What's Cooking This Weekend? Weekend of April 11-12, 2009

Happy weekend! It's Easter, Passover, and spring all at once. What are you cooking? Surely you're cooking something splendid this weekend! We have plans for spring asparagus, fresh boiled eggs, a leg of tender, succulent lamb rubbed with cracked spices, and a tangy lemon cake. What about you? What are you cooking? Here are a few ideas from The Kitchn to get you thinking.

• What's mascarpone, anyway?

• A tour of a poet's beautiful vintage kitchen.

• What's your comfort food?

• Passover ideas: quinoa, cinnamon lamb stew, snap peas with mint, homemade matzo, and other food traditions.

• A hot kitchen with a dog.

• The easiest herbs to grow indoors.

• Brunch idea! Monkey bread with dill butter and sea salt. Yum.

• Easter ideas: a butter lamb, an egg in an artichoke, herbed lamb roast, chocolate-covered Peepsicles, and rice Krispie eggs, individual Easter egg cakes, or all about ham.

• Good things to do with onions and with naked lemons.

• Chicken in coconut milk with lemongrass.

• Five small but smart kitchens.

• Two brunches: one elegant but frugal, and one neurotic.

Thank you for reading, and thank you for all of your interesting, helpful, and wonderful comments this week. Have a great weekend!

Image: Czech houska bread for Easter a couple years ago. Recipe is here:

• Recipe: Houska (Czech Easter Bread)

(Image: Faith Durand)

Easter dinner at a relatives and my contribution: Garlic-roasted garlic leg of lamb, recipe from Cooks Illustrated. I was thinking of lamb loin chops, but $14.99 a pound killed that idea (the bone is so proportionally big in a lamb chop). I've cooked this before, and it is good. Just going with a ham was too easy.
The market trimmed the leg up too so no knife play and a prettier cut of meat. I just need to smear a roasted garlic/parsley paste on the inside of the pieces, and re-tie it as a roast.

posted by JD523 on April 10th 2009 at 8:09pm
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The lamb above sounds delish. My mother in law is cooking the meat portion of our meal. I wonder what it will be? In any case I'm making mashed potates and bringing those along with salad greens, caesar salad dressing and white wine.

posted by Matilda on April 11th 2009 at 6:42am
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I am making a carrot cake and curing some salmon. I should probably bake a loaf of bread too.

posted by jamiealyse on April 11th 2009 at 8:55am
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Sunday brunch will be spinach frittatas, cooked apples, mint ricotta spread on toast, and leftover kumquat tart. Oh, and bloody marys.

posted by brittanykate on April 11th 2009 at 10:50am
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going to braise some kale tonight, maybe make some korean potato salad. I am making the switch from omivore to (lacto ovo) veggie, so I need to find some vegetarian main dishes.

As a last hurrah, I am making burgers for some friends on monday - I don't want to make a potato side dish though. Any suggestions? I would prefer something fresh, but not as light as a salad and pairs will with bacon/mushroom burgers. Also, no macaroni (we had that last week).

posted by chusmabilly on April 11th 2009 at 11:04am
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chusmabilly:

Have you tried the www.101cookbooks.com blog? She offers many veggie and vegan recipes on her blog, and some have been featured on thekitchn. If you are already aware of it, cool.

As far as your side, I like the wine-braised cabbage dish that was featured here a couple of weeks ago. Cabbage is good for you and the dish is easy. Since you braise it in wine, well, you'd hate to see the rest of the bottle go to waste ;-)

posted by JD523 on April 11th 2009 at 3:16pm
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How about tabbouleh with your burgers, a bit more substantial than a salad, but still light and fresh.

posted by fab on April 11th 2009 at 3:24pm
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I made gougeres for the first time last night and they were delicious. Over the course of the evening we devoured the entire batch (good thing I halved the recipe) and they were so easy, I plan to make them again. Making a asparagus and leek quiche for Easter morning and fava beans with tarragon for an easter side dish to accompany the ham.

posted by rosebud on April 11th 2009 at 6:09pm
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I'll be making bread pudding tomorrow morning!

posted by kitchenplay on April 11th 2009 at 11:24pm
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chusmabilly:
a tropical fruit salad will go great with your mushroom/bacon burgers. cut up fresh pineapple, kiwi, strawberries, black grapes, an orange, blueberries and cantalope. this is my thanksgiving show stopper and always goes over terrifically. it's spendy to put together but the freshness tastes wonderful.

posted by lona on April 11th 2009 at 11:26pm
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I spent all of Friday baking and cooking for easter.
My boyfriend and I made 5 loaves of Paska (ukrainian easter bread), 4 dozen Pyrohy, and 2 dozen Nalysnyky (Crepes filled with cottage cheese and dill)

It was a long day, but we celebrated by cooking dinner together too!
4 pounds of fresh Mussles steamed in white wine and cream, 4 giant sea scallops wrapped in bacon accompanied by a fresh green salad and some nice crusty bread

It was a delicious weekend.

posted by revolution9 on April 13th 2009 at 5:40pm
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