Tuesday - Happy Cinco de Mayo!!!!!

Chili relleno casserole (recipe in the comments from January 10, 2008)
Melon
Corona

Hot tea

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We actually made this pretty recently - right after I re-started the blog in early January. We like this a lot and it's a favorite of T's, so it's not super surprising that it's a quick repeat, but it happens to be this week because we were looking for an easy Mexican inspired dish for the holiday and we seem to have a lot of eggs. This was an obvious choice :) The melons are coming in fast and furious right now and T has been loving them, so that seemed like a good side dish. I'm sure we'll have even more when they're in season locally :) Spring always seems like a hard time to be seasonal with produce - the stores have more that looks and tastes good and who really wants to still be making root vegetable stews and frozen veggie sides. It's a bit of a challenge for us.

Prep notes
Difficulty: Super easy
Chopping: Scallions, grate cheese, melon
Time: 10 minutes to prep, 35-40 minutes to bake
Make ahead: You can prep this, refrigerate it and bake at the last minute.

Reaction
J: "Happy Mexican food!"
M: "Mui yummy!"

Sunday - Happy Easter!!!!

Rack of lamb
Roasted fingerling potatoes
Slow cooked green beans (recipe in the comments)
Carrots with chervil and chives (recipe in the comments)

Fruit tart (Thanks to our guest, D)
Hot tea
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It's Easter and lamb is a traditional favorite. Last year we did a small ham as we were leaving town the following day, but we're back to lamb this year. We planned to do lamb chops, but the store was out when we went to purchase them. Next year we'll order ahead! The racks turned out beautifully - though they took longer to get to medium rare than we planned. That said, they were incredible to eat and perfectly flavored and tender. The roast potatoes were simply roasted with olive oil, kosher salt, and rosemary. So given the ease of those two, you get the side dish recipes. Neither of these were hard, but they turn out so well - and do so EVERY time! We make the green beans for most Thanksgivings. And the carrots will probably be a regular feature at Easter - appropriate, no?

Prep Notes
Difficulty: Easy to moderate in terms of skill, but far longer than a normal meal.
Chopping: Potatoes, onion, carrots, chives
Time: 1 to 1 1/2 hours to prep and cook, but we spread t across the day, so I'm not completely clear.
Make ahead: We made the beans and carrots ahead and re-heated. The potatoes and lamb should be done close to serving time.

Reaction
J: "Very "holiday!"
M: "Behold the lamb!"