rosemary lemon garlic lamb chops grilled with tomatoes and onions/horseradish potato salad/grilled pineapple with vanilla ice cream

This past weekend Nathan's mom and stepmom came to New York to visit, and we spent Saturday battling the storm, only to eventually retreat back to Nathan's grandma's house to prepare an easy, rib sticking dinner to help us warm up from the sleet and snow.

This is not that meal. Instead, I am going to turn back the clock to the dinner that I prepared with Nathan's help the last time I saw Tenli and Marie, back in sunny California this summer. Just as I did when I stayed with Aunt Elise and Uncle Ed at their home, I wanted to prepare a nice meal as a thank you for their hospitality.

Above, you can see the main course of grilled lamb chops, onions and grape tomatoes. I let the lamb marinate with lots of garlic and lemon and rosemary and salt and pepper for a hour or so. The tomatoes and onions just got the olive oil and salt and pepper treatment. Both got thrown on the grill over high heat. The onions definitely took the longest to cook, because I wanted them to get really soft and sweet. Nathan thought it would be weird to serve the chops over the vegetables, but he was totally won over. The smokey grill flavor tied the three different elements together, and the juicy sweet vegetable and the garlicky lemony lamb were that much more flavorful when eaten together. It was a very delicious main course.




We also had some simple grilled corn, because when you've got a grill, you want to utilize it to the fullest extent. And also because it's really easy and nothing is as delicious as sweet summer corn.




Nathan also made the smitten kitchen's horseradish potato salad. I had bookmarked it ages ago because my boy loves horseradish and I am so thoughtful like that. It's a pretty standard potato salad recipe-- aka the perfect complement to a grilled summer meal. I am pretty sure there were no leftovers.




Excuse the horrible photo of the dessert, grilled pineapple over some Philadelphia style vanilla ice cream and fresh whipped cream. It was about as straightforward and easy as you would probably imagine. Not the most exciting dessert, but a fun one for summer, and definitely something fun to look back to as New York gallops ahead to winter.