3/4 cup cranberries
2/3 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1. Place the cranberries, orange and lemon juice in a small sauce pan over high heat and bring to a boil.
2. Continue cooking until thickened, then sweeten with sugar until no longer tart and add a pinch of nutmeg.

Makes 4 servings

4 four ounce lamb chops
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped
1 teaspoon dried mint
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper

1. Preheat a large skillet over medium high heat.
2. Rub lamb chops liberally with herbs, garlic, salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.
3. Place lamb in the skillet and fry until brown, about 6 minutes, then flip and cook the other side, for about 12 minutes total.
4. Allow meat to rest and serve with Orange Cranberry Sauce if desired.

Makes 2 servings

1 small eggplant, cut into 1" wide wedges
1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried dill
salt and pepper

1. Combine flour, oregano, dill, salt and pepper on a plate.
2. Dip eggplant wedges into the flour mixture, then the beaten egg, then the parmesan.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until an eggplant wedge sizzles on contact.
4. Add the eggplant in small batches and fry until golden brown, about 3-4 minutes, then flip and cook the remaining sides. Repeat.

Makes 4 servings

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
5 cups red swiss chard, chopped
1 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup golden raisins
salt and pepper

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and sauté onions until tender.
2. Add the swiss chard in batches until it reduces to fit into the pan.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and cook until the chard is tender, about 15 minutes.
4. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Makes 4 servings

1 pound asparagus, trimmed
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic
4 ounces creamy feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Heat olive oil, red pepper flakes and garlic in a skillet over medium heat. Discard garlic once brown.
3. Add the lemon zest and juice to the oil, then add the asparagus and toss to coat.
4. Transfer the asparagus to a baking dish large enough to accommodate and top with crumbled feta.
5. Bake until asparagus is just tender and feta starts to brown, about 15 minutes.
6. Season with salt and pepper before serving.

Makes 4 servings

I've been getting some flak lately about the quality of the pictures, so I thought I'd bite the bullet and try to do something about it. Based on suggestions given, I've basically bought a desk lamp and a natural light bulb and tried to use that to add more light to the pictures so I don't have to rely on the terrible lighting in my apartment. I think it made a noticeable difference in the picture quality tonight, so I'll keep it up and see how it goes.

Our entree tonight was Greek Lamb Chops with Orange Cranberry Sauce. I don't get many opportunities to eat lamb because it's usually quite expensive, but these ones were drastically reduced. Not that it matters since my mom graciously purchased this week's groceries during her visit. Thanks, mom! Anyhow, cranberry sauce with lamb seems a bit strange to me, but there were a lot of recipe results calling for such so I figured we'd check it out. The cranberry sauce was good and the lamb chops were good, but I'm not so sure I like them both together. Not as much as I like them separate or with other things, anyway. I think something less tart, like a blueberry or saskatoon, would work better with the gamey flavor of lamb.

I'd never had Swiss chard before, so I picked some up to see what it's all about. The Braised Swiss Chard tasted like seasoned moss, but from what I've read this is because I didn't cook it long enough to take away the bitterness. I'm willing to give it another chance, but I still can't picture it being much better than sautéed spinach or similar. Needless to say we ate maybe a teaspoon each and threw the rest away. This was almost as bad as that Bok Choy with fish sauce I made back in January.

Thankfully the other side dishes were delicious. Shannon read a recipe for "Mystery Appetizers" which was parmesan encrusted eggplant. So, we made Parm Eggplant Wedges. These still weren't nearly as good as the Mediterranean Eggplant Cakes but I still enjoyed them. I'm pretty sure you can crisp parmesan cheese on pretty much anything and make it taste good. Similarly, pretty much any way of preparing asparagus is delicious, and Asparagus with Feta is no exception. We used creamy Greek feta that has a much softer texture. I think the moisture in it prevented it from browning as quickly, too. For dessert, we had leftover Coffee Custard and Shannon really liked it. Now I just need to get a blow torch and make some Crème Brule to go with the next round of Burning Down the House!