A New Light

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!