Par-Tay

The duck is already roasting in the oven, which warms the kitchen nicely on this damp and overcast day, a rarity in The Valley of the Sun But Practically No Solar-Energy-Collecting Rooftop Arrays.

Later I'll toss in the lamb racks with rosemary from the patch outside the gate. Mint sauce for the lamb-pops. Aged Gouda. Lump crab for one of the dips, plus avocado from the Pidgeon Tree. Enough crackers to satisfy many generations of pirate-shouldered parrots and all their feathered relatives.

Granny Smiths sliced and served with peanut butter. Domaine Chandon, the pink stuff with kiwi-strawberry juice, jacked-up Mimosas. Orange-juice traditional varieties also available. Sausage-stuffed mini-croissants. The duck will be stripped and used for spinach-garlic-tortilla quesadillas with Jack and a stingy addition of jalepenos so as not to over-ride the fatty tastiness of Mr. Duck.

Beatles on the Martin-Logans, alternating with Danu, Peter Tosh, Bartoli, and of course Anna Netrebko.

Friends, children, and neighbors.

Happy new year, all.

All food-oriented posts come courtesy of Head Nurse who continues to exult in the Darwinian niche of nurse-and-food-and-other-brilliantly-interesting-stuff blogging. She makes it easier for all the rest of us to slog on.

On edit I would like to welcome Bili Rubin and Creature57 to the blogroll, if they will put up with association with my mad ravings.