Several weeks ago for October’s “Menu of the Month” dinner, I had my Uncle Tim, Aunt Kelly and my awesome cousin Brendan over along with my mom, dad and younger brother Jack. It was one of the last weekends where we could be outside, since it’s started getting cold in Michigan pretty quickly, so I set everything up on the little porch on the front of my house. I’ve discovered that this is my favorite place to host a dinner. The porch holds a bigger table than the tiny dinning space actually inside my house, and we get to look at the lake and watch the sunset as we eat. I was a little worried it would be too cold so I had a small space heater on standby, but we didn’t end up needing it.

For the menu, I tackled something I have been afraid of for several years. I LOVE lamb. I order it in restaurants whenever I get the opportunity. I love it roasted, I love lamb chops, I love it in greek dishes. So does my entire family, and so several years ago for Christmas, my dad and I special ordered a giant, beautiful leg of lamb which I planned to slow roast perfectly and serve for Christmas Eve dinner. To this day I’m not sure what happened. We have theories that my parents’ oven was not heating correctly. I think I may not have let the lamb come completely to room temperature before roasting. Some suggest I used a broken meat thermometer, but whatever the case- my beautiful leg of lamb turned out…not good. It was cooked. It was “fine” to eat. But it was not brown and crusty and well seasoned on the outside or perfectly medium rare on the inside. It was not flavorful, and on Christmas night, I became sicker than I had ever been in my whole life. No one else in my family got sick, so I think I just had the stomach flu, but still, it’s been hard to shake the memory of laying on the cold tile floor of my parents guest bath by myself until four in the morning on Christmas night.

But like I said, I LOVE lamb. So I have been dying to try it again- so I did! This time, I used Tony Tipton Martin’s Roasted Leg of Lamb Recipe and it was delicious. The recipe required a pretty different method- I ordered the leg of lamb butterflied from the butcher (which I think reduced the cooking time!) and covered the whole thing with garlic and herbs before rolling it up, tying it in twine and roasting for several hours. The whole thing roasted on top of potatoes which basically fried in the lamb fat and got crispy and golden. This attempt was a significant improvement, although I do think I made one misstep. The recipe called for the lamb to be generously coated in oil, salt and pepper before roasting to help develop a flavorful crust. I don’t think I carried out this step with enough enthusiasm. Next time, I will probably triple the amount of seasoning I use on the outside of the roast. Despite this one detail, I would say this was at least, a 90% improvement to my last attempt. It was juicy and flavorful and the potatoes were TO DIE FOR.

I paired the lamb with a few recipes from Ina Garten including an amazing salad with arugula, burrata and prosciutto. I added roasted tomatoes on the vine and served crostini with roasted butternut squash and ricotta during cocktails. Dessert was a frozen mocha mousse which, I did not get a decent picture of because I was too excited to dive in.

It was such fun to have my aunt, uncle and cousin to my house for what was most definitely, my last porch dinner of the year. They lived in Connecticut for several years, and have just moved back to Michigan, so we are getting to see them more often and it’s great! My little brother Jack, and cousin Brendan are very close in age and have NEVER escaped a family party without “going back to bak” to see whose taller. These days, this tradition usually includes a cocktail.

The weekend after this dinner, a few more aunts, uncles and cousins got together in my parent’s pack yard for an outdoor, socially distanced birthday dinner. I made this AMAZING chocolate peanut butter cake from Half Baked Harvest which I topped with tiny meringue ghosts because, why not?

On a different note, since these fun celebrations, the situation with COVID-19 has gotten even more serious all over the country, but particularly in Michigan, in the county where I live. It seemed like things were improving for a while, but there has been a dramatic increase in cases all around us, and so it seems we may not all be together like this again for a while, and while that is really hard, I know it’s the safest thing to do.

I am hopeful that we may be able to be together in small, socially distanced groups for the holidays, so I have started to dream about what I’ll make for Thanksgiving (possibly my favorite holiday??) and Christmas. This time of year is my favorite time to cook and bake for the people I love, and I am trying to maintain faith that I’ll have a chance to do that, at least a little bit, this year. I’ll note that I am writing this post the morning after Joe Biden was elected to be the 46th President of The United States. This gives me even more hope. Hope that by listening to science and to experts and recognizing that protecting each other is not a burden, this country may be restored to health, and safety and peace.

For now- I will be cooking and baking like crazy because that is what I do in times of joy and celebration, and in times of crisis or sadness. To me, feeding someone is a gesture that shows how much I love them, and I think everyone could stand to know how loved they are these days. Even if they are told with a large stack of buttermilk pancakes that they may or may not have even asked for.