First off, let me apologize for my long blogging hiatus. Let’s blame it on a combination of Mercury Retrograde and being crazy busy at the restaurant. Now that my ruling planet isn’t sucking the life force out of me and my bar manager has returned from her month long vacay, I promise to be posting again at least once a week. AND share more recipes! So let’s begin with a belated post about my belated birthday / my roomie Pete’s actual birthday party at his family’s home in Orient, NY!

If you remember from earlier posts, I lived in the Hamptons for about 6 months while the boyfriend was farming in Ammagansett. It was the worst!

It was so over crowded and expensive, it would take 30 minutes to drive to the beach, which often, you’d have the pay for! We never went out, barely went food shopping, TG we had unlimited free vegetables! I haven’t been back since. The North Fork is the other side of the end of Long Island, kind of like the Hamptons, but it doesn’t suck. The beaches are rocky (which makes for great photos!), the houses are quaint and even during the busy season you still feel the small town country vibes. Orient Point is the very last town on the North Fork. It’s an adorable little village with great antiquing, little shops and it’s quiet! It’s a popular vacation spot but has yet to blow up. Though as I’m writing this I can feel it getting more and more popular. There are already Brooklynites that have moved out there, notable my favorite little sandwich shop/ microbrewery (my dream establishment), Fork and Anchor. The popular Brooklyn pie shop (and one of my favorite cookbooks) Four and Twenty Blackbirds even has a pop up shop there! The Treiber;’ have a sprawling but cozy and impeccably decorated home they allowed up to co-opt for the weekend. I was excited to have our friends come enjoy the Trieber’s beautiful country home and check out a part of Long Island many of them had never been before!

I know in my last post I boasted about the whole lamb we were going to roast, but our budget and guest list put a kibosh on the whole roast. We could only procure a 50 lbs lamb (when we really only needed a 30 lbs lamb) and seeing that it was from my favorite butchers in the world, the Meat Hook, it wasn’t cheap. The boyfriend and I agreed it would make more sense to cook some of the lamb for the party and freeze the rest. SO even though I don’t have a fun post about another whole animal roast, I have 3/4 of a lamb in my freezer that should last me the fall. Get ready for A LOT of lamb recipes!

Since we had so much meat, we decided to make lamb TWO WAYS! The boyfriend made his Yia Yia’s (oh yea, the boyfriend’s a Greek, he knows how to make lamb) stuffed leg of lamb, with sun dried tomatoes and feta. It was delicious but I paid little to no attention to how he made it so I will not be posting the recipe (at least not yet). I made my favorite lamb kebabs and I’m SUPER excited to share the recipe with you. I’ve made it a few times now and it is AMAZING literally every time. To accompany our Mediterranean feast, I made hummus, tstezeki, lemon parmesan orzo and papa Treiber made a giant salad made entirely from his garden. Almost everything was procured from the local farm stand (that you actually see from the house!). Plus, my piece-de-resistance was this apple cider punch I adapted from this Food52 recipe that really got the party started.

It had been chilly all week but Saturday was warm and beautiful – perfect for a party! Most of our friends arrived in the early afternoon, instantly started drinking (kudos to all my guests for bringing copious amounts of booze) and playing. Playing what you ask? Beyond being beautiful, cozy and sprawling, the Treiber home has a plethora of outdoor and indoor games! To name a few: corn hole, bocce, shuffle board, and two ping/beer pong tables. My girl friend likened the evening to a retirement home for twenty-somethings. “Where’s Jordan?””Oh, down in the basement playing a round of shuffle board before his 5 o’clock game of Bocce”. It was awesome. Food came out a little late (we were having so much fun enjoying the country Friday, we didn’t do nearly enough prep for Saturday). But everyone was buzzed and entertained and when the food did come out it was devoured! Like I say, the sign of a successful dinner party is no left overs!

Things got a little hazy post dinner (including my photos). I mostly remember sitting around the fire pit passing a bottle of Fireball (in hind sight, really bad idea). I passed out before I even had a chance to play my favorite party game: Jew vs Gentiles Flip cup. The next morning the Trieber’s supplied bagels and cream cheese (so clutch)(have I mentioned how much I love this family?!) and our twenty odd guests woke up leisurley, walked to town or the beach. I went swimming in the icy cold Long Island Sound and it pretty much cured my hangover. It was a extremely fun weekend and a great opportunity to enjoy the great out doors before the weather gets too cold.

INGREDIENTS

2 Bunches of fresh thyme

1 Bunch of fresh rosemary

1 Cup extra virgin olive oil

4 large garlic cloves

1 lemon, juiced

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Pepper

2 lbs Leg of lamb, deboned and cut into 1 inch cubes

Roughly chopped Zuchini, Onion and Red Peppers, as many as you like!

NECESSARY TOOLS

Food Processor!

Large zip lock bag

Wooden skewers, soaked in water for at least 30 minutes

DIRECTIONS

1. Mince garlic in food processor with salt and pepper

2. Remove stems from Rosemary and Thyme throw into food processor, until roughly chopped

3. Add in olive oil and lemon juice until thoroughly mixed

4. In a large zip lock bag, add cubed lamb and herb marinade. Refrigerate at least 8 hours (up to 24) ***The longer you marinate the lamb, the tastier it gets!

5. When ready to take lamb out of the fridge, chop desired veggies to roughly the same size as lamb cubes, douse with olive oil, salt and pepper

6. Once marinated, remove lamb from zip lock bag and discard marinade. Skewer lamb and veggies, alternating between lamb, onions, peppers, zucchini

7. Grill kebabs on a HOT grill for 10 minutes, about 3 minutes per side, so they are perfectly medium well!

TIP

I like to make a second batch of the marinade for dipping post grilling!