Dinner for Healthy Vegetarians

At the dinner table we celebrated

the ups and downs of 2012

best wishes for 2013

making healthy decisions in preparation for the beaches we plan to hit in the coming months

and two firsts:

My friend's first successful attempt at baking Macarons et Macaroons,

My first dinner party since moving to my "New York-style" flat (aka very small)

Step 1

You need fresh thyme, garlic and onion

Step 2

Pierce with a sharp knife and insert slivers of garlic, studding it all over.

Step 3

Make a bed of sliced onion, halved garlic, thyme, rosemary in a roasting pan.

Step 4

Put the little lamb to bed, lovingly, and cover it with a blanket of salt, pepper and olive oil.

Step 5

Let it sleep for at least 5 hours at a low temperature until you can no longer resist the intoxicating aromas that fill your house.   Then wake it up rudely by yanking it out of bed, tearing a chunk off its shin and stuffing the warm, melting, sticky piece of meat into your mouth.

Step 6

Camouflage your moment of weakness by soaking slices of sourdough bread in the pan juices, taking a few sips of Malbec and placing some fresh mint strategically on the opposite side of where the indiscretion took place.

Step 7

Re-enact the scene from My Big Fat Greek Wedding

[upon learning Ian is a vegetarian] What do you mean, you don't eat no meat? [The entire room stops, in shock. We hear plates break and there are gasps.] ...That's okay, that's okay. I make lamb.

[to Ian's parents] Now, you are family. Okay. All my life, I had a lump at the back of my neck, right here. Always, a lump. Then I started menopause and the lump got bigger from the "hormonees." It started to grow. So I go to the doctor, and he did the bio... the b... the... the bios... the... b... the "bibopsy." Inside the lump he found teeth and a spinal column. Yes. Inside the lump was my twin. [Ian's parents are horrified. Voula grabs a drink and toasts.] Opa!!

OPA!