Today, animal breeders know how to enable birth year-round, so lovers of lamb need never be without it.

Use the ingredients of spring to (below) create your own spring lamb dish.

There are cuts from chops to roasts and less expensive cuts for lamb stew.

One of our favorite dishes is braised lamb shanks, ready to cook in your pressure cooker or Instant Pot.

Ever wonder why leg of lamb with green peas is such a popular pairing? It’s because both are spring foods. In the days when everyone had to eat “locavore,” people could only eat what was in season.

So today’s tip is: Celebrate this first day of spring by planning a lamb dinner with spring vegetables (a list follows).

Also, see more lamb recipes below.

How about some fava beans with a nice Chianti?

> May 7th is National Spring Lamb Day.

> The different cuts of lamb. How many have you had?
 
 
SPRING VEGETABLES

Because of imports from the Southern Hemisphere, where the seasons are reversed, Americans have year-round access to traditional spring foods like artichokes, Belgian endive, spinach, radicchio, radishes, and watercress.

But spring brings specialties with short seasons, so eat them while you can!

 
One of the most celestial restaurant dishes we recall, from several springs ago, was a simple sauté of asparagus, fiddleheads, morels, and ramps, seasoned with a little garlic.

It’s a lesson on how the season’s bounty needs little preparation to impress.
 

LAMB RECIPES

[1] A lamb lover’s delight. Who needs steak (photo © Blu Restaurant | NYC [permanently closed]).

[2] Roast lamb loin with lamb sausage, seasoned ricotta and beluga lentils and accents of fresh apricot (photo © Fruition Restaurant | Denver).

[3] Stuffed leg of lamb (photo © Vermont Creamery).

[4] Rack of lamb (photo © DeLallo).

[5] Lamburger (photo © Australian Lamb | Meat & Livestock Australia).

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

So we started to decorate desserts.

None of our efforts looked as good as the examples on Sixlets’ Facebok Page, so take a look and get inspired.

Sixlets are a boon for easy cake and cupcake decorating.

You don’t have to be this painstaking, but it sure is impressive. Argyle Candy Cake by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, authors of Hello, Cupcake!

Get ready for Easter: You can buy pastel
Sixlets in bulk online. Photo courtesy Sixlets.

Sixlets are made by Sweetworks, a Toronto-based company. You may know them in individual packages from the candy stand, but they are available in bulk for serious decorating: in 1, 2, 5 and 10 pound bags.

The line is certified kosher (OU-dairy) and is gluten-free.

We used them:

 
We’re planning ahead for a red, white and blue “flag cake” for Independence Day.

*Unlike the super-sugary M&M’s chocolate centers, the centers of Sixlets are made from a mix of cocoa and carob, giving them a kind of “malted chocolate” taste.
  

If you’re inclined to entertain between St. Patrick’s Day and Easter, here’s an idea from Van Gogh Vodka:

A “Starry Night” cocktail part, to celebrate the March 30th birthday of Vincent van Gogh.

Van Gogh Vodka has created a cocktail named for, and inspired by perhaps, one of his best-loved works, The Starry Night (De Sterrennacht).

It emulates the dark blue sky of “Starry Night” with its purple-colored Açaí-Blueberry Vodka. The “starry” comes from a slice of starfruit.

Painted in 1889, the view is from Van Gogh’s sanitorium* room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, looking north toward the village. In an example of “artistic license,” Van Gogh rearranged the scenery, incorporating the mountains on the southern side of the asylum and adding a large cypress tree that did not exist. He painted the dark night sky during the day, from memory.

Drink a “Starry Night.” Photo courtesy Van Gogh Vodka.

Van Gogh’s masterpiece, “Starry Night.”
Photo courtesy Wikipedia | The Google Art
Project.

Ingredients For 1 Drink

 
Preparation

1. POUR chilled vodka into a flute.

2. TOP with sparkling rosé wine and garnish with a starfruit slace.

The Van Gogh Vodka portfolio includes over 20 flavored vodkas, each, according to the distiller, offering a spirited way to pay tribute to a creative genius.
 
*We used Yellow Tail Sparkling Rosé, one of our favorites; and couldn’t find the Van Gogh Açaí-Blueberry Vodka so substituted Stoli Blueberi and colored it. We used McCormick food colors to approximate the navy in the painting, rather than the purple Van Gogh color: 150 drops Neon Blue and 8 drops Black.