Easter Sunday in Maple Park
Happy Easter!
Even though it was very cool and very windy this morning, Alison and I braved the weather and set out for the nearby park this morning to have our first Easter together. The park, Maple Park, is about a 10 minute drive from home, right next to the Currituck Airport. Maple Park Its built on what used to be the county landfill I think. Well I know its built on the site where the landfill used to be, but I am assuming they did what a lot of similar landfills across the country have done and that is to cover them up and create parks where once was an eyesore. This particular one has a nice size man made water area, supporting fish and several species of wildfowl. There are about a dozen or so geese generally there on the water as well as several varieties of songbirds and usually a pair of wood ducks that we usually see every time we go to the park. We didnt see them today which was rather strange realy. Not sure if they have taken off for the season or they were just in the bushes trying to make a family! ;)
We’ve got some pictures and vidseos of the these two ducks one of us will post sooner or later, either here or Alison will put it on her blog. I cant say the ducks and geese are completely tame although you can get very close to some of them and the ducks have several times come up and taken bread right out of Alison’s hands. This particular park in the county has several areas around the park where you can grill. There is a good size pavillion where large groups can be accommodated and 3 or 4 gazebos
around the park near the water side that each have a grill and table. Being as cold and windy as it was but still very sunny we looked first to see if any of the spots were having even the slightest bit of sun hitting even one seat. Unfortunately it wasnt to be today and we had to brave the cool breeze and deal with it. Being familiar with the sort of grilling that goes on around holidays in Cyprus and which Alison has posted about recently on her blog, I thought it would be nice to try and recreate the atmosphere a bit, even if it was on a smaller scale than what they do there by making up a few lamb kebabs. It was also my first time trying lamb actually and I have to admit I liked it! :) Its got a unique taste and I suppose to some its not appealing but I found the taste very nice and flavourful and very tender too.Well maybe that part had somethign to do with the preparation by having a skilled meatcutter remove all the gristle and cutting the lamb leg up into nice lean pieces. ;) I coated the meat with olive oil and a little oregano and salt and pepper and then threaded them on the skewers, alternating with pieces of onion.
It was really just a bit too cool to be out doing this sort of thing but we had our minds made up and plodded on through. In the midst of trying to get the grill going and trying to get things going quick we forgot to put the potatoes and onions on the grill first as we had planned, but only remembered them about the time the kebabs were nearly done. Well we put some more coals on the grill and had a flame going that would fuel a nice nice furnace and a few minutes of having those packets of aluminum foil wrapped potatoes and onions atop that heat had the contents nearly steamed in minutes! ok not as good as they would have been if slow cooked but edible none the less and by this time anything warm was great eating!
this post or any on this blog wouldnt be complete without me mentioning how wonderful and amazing life and love can be. Another in a long list of signs we have seen over these last few years is this heart shape that formed at the bottom of one of the Easter eggs Alison made yesterdaywhen she set it in the tray to dry. I guess some could say its just coincidence, but irregardless it made me smile and know that everything is meant to be in this world. We may never understand the whys and hows, but love never fails
Happy Easter to all!
I’ve had lamb only once in my life; back when I first got out on my own, I saw some chops in the supermarket and brought them home and cooked them in a skillet. I remember them vividly because there was a couple small pkgs. of mint jelly with them.
I also remember not liking them all that much, but I think that was probably due more to my overcooking them, thinking they were like pork chops.
I may very well go see if the store has some…am sure they would….and give it another go.
I’ve never seen them on a menu, but this IS the middle of beef country. Chatting with Minnie (Mouse), I found that lamb is quite the common/usual dish in the UK.
The lamb chops are usually so small and after cooking they seem to wither down to hardly a mouthful ,In Cyprus they are a little on the pricey side and to me after they grill them on the Bar- b- que they get too dty and crisp, however folks there do have them a lot, although the Cypriots tend to buy pieces that the butcher hacks up and leaves bone and fat on them then they get skewered and cooked, if they are not overcooked they do usually taste good , back in the UK in years gone by my mom always bouoght the leg of lamb and had it roasted in the oven and then served traditionally with mint sauce , personally I would choose chicken pork or beef over lamb but its nice to have a change and Easter is usually the time Brits will buy lamb to cook for the Sunday lunch.
Good luck Mike if you try those chops again , just dont overcook them.
The next night after I posted, Alton Brown on his show “Good Eats” (on the Food Channel) showed how to prepare a rack of lamb. I’d already seen it, though.
When I was a kid, we raised goats for about a year. (think my dad traded a generator for a breeding pair) I learned how to milk one and also learned that they are extremely tasty if barbequed! Dad would drink some of the milk but I fed the cats and dogs and my show pigs what was left.
I also learned it’s hard to have a goat-proof pen and that they LOVE to stand on the tallest thing around, which was usually my car!