Lamb Chops

Sometimes I just get hungry for meat and potatoes, and tonight was one of those nights. I had lamb rib chops on hand, and since those little things thaw pretty quickly, that was dinner. I made a wet rub of grated garlic, lemon zest, minced fresh rosemary, extra virgin olive oil, salt & pepper, and let the meat marinate in that for about an hour.

I roasted a head of garlic for the potatoes: cut the top off the head of garlic, place the garlic in a double-thick square of aluminum foil, and drizzle olive oil over the head. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and close the foil up tightly around the garlic. Throw the whole thing into the oven - 425 F. for 30 minutes, until the garlic gets soft, nutty and almost sweet. Pull it out of the oven, and open up the foil to let the garlic cool. Cook your potatoes until tender. Drain, add butter and milk, and squeeze the garlic into the potatoes and cover. This lets the butter melt a little and the milk warm up, which blends into the potatoes better.

I heated the grill pan over high heat, and placed the chops in the pan, cooking the chops just 2 -3 minutes on each side. While the meat was cooking, I mashed the potatoes. Sooo good. The meat was perfectly cooked, and the potatoes were smooth. Oh boy - sooo good!