think it help my own cooking immensely.

Anyway this blog will continue with my home cooking experiments.  I now have a kitchen that is about as big as our apartment was in NYC.  Big difference, given the kitchen there was like a closet.  So first up on my home food preparation is New Year's Day 2011, a nice Australian Leg of Lamb.

The pictures started nice and then got hosed, not sure why.  I'll fix that before my next effort (note I make efforts like this regularly but only photo and blog on occasion.  My goal is 6 hand prepared dinners per week.).

A nice rub of salt, pepper, thyme and fresh rosemary.

Make slits in the lego of lamb and stuff with whole garlic cloves (note on a broiler pan).  Rub the rub baby!

Under the broiler, sear each side for 3 minutes.

And this is the same side but the other picture sucks.

Then at 350 degrees with the whole tray wrapped in aluminum foil, let it cook for 105 minutes.  Place on a plate and slice thinly.

Take the drippings in the broil pan and add 1 cup of chicken broth, salt and pepper and 1/4th cup of flour to create a nice gravy.

Serve with a nice a green salad, a Chianti Classico, and candles.  Wow the 50 inch plasma looks small in the background pounding out some Whisperings Classical Piano from iTunes radio.

Happy New Years and Happy Dining!