Just like croutons and French fries, these potatoes can get soggy if they sit in a liquid for a long time. So my recommendation is to keep the potatoes and salad separate until it’s time to eat.

Also, can we have a moment to just celebrate that this is gluten-free friendly?!?!

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This is a great meal to make ahead. Make the quinoa ahead of time, steam the veggies ahead of time and make the dressing ahead of time. All you have to do at lunch is assemble and enjoy. Huge fan of that! I also love the veggies with the dressing (sans quinoa) for a fun family style salad at a dinner party. However you want to serve this, I hope you love it.

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The reason I went on a meringue rant is because they are the main component of one of my favorite desserts: pavlova. It’s like a meringue “cake” with whipped cream and berries, or other fillings. For this recipe, I am making them smaller so everyone can get their own (not to mention, bake time is shorter.) I also skipped the whipped cream and I added a bright, zingy lemon curd instead. This, to me, is the epitome of spring. I finally finished it off with blueberries and raspberries. THESE ARE HEAVEN SENT!

So now that we got that out of the way, who’s ready to make these mini pavlovas?!

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This particular recipe is great for a family of 4. You can also turn the delicious jus into a gravy, which is next level. Or just drizzle that jus alll up in there.

What to pair this delicious lamb with? OH well don’t forget my spring salad! Or go with classic roasted potatoes – you can drizzle them with the jus as they finish baking in the oven for an extra burst of flavor. If you do want to make the spring salad, just combine greens, sliced radish, dill, mint and feta with olive oil and lemon juice.

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Homemade dough is a labor of love, whether it’s croissant dough or puff pastry, which I use for this recipe. I’m not a professional pastry chef, so I am leaving the dough to the professionals for this recipe. All you need is some thawed puff pastry sheets- I used DuFour Puff Pastry, you can find it on Amazon or at Whole Foods! You also need a mason jar, drinking glass or biscuit cutter to cut the dough into circles, an air fryer or oven (anything you can do in an air fryer, you can do in an oven!), powdered sugar, and some raspberry jam. The whole process takes 30 minutes or less and you’ll be enjoying warm, flaky cronuts. If you’re a visual learner like me, feel free to check out the reel I posted on Instagram for a quick 30 second tutorial on how to make these!! 

 

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Here are just a few occasions where cronuts will absolutely slay. Showing up with a plate of cronuts is a sure fire way to make friends (speaking from experience!) Breakfast with friends. Neighborhood BBQ or gathering. Baby shower. Bridal shower. Birthday party. Self soothing Sunday morning where you need something sweet and delicious. Literally any time that you’re craving something easy and delicious – you can just make one at a time!

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If you’ve ever had a bad experience with rhubarb—like discovering the brutally tart flavor of a raw rhubarb out of season—you can rest assured that this recipe will change your opinion of this “fruit.” Yes, it’s a fruit! Well, legally at least, even though it’s technically a vegetable. Rhubarb is confusing and moody. She changes with the seasons and has more than one identity, kind of like me, to be honest. After being categorized as a veg for her whole life, Rhubarb was officially declared a fruit in 1947 by a New York court since it is most often cooked as a fruit in the United States. This may have served to lower the taxes for businesses importing rhubarb as well. Regardless, I am happy that rhubarb has ended up where she’s ended up. On my pancake.

Speaking of rhubarb on my pancakes… rhubarb goes into a *magical* transformation this time of year. The official rhubarb season (for field-grown rhubarb) is from April-May until the end of summer. It develops a rich, sweet flavor that’s perfect for desserts. Little rhubarb consumption tip: make sure that you only eat the stems and not the leaves as they contain oxalic acid which is poisonous. I also recommend stocking up on rhubarb and freezing them wrapped in tin foil in plastic bags for delicious Christmas desserts. 

So that’s the scoop on rhubarb.  Now let’s talk about the Dutch baby!!! No, not like a human Dutch baby. Dutch baby is a term for a large baked Dutch pancake. In terms of flavor and texture, Dutch pancakes are big, puffy, crepe like in the middle, sweet, and buttery. But why are the called Dutch pancakes? The pancakes derived from the original German pancakes and were served in Manca’s Cafe in Seattle Washington during the first half of the 1900s. It is said that one of the daughters of the owner of the café coined the name Dutch Baby. We don’t know how, but somewhere along the way, it turned into a giant, inflated version of the original.

What should I do if I don’t have a blender for the batter?

Making this poofy masterpiece is pretty simple. You blend the batter until it’s smooth, making sure that all the ingredients are fully combined. I recommend a blender for this, but if you don’t have one you can make it happen with a whisk and some muscle. You can start by whisking the eggs for around 2 minutes until they are foamy and less yellow. Then whisk like a champion until you have mixed the rest of the ingredients.

Do I have to use a cast iron?

I do recommend using a cast iron for this because they are oven and stove top safe and they retain heat EXTREMELY well. Make sure you heat the iron cast skillet in the oven for 10-15 minutes before putting it on the stove, just to make it nice and hot for the cooking process to start. I was gifted mine from Cravings by Chrissy Teigen and I love it! You can use my code : SKYLER10 to get a lil discount. Honestly, nothing beats a good, solid cast iron skillet (except if you’re cooking with lemon, wine or tomatoes) and Chrissy Teigen’s pan is SUCH a good price.

What if I don’t like rhubarb? 

Rhubarb is very tart and not everyone likes it. No problem! If you are making this outside of rhubarb season, or if you’re not a rhubarb fan, I recommend strawberry or raspberry compote instead. The beauty of this recipe is that you can go with any fruit on top like bananas, blueberries, or anything you want. You can have a lot of fun with it! I used rhubarb because it is in season and I love the tartness with the sweet pancake.

Can I just use store bought jam or compote instead?

ABSOLUTELY. You can always take short cuts. I will never judge you!!!

What if I can’t find mint?

Mint is optional. I used it because I had it at home and I like the way it adds another flavor to the dish.  I’m a sucker for a pop of color and herby influence.

 

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When I say ramps are hard to find…I’m not trying to be dramatic. I’m being truthful. Trying to buy ramps is like fighting off stampedes of people during Black Friday. They LITERALLY have a black market for ramps due to over-harvesting. To get more scientific for you: ramps are a North American species of wild onions that grow around the eastern part of Canada and the eastern United States. One of the reasons that they are so sought-after is that they are scarce and they grow very slowly. They take up to four years to flower and reproduce. They’re in season for only a few weeks during the spring as well. That’s why during these weeks you can see the restaurant menus of top establishments in New York city crowded with ramp dishes. 

Now let’s talk taste.  Ramps have a unique taste that anyone who enjoys onions/garlic obsess over. When they’re raw they taste like a green onion (yum.) But when cooked, they develop this garlicky, sweet, intense aroma and flavor that’s just unmatchable. It’s really unique and incredible. Ramps are not only rare, but expensive (unless you harvest them on your own and find them in the woods nearby.) They can sell for around $20 a pound (I know, I know) so for this recipe you can also use green onions as a replacement. If you add some garlic with that green onion, then even better as a good substitute. If you find ramps, make sure you clean them carefully as they can be full of dirt. And it’s important to store them properly for example by wrapping them in damp paper towels and leaving them in an unsealed plastic bag in the fridge. Just be prepared for the garlicky smell in the fridge, that’s part of the fun. 

Not into this pasta? No problem.  If you have ramps, the world is your…well….ramp. Anything you can do with onions or scallions you can also do with ramps. You can make chimichurri, pesto, pickle them, sauté them or grill them. I was going to make a ramp pesto, but then I decided to just make my life easy and sauté them as part of a spring/summer pasta dish: ramps, goat cheese, sweet corn and pasta. This is my second springy pasta, the first one being my lemon butter pasta with sweet peas, mint, and whipped ricotta. The dish is very easy to make, but completely unique. I decided to use mafaldine pasta, but you can use other types if you want. Spaghetti or bucatini are excellent choices as they hold the sauce well being smaller noodles.     

What kind of corn should I use?

I’m a shortcut kind of gal. The sweet corn that I used was frozen and I just microwaved it in water for a minute to defrost it before adding it to my pasta dish (it heats up in the pan.) You can totally. use sweet corn that has been boiled, grilled, or just leftover corn from another dish.

Can I eyeball these measurements or do I have to stick with them?

Honestly, I estimated the measurements here and eyeballed everything! You can as well. The bottom line is: if you have the ingredients, there is just no way you can go wrong with this combination of flavors.

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What is chai?

If you’re new to the chai bandwagon, allow me to introduce you. Chai literally means tea in India. So when you order a chai, you don’t have to call it a chai tea, by the way. Food and Wine posted a very informational article on the origin of chai and what it is. To summarize for the purpose of this recipe: chai is a tea that is prepared with a variety of spices. The base of the tea is typically black tea, and the spice blend can also vary, but almost always has a cardamom base with some influence of cinnamon, ginger, star anise and cloves. To make this recipe as easy as possible, I used ground, dried versions of all of these spices and combined them with my dry ingredients. I also couldn’t find a ground star anise, which means you might not be able to find it either, so I skipped it. Feel free to add it to the spice blend if you do find it! Even though chai literally means “tea,” there is no tea int his recipe. It’s inspired by the spices that go into the tea instead.

If you’ve never had a chai latte, I would recommend going to try one before you commit to this recipe. It’s a warm, piney, spicy, cinnamon-y, aromatic tea that will taste like a hug. If you aren’t a fan of spices, this isn’t going to be for you. But!!!  Even if you aren’t a chai fan, you can still make this recipe. A few variations include:

1. Snickerdoodle Blondies — just use cinnamon to your taste, instead of the spice blend!
2. Basic Blondies (don’t knock a basic blondie) — this recipe yields buttery, dense, gooey blondies and you don’t need a spice blend to enjoy them.
3. Salted caramel blondies — make the recipe without the spice blend and top with the salted caramel from my salted caramel apple cinnamon roll recipe.

So long as you stick with the method of this recipe, you can jazz the blondies up however you’d like. Also, I have some great news! You don’t need a standing mixer to nail this recipe! You just need mixing bowls, a whisk, rubber spatula and a baking dish to make the magic happen. Now let’s get baking.

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Maybe its just me, but roasted meats seem very intimidating. If you’re an avid reader/follower here, you know I say this all the time I think this is because nice cuts of meat are usually expensive, and you really only have one shot to *nail* it. It took me years to feel confident enough to even try to make a roast at home (if you’ve been following me for a while, you know that my first roast attempt led to me ultimately being roasted on the internet for cooking up a very pale roast chicken.) But now I’m here to help you feel confident enough to give roasting a try!!! And I also accept everyone who makes pale roast chicken!!! There is no roasting judgement here!!!

One of my favorite roasts to make for a special occasion is a beef tenderloin (highly recommend that you check out my recipe!) It’s essentially a long cut of filet mignon, that’s flavorful, silky and delicious.

Another roast I love is a chicken (obv) but today, I wanted to do something a little different. Lamb is a wonderful roast to make at home (especially for date night or another special occasion,) and there are a few different cuts to go with. For this particular recipe, we are going with a boneless lamb shoulder because it’s actually not that expensive and its a very forgiving piece of meat. Even if you overcook it a smidge, it will still taste tender and delicious. That being said, our goal is to not overcook or botch this lamb shoulder! And that’s why I’ve made a full video tutorial on how to make this. 

We’re going for a medium rare internal temp, which is typically 125-135 degrees F after resting. I pulled my lamb out of the oven when it hit 120 degrees F. If you are nervous about consuming medium rare meat (please give it a try if you’ve never done it) then feel free to go with a final temp of 145 degrees internally (remove at 130 or 135.) I don’t recommend going over that, but once again, do your research and figure out a temperature that you would like the most.

Preparing the meat:

There are two steps to this recipe that I consider to be the most important. Step 1: trimming the lamb and getting rid of any extremeeee excess fat or membranes. I’m not talking about a little white splotch here and there when I say excess fat. I’m talking about the large, thick pieces of fat that rest on large surface areas around the outside of the meat. We want to get rid of those and trim accordingly with a pairing knife. Step 2: trussing the meat. I know there’s probably a tried and true method of how to tie your lamb roast up, but I think you should know the reason *why* you’re doing it, instead of focusing on getting the knots or tie perfect. Trussing is tying the lamb up with cooking twine. I don’t care how fabulous your butcher is, no piece of meat will be perfectly or evenly sized. So, the goal when we truss (AKA tie up) the lamb is to roll it up into a uniform shape, and have the string hold the meat in that uniform shape while it cooks. Why? Because our lamb will cook more evenly if the roast is the same thickness throughout and also so the juices will distribute evenly throughout the roast, resulting in juicy meat. The only pieces that will be cooked a little more than the rest of the roast will be the ends, but if the roast is trussed to be the same thickness and height throughout, then the majority will be perfectly and evenly cooked. Now that you know the purpose of trussing the lamb, you can tie it up however you want, as long as its tight, taught and uniform in shape and size. The way I trussed it in my video was completely weird, but the result was fabulous.

I sliced my lamb in the middle to fold in some of my spice blend (that’s the green line you see running through the cooked lamb) but that’s optional. I then topped the lamb with a mint and parsley dressing (a little natural play on mint jelly) and then paired it with my favorite red lentil mash with labneh and chives as a side, which I highly recommend! It’s a very hands-off type of side dish and you can make it for large groups without doing much.

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