Lamb

I don't really like lamb. And neither does my husband.

First, the name is so evocative. And I mean that in the most negative sense.

You are eating a sweet baby sheep that was snatched from it's mother and slaughtered. It just doesn't make you feel good.

Second, I never really liked the gamey taste of lamb.

And third, Jonathan and I realized that we both grew up eating leg of lamb smothered with jiggly green mint jelly. I remember my father shouting out in joy, "Roberta, this is out of this world!" as he snarfed down lamb and jelly--and the rest of us picked at the meat on our plate.

Thirty years later my father is still eating leg of lamb with mint jelly (my mother confirmed on Sunday, as she was about to put the lamb in the oven) and he probably still shouts out in joy as he eats it.

I wanted to celebrate. I want to have an easter tradition. But I do not want leg of lamb with mint jelly. Last year I cooked leg of lamb coated in mustard, and slipped a heady herb concoction into slits in the lamb. It was quite good, and not very lamby at all. But this year we switched again. This year we had a Turkish recipe for lamb chops--garlic and lemon and olive oil marinade, stove-top sauteed chops topped with a mint, garlic, yogurt sauce.

It was so delicious we almost fell out of our nook. We shouted out in joy as we ate it. Just as my father had shouted in joy as he ate his.

Perhaps this Turkish concoction will be our easter tradition.

And perhaps our children will look back in horror and disgust at the Easter lamb they ate in their childhood.

And they will create their own tradition.

What is your Easter tradition?