I know I did a recipe last week, but the news of the world is too depressing so I wanted to pass along some Easter recipes.

Here are some ideas for an Easter meal:

Roast Lamb

The traditional roast lamb can be either with the bone or without (which I prefer for carving reasons). If you do boneless, have it rolled into a net (which you leave on until carving) by your butcher.

Here is my 6 pound roast recipe:

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
• Leg of Lamb
• 4 cloves of garlic cut in half
• 2 cloves of garlic whole
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup butter melted
• 1 cup either dry red or dry white wine
• Mint Sauce and a bunch of parsley
• Meat thermometer is VERY helpful.

Make small slits in the lamb and insert the half cloves of garlic into the slits evenly spaced around the roast. Put meat thermometer in the thickest part of the lamb.

Brush the roast with the mixture of butter and oil. Just cover it with some of the mixture since you will use the rest to baste once it is in the oven.

Put the lamb in a roasting pan in the hot oven for 15 minutes. Then baste with the butter and oil mixture and reduce heat to 350. Cook for about an additional hour depending on how you like your meat but use the temperature on the thermometer to be more accurate.

Rough Cooking times:

• Rare – 10 to 15 minutes per pound . Gauge should read between 120- 125.
• Medium Rare – 15-18 minutes per pound and 130 -135 gauge.
• Medium – 20 minutes a pound and gauge at 140-145

No one should eat well-done meat so I haven’t included those numbers but if you insist on ruining your food, look it up on the Internet!

Let it sit on a platter when finished cooking for 15 minutes so the juices can get reabsorbed into the meat.

Pour the fat out of the roasting pan and put in the wine (salt to taste if you like salt but I usually let people add it at the table) over high heat to deglaze the pan by scraping all the drippings into the wine and reducing the wine by about half.

When sauce is ready and 15 minutes have allowed the roast to settle, carve the roast into slices, put on a platter and pour the sauce over the slices. Garnish the platter with some of the watercress. Serve the Mint Sauce (see below) on the side.

Mint Sauce

Make this the day before.

• 8 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 cups hot white vinegar
• 8 tablespoons water
• Mix all together and put in a bottle and once it is room temperature put in the fridge overnight. Take it out when you prepare the roast to take the chill out.

Happy Eating!