Tonight's menu:

roasted leg of lamb
smoked bluefish
country style ribs
sweet and sour eggplant
steamed collard greens
roasted beets
roasted veggies=red peppers, jalapeno peppers, onion, garlic, zukes, cauliflower, and fresh oregano
roasted carrots
tomato-basil salad
mashed potatoes and celeriac
asian style cole slaw

appetizers:
hummus and pita bread
pesto and smoked cheddar

For a dear friend's birthday. A feast.

See Joe, eggplant has more uses than just flogging. This is an Indian recipe using tamarind.

Been cooking all morning into afternoon. Made more pesto. Dry rubbed ribs and now slow cooking them in a tomato reduction. Roasting vegetables as we speak, or as I type. Now I need to walk the pooch and clean. I hate cleaning. I love cooking. If you come here and clean, I'll cook for you. We'll have a symbiotic relationship. Now accepting applications.

& in the I'm a bonehead or just completely lame category, I missed Graham Foust and Rod Smith at UMass. Two contemporary poets whose work I find invaluable. What the hell, Jess.

What else? Can you tell I don't want to clean?

O, we are picking apples tomorrow for this years cider. Apparently the orange pippins http://www.orangepippin.com/apples/coxs-orange-pippin.htm are ready to go. We will go back for the Baldwin's in a couple of weekends.

Yes, I need to do less. For some reason, blogger isn't allowing me to add links to this post.