A Late Summer Dinner
Our weekends have become too hectic, so I’m trying something new.
I’ve had a goal for the past several months to establish a new ritual of cooking a delicious meal on Sundays. Nothing extraordinary- just intentionally choosing a recipe, followed by a dessert.
Our weekends can be chaotic and unfortunately, Sunday is scarcely a day of rest. I do a lot of my work during the weekends, social events come up, chores and home projects stack up. I found myself anxiously monitoring my to-do list until my head hits the pillow on Sunday night.
It’s not a great way to go, and since we’re a Catholic family, it’s especially important for me to find a way to elevate Sunday above the rest of the week (aside from wrestling two busy children through Sunday morning Mass).
My solution? To intentionally plan a delicious Sunday dinner. I love to cook, but I make a lot of cheap, easy dinners during the week. Cooking is a love language for me, as well as a hobby I wish I had more time to cultivate. So while this allows me to set time aside to do something for my family, it’s also forcing me to set aside work for a bit and do something I enjoy as well.
September has been particularly busy— I’ve been hustling to get the new website up and running, there are a couple of pop up shops to prepare for, and I’m switching over from summer to fall inventory in the shop, which always comes with a bit of extra work.
So I opted for a roast that I’ve made before, which is easy to prepare and put in the oven ahead of time.
The menu.
The main course
I’ve made this lamb and turmeric roast from Alison Roman’s Dining In cookbook before. I love the fresh flavor of the turmeric with the lamb, and it’s earthy notes pair wonderfully with the herbal flavor of the meat. Not to mention the beautiful bright yellow sauce that brightens up the plate when served.
The sides
The roast itself is cooked with carrots, and additionally I served it with naan, fresh sliced radishes and a home made salsa verde.
I’ve been on a naan-making kick lately. I put my sourdough starter away for the summer, so it’s an easy bread recipe that can be made in an afternoon. I’ll serve it with a loaded hummus, a soup, or anything really. My favorite recipe can be found here.
The dessert
I haven’t taken enough advantage of summertime to make home made ice cream. Though I’m not a big mint chocolate chip fan, it’s my husband’s favorite, so I thought I’d fit in one batch before the fall arrived (the mint also complemented the lamb nicely).
I’ve tried different recipes each time, but the key is to find one that uses fresh mint. Its worlds better than store bought, in my opinion. A similar recipe can be found here.
By the time dinner was ready the kids were expiring pretty quickly, so photography took a back seat. But the roast turned out better than it has when I’ve made it in the past and we all enjoyed our dinner, so it was a win.
While the roast cooked, I took advantage of having fresh turmeric in the house and made some orange carrot and turmeric juice, which Jane and I enjoyed together.
