Part 2 (A New-Fashioned Sunday Dinner continued)

How It Tasted

Leg of Lamb with Potatoes

Milomir: [coming in from the yard]: I bet they can smell that all over the neighborhood.

Yes, the lamb was rather pungent—and sweet! I’ve eaten lamb before but only in kabobs grilled/charred over the barbeque. This meat was so very sweet in comparison it was a little disconcerting—think Donner Party, or cartoon savages dancing around a pot.

Lamb Gravy

Filip: This gravy has lumps in it.

Too true, I’m afraid—between the lumps and the sweetness (from the lamb drippings) it was like eating tapioca pudding. I wish I’d taken time to strain it. Usually my gravy comes out fine, but not this time.

Head Lettuce with Thousand Island Dressing

So nice for once to have a plentiful serving of lettuce! That fact alone made this dish a winner—we all ate down to the bottom of our respective bowls.

Bread with Butter and Currant Jelly

The bread (standard supermarket loaf) was good, but the sugary wallop of the jelly was the last thing in the world this lamb-based meal needed. Dutifully I put a spoonful on my bread, but my husband and son passed (“I don’t want diabetes”).

Mint Sauce

Milomir: Is it supposed to be green?

I have to admit that this sauce looked pretty gruesome by the time it made it to the table—it earned no points for appearance, certainly. The strong flavor of vinegar also contrasted oddly with the lamb, making it seem sweeter still. I persuaded all my dining companions to take a taste, but that’s as far as they were willing to go.

Pineapple [Rainbow] Sherbet

Filip: I like it. It tastes like fruit.

Although not the called-for pineapple this supermarket sherbet went over well. Myself, I thought the fruity flavor didn’t mix particularly well with the cake’s caramel frosting. Plain vanilla ice cream probably would have been a better choice.

Bettina’s Loaf Cake

The cake was fine, the frosting every bit as yucky as I’d feared. The nuts did nothing to hide the icing’s grittiness—DH and Son weren’t the only ones who surreptitiously scraped it off onto their dessert plates.

Would I Make This Again?

A leg of lamb sans garlic or any kind of marinade? Probably not—the meat was simply too sweet by itself. The mint sauce was also a flop, and so too was the caramel frosting on the cake.

But the salad, the cake (aside from the gritty icing), and the sherbet were fine, and so the meal wasn’t a total loss. Was it tasty? Sort of. Did it uphold the Fourth Commandment by being as work-free as possible? Definitely not. Bettina may have sailed through this dinner and escaped Rev. Clinkersmith’s wrath, but not me…he’d have meted out twenty-four hours in the stocks for breaking the Sabbath, and an extra day for my blasphemy as I labored over the stove!