lean on me...

I know this is early, but today (as in Sunday) I'm linking up with my very talented, extremely young, fantastic mother's blog for Song-ography Sunday.  My mom is an amazing photographer and she's the one who inspired me to start this blog, so you should probably check her out over at her blog.  Although it's a photography link-up and my photographs are decidedly not artsy, I told her I wanted to link up if I could figure out a way to tie my food into her photo-prompt for the week.  She gives a song every week and the point is to represent that in pictures.  I figured this week's prompt of "Lean On Me" could be represented by food.  Did I make this dinner specifically to be photographed for the song? yes.  Did my fiance make fun of me for doing that? yes.  Did he stop making fun of me because his stomach is now pleasingly filled? yes.

Today the fiance and I had an unbelievebly productive little Saturday.  We went to Macy's to register for our wedding... translation?  I totally abused the power of the scanning gun and registered for everything in the store.  Four hours later we emerged from the store feeling like we had spent more money that either of us have, tired, and hungry.  I knew exactly what I wanted to make for dinner, so we went to one of my favorite places on earth, Findlay Market, and got the supplies. 

I've always had a love of farmers' markets.  I trace it back to when I was a little kid and we would go to the farmers' market on Thursday.  My mom would give my brother and I each $0.50 to get some candy and we would run to the candy stand and figure out how we could get the most candy possible with that money.  I still think that's where my math skills came from (sorry high school algebra teacher).  Looking back, it was just a way to get us out of her hair, but that's where my love of the farmers' market came from.  Fast forward 20 years and it's still one of my favorite places to go.

Anyway... on to the food.  When we went to the food tasting for our wedding I found out how much the fiance loved lamb, so I decided to make lamb tonight for dinner.  We bought a rack of lamb from the butcher at the farmers' market and started cooking away.  If I have one suggestion, go to a butcher to get a rack of lamb.  The only other time I've made lamb I had to french the chops myself... not pretty.  I love cooking, but let someone else do the dirty work for ya!

As long as it's trimmed up and frenched, lamb is a pretty lean cut of meat.  I'm not gonna go eat it every day, but as far as red meat goes it's a good splurge.  I left the loin whole and cut it into individual chops after cooking.  This was MUCH easier than cutting it before cooking.  When I got home I put it in a little marinade made with 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/4 cut extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons of dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon of honey, and lots of rosemary and thyme.  I only let it marinade for about an hour, but the longer the better.  If I planned it out I would let it marinade overnight.

After marinading, pat the lamb dry.  Pre-heat a pan to medium high heat and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Brown the lamb in the pan.  I let it sit on each side for about minute.  You want to get a good sear on it to seal in all the juices.  Then transfer it to a pan and roast in the oven until it's done to your desire.  We like our meat pretty rare/medium-rare, so I let it roast for 20 minutes.  I would say 25-30 minutes for medium.  Take the rack of lamb out of the oven and let it sit, covered with aluminum foil, for 10-15 minutes before cutting it into individual chops.

And here, my friends... are the "Lean on Me" pictures....

Let me tell ya... it was perfect! You can cut the meat off the bone like I did or save on the dishes and pick the bones up like lollipops (like the fiance did).  Either way, tastes like heaven.  I also threw the left over marinade in a pan and heated it to a boil.  We used that as a dipping sauce and it was perfect.  So perfect that the dog went crazy for it...

 ...and then she begged for more.