Shepherd's pie

Eastside Road, February 17, 2012—

EARLY IN OUR MARRIAGE lamb was a fallback in our economy, our domestic economy I mean, the daily-life balancing of too little income with the need for protein and calories if we were to keep things going. I mean: we worked hard in those days, and money was short. Ground lamb was three pounds for a dollar at most, twenty-five cents a pound at best, and we ate a lot of it.

Even at that price it was often a good idea to extend it somehow. I don't remember if Shepherd's Pie was one out our ways of extending it. (What I chiefly recall is some kind of bottled mint sauce, in an attempt at sophistication beyond our scope.) Tonight, Shepherd's Pie, recipe here. It's what you do when you haven't really enough lamb, or eggs, or Parmesan, or chicken stock, for a real dinner. Irish poverty at its enterprising best.

Afterward, green salad; then a few more of those Damsons we've been enjoying.

Cheap Nero d'Avola; and one of these days remind me to give you a disquisition on the effect of various Vermouths on the Friday Martini…