Lamb and Potatoes . . .

At the request of my Shiatsu message therapist (oh we Classicists lead pampered lives!), here it is!

Take two and a half pounds of leg of lamb and cut it into big chunks. Toss it in flour and sautee in a big deep pan or dutch oven in 3-4 T. olive oil for 10 minutes until golden brown.

Throw in 2 sprigs of rosemary, 4 fresh chopped sage leaves, and 2 cloves crushed garlic. Sautee briefly, add salt and pepper.

Throw in 3/4 c. white wine or vermouth and 1/3 c. white wine viengar - cook til evaporated.

Add in 2 lbs thinly sliced potatoes and 2/3 cup water and transfer to roasting pan. Cook about 30-40 minutes at 375-400. Add more salt and pepper if desired.

Serve.

Mmmmmmmmm!

HE

Your arteries creak, then your head explodes, then you die . . .

Hello! I feel like a cartoonist getting angry letters about not understanding a joke over my arteries post. Doh! It's just after the rotisserie chicken post. Have you tried the rotisserie chicken? It's like eating a pound of crisped up chicken skin. It's Nirvanna - and it's deadly.

The question is, do you have the courage to eat? Do you have it in you? Will you eat the crispy skin, dripping fat, rich in cholesterol, dealing death?

HE

Take this . . .

QUIZ

"He who knows not his own history is destined to go through life a child."

- Cicero, De Re Publica

HE

PS - I'm going to be kicking around Greece for a few weeks and will be hanging out in kafeneia people watching and relaxing - NOT blogging. You're on your own America - how will you cope!

Definitely be sure to see . . .

An Inconvenient Truth. It is playing at Bethesda Row Landmark on Woodmont Ave., and also at the E Street Cinema and in Georgetown as well. Playing only in 77 theaters nationwide, it still placed 9th this week for box office receipts.

It is an alarming and compelling film, with some pretty hard-boiled scientific evidence that not only is global warming a fact, but that it is caused by human behavior, especially all of us westerners - in particular Americans - dumping CO2 into the air. Its consequences will be catastrophic. We are not talking simply no polar bears in Alaska; we are talking no Dutch in Holland; no Italians in Italy; no Germans in Germany.

As the film notes, this is not a political but a moral issue, and, even more than that, an issue of our own survival. And it concerns more than simply rising sea levels and dwindling snows on glacial pack folks - this is the big one. Visualize Europe under ice, a global demographic disaster and refugee crisis, and, well, and end of the world as we know it.

Alarmist? Maybe - but we've already seen once what happened when W. and the creatures that support him decided to take a stick and poke it into the hornets nest that is the Middle East. Do you want to see him try that with Mother Nature? Well, we're letting him. We can do much to alleviate this problem, and we are doing nothing, nihil, ziltch, ouden, nada.

Remember the "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature" ads in the 1970s? (Many of you will not - a woman dressed as Mother Nature was given margarine, thought it was butter ["why of course, it's my soft creamy butter!"], and boy at the end of the ad [when she discovered that it was margarine] was she PISSSSSED! - she stretched out her hands, invoked thunder and lightening, the little woodland creatures ran for the hills and a racoon put his little paws over his eyes.) Well W. and every one, including some of you who drive vehicles that are far from fuel efficient, are poking a stick in the hornets nest. Uncool to the max.

Someone alert Bush - Apocolypse Now is a movie, not a policy.

HE

I . . .

am artery, hear me creak!

Rubbed rotisserie chicken . . .

This is really really good!

Make a rub consisting of 1 package Schillings mesquite marinade mix (don't prepare the marinade, just use the dry seasonings), and approximately one and a half to two teaspoons each chili powder, oregano, creole seasonings, and cumin; add about a half teaspoon of salt. Mix it up with a small fork.

Take one whole chicken (organic), rinse and pat dry, stuffing it with the giblets. Take a small handfull of the mix and sprinkle it in the cavity; then rub the whole thing with the seasoning rub.

You will need a rotisserie for this - spit the chicken and rotate it for about an hour and a half to two hours, cool slightly then serve.

MMMMMMMMMMAH! Pollo Fiesta, eat your heart out! I don't need your Peruvian chicken any more!

HE