Winter Sunday Dinner: A Gathering of Friends and Family

Last Sunday night I gathered some friends and family members around the kitchen table. I love Sunday dinners. I plan them on the early side and try to make them feel very relaxing. It’s like the goodnight to the ending week and an opportunity to recharge before the new week starts.

This is what I cooked at our last Sunday dinner:

Menu and recipes:

Farmer’s market cheese and yummy crackers

Roasted Leg of Lamb

Lamb - butterflied

Marinade at least a couple hours if possible

Marinade

Red wine

Garlic

Olive oil

Diced shallot or two

Fresh rosemary

Mustard seeds

Salt and pepper

Spices of choice, some nice choices include thyme, marjoram and/or herbs de Provence

Side Dishes

Mashed red potatoes with butter and whole milk, salt and pepper to taste. I always use a lot of butter.

Roast vegetables: I love onions but did not use them here since there are shallots in the lamb and scallons in the salad. You can totally add chopped onions

Brussels sprouts cut in half

Sliced Carrots or baby carrots cut in half. I always use rainbow carrots if they are available.

Leeks (I always keep leeks in the fridge, they add pizzazz to everything and last a long time.)

Any combination of red, yellow, or orange peppers

Bacon (uncooked and chopped)

thymes leaves

Create a marinade to either pour over veggies, stir to cover:

I used olive oil, lemon pepper, sea salt and Herbs de Provence

Spinach salad:

Spinach

Ripe tomatoes

Mushrooms

Avocado

pumpkin seeds

Homemade  Salad Dressing: if you use one of the salad dressing bottles for making your own dressings from the grocery store it is marked with the appropriate measurements. I often make one of Gywenth Paltrow’s recipes.

Dessert

Vanilla ice cream, Godiva chocolate Liquor and Pepperidge farm straw cookies.