J. Homemaker Series #3: Easter Dinner (better late than never)

Where have I been?!?!  Well, France.  At least for a few five days.  Is that a good enough of an excuse for almost two weeks without blogging?  Paris is on my bucket list!  More to come on that in a future post.  

First up, Easter.  Seeing as how it has been nearly two weeks since the day, I figured I better fill you in!

So, on my bucket list, under cooking, #2 is to cook a Thanksgiving dinner (pretty much on my own).  Obviously, this won't apply so alas, I can't check that item of my list.  Oh, and it will probably be at least two years before I can check that item off my list anyways--many favorite Thanksgiving dishes are hard to make here in the Netherlands, since some of the ingrediants are hard to come by.

But back to the subject at hand.  I DID make this whole Easter dinner by myself.  

lamb, cauliflower, potatoes and cookies!

Funny story about how we ended up with lamb.  Well...funny to me.  

What I was really looking for was ham.  But the only ham I could find within my walking radius was sliced (for sandwiches) or cubed (scrumptious in scrambled eggs).  Both not Easter dinner material.   On my search for the ham I stopped into a "vleesspecialist" (a.k.a. "meat specialist") that I pass each time I head to our mums & toddlers group.  

I asked Mr. Meat Specialist first if he spoke English.  "A little", he says.  That is what most Dutch folks say here.  And they then go on to speak more fluent English than my two-year-old.  Well, at this point that isn't too tough of a feat.  But my point is just that they usually can understand everything I saw and have a full conversation with me in English.   

I pointed into the meat case.  "What's that?"

"Lamb," says Mr. Meat Specialist. 

"I'll take it," said the novice cooker looking for something relatively seasonal, so to speak, for the rapidly approaching holiday.  Have I ever cooked lamb before?  Nope.  Was I a bit nervous?  Um, yeah.

So, did it turn out? Oh, yeah.  It turned out fabulous.  

Perhaps a new tradition was born.  I can't say that I was extremely gutsy or creative with side dishes (cauliflower with cheese and mashed potatoes), but one thing at a time, right? 

I turned to foodnetwork.com for this Herb Crusted Lamb recipe from Giada.  Love her!

The rest of Easter day was beautiful, in the 70s, and a fun day to relax and hang out as a family.  Here are some photo gems to enjoy: 

family photo.  fun. 

J#4 with her first Easter treat: Jelly Beans.  :-)

Oh, sweets.  After a my 40-day Lenten abstinence from sweets, Easter cookies and chocolate tasted pretty good on Easter Sunday.  

goofy #3

J. Homemaker Series #2: Cleanliness is next to Godliness?

So, I have crossed into the 'dark side'.  I have a cleaning schedule.  Can you believe this?  Because, frankly, I can't.  


Psst.  Let me tell you a secret...I don't think I have followed it one week since I started printed it out. 


But, I generally get most of the stuff done.  It is my job after all.  And I have always been known as a hard worker...wouldn't want to ruin my reputation.  Ooops.  Guess no one would have known if I was ruining it if I didn't write about it here.  Oh twell. 


Here is part of my dilemma: 


Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.  ~Phyllis Diller


Ah, if I haven't read a more true quote.  Why clean at this point?  I wish I would have taken before and after photos the other day.  Our living room/dining room/kitchen went from tornado alley to magazine ready (okay, probably not magazine ready, but pretty darn clean--I even scrubbed the floors) during J#3's nap.  


Um, yeah.  And about a hour thirty minutes after he woke up?  Half way back to it's previous state. 


But how can I complain?  If he would have been awake for the cleaning, you know he would have wanted to help: 

wonder where he learned this...

maybe I should find him a footstool? 

J. Homemaker Series #1: Popovers

Welcome to a new feature on the blog, the J. Homemaker series.  The plan is to publish a post each Wednesday dealing with homemaking.  For those of you who have known me for some time (or maybe not that long too), you will know that before moving to the Netherlands I was NEVER known as "Suzie Homemaker".  But, seeing as how cooking and cleaning are now two of my main responsibilities, needless to say, I have "seen the light".  Or, the inside of an oven.  A lot.  

I kid, I kid.  It may sound from that last sentence that I am not enjoying my new found relationship with the kitchen, but I really am.  In fact, there are a few items on the bucket list that are a product of this.  For instance, popovers.  

I have had a popover pan for over five years (maybe even longer--it has been SO long, I am not even sure how long I have had it).  It has moved from Minnesota to New Jersey, back to Minnesota, and finally it took a trip across the ocean to the Netherlands.  

Popovers are one of my favorite treats.  I sometimes frequent restaurants just because they serve popovers. So, it was finally time to try to make them myself.  I was a bit intimidated because I had heard that popovers are difficult to bake successfully.  So, on a quiet Sunday afternoon (obviously, had to make sure J#1, my kitchen guide, was home), I made an attempt.  

first, the pan.  it should really have it's own passport.

next, the ingredients

The recipe I used?  From the packaging that came on the pan. Here it is, in case you want to try this at home: 

1 ¼     cup flour

1/3      teaspoon salt

3        large eggs

1 ¼     cup milk

2        tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 6 even pieces

1        tablespoon unsalted butter melted

Oil or spray (with nonstick vegetable oil spray) popover pan.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees and set rack in middle of oven.  Preheat popover pan in oven about 2 minutes.  Blend flour, salt, eggs, milk and melted butter until mixture is the consistency of heavy cream, about 1 to 2 minutes.  This can be mixed in a food processor, blender, electric mixer, or with a hand mixer.  The batter can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator.  Batter should be used at room temperature.

Place 1 small piece of butter in each cup and place back in preheated oven until butter is bubbly, about 1 minute.  Fill each cup half full with batter and bake 20 minutes.  Reduce temperature to 300 degrees and continue baking 20 minutes.

Makes 6 popovers.

So, how did they turn out?  

not perfect.  not disastrous either. 

would have preferred them to be a bit more airy. 

So, final thoughts:

1.  Our oven here only goes up to 200 degrees Celsius, which is not quite 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Perhaps why these weren't as perfect as I would have liked. 

2.  I forgot to spray the pan.  I am going to give the folks in the photo below credit for that.  

okay, that isn't fair.  it was my fault.  but I just wanted to
post this photo.  he's got his hands full, huh? 

3.  They were enough of a success to cross of my bucket list.

Will I try them again?  You bet.  But, for guests.  Found out that J#1 doesn't love popovers, so don't want to use about an hour of my time baking them just for us.  

So, how about it?  Want to come over for some popovers??? 

P.S.  Please forgive the less than stellar photography.  Obviously, I haven't gotten to that item on my bucket list yet.