Christmas Dinner!

Tis the Christmas season and I couldn’t wait to spend time with family and friends. My job is with a high education non-profit association, and they are gracious enough to close the office for 10 days between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day.

My mother and brother both work in the medical field, and had to work on Christmas Day. Therefore, I was in charge of dinner. My mom and I came up with a menu which consisted of new recipes for me to try. The menu consisted of roasted leg of lamb, parmesan risotto, brown sugar glazed carrots and roasted Brussel sprouts with bacon. The weekend before during a huge ice storm, my bestie and I ventured up to the Italian Market in Philly for the perfect lamb. Esposito’s market had seasoned boneless leg of lamb for $6.99 lb., which was a steal. The butcher advised me to cook the lamb at 325 degrees for 20 minutes per pound. I got all the recipes I needed from Pinterest and prayed that it would come together.

I started my lamb by baking it on in a hot oven for 15 minutes before lowering the temperature to 325. I let the lamb go for about 2 hours and checked the internal temperature with a meat thermometer. Next I started on my risotto. The process does take some of your attention and a lot of stirring, but it came out very creamy. I can’t wait to try other risotto flavors in the future. The Brussel sprouts cooked while the lamb roasted in the oven. I crisped up some bacon and seasoned them with garlic pepper, smoke salt and herbs. Finally, I briefly steamed the carrots in about an inch and sautéed them with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice.

The meal came together beautifully and fed my family including some friends who stopped by. This meal taught me to not be scared to cook different meats and to get over my fear of cooking for major holidays.

Happy Holidays!