A late summer/early fall supper

Okay, okay, I know you hate it when I get all political on your ass...so back to my normal, superficial self, and back to dinner!

As LA is not really feeling summer anymore and yet autumn is only just edging its way onto the horizon (at dawn and dusk) this menu is a compromise. Therefore, an Almost Fall menu (with undying thanks to lovely Sian who turned me on to the Ottolenghi cookbook):

• Grilled Peaches and Speck Salad (Ottolenghi) Best peaches right now: Mountain Gold from Colorado, $7.99 for 9 at Trader Joe's
  
• Lamb Tagine with Green Olives & Lemon (Food & Wine, October 2008) with basmati rice (because Chris says we have couscous every time he comes for dinner)
• Butter lettuce salad with dill & sweet onion (mine, with some variation)
• Baked ricotta with figs & lavender honey (Ottolenghi, although I will mess with the recipe a little so that it is dessert rather than an appetizer, as he suggests)

I dispatched J to a middle eastern market in Sherman Oaks for orange blossom water, and he came home with boatloads of homemade pita, babaganoush, green olives, almonds and rosewater.

My jetlag has gotten the better of me, so while he was gone, I napped outside, under the tree, dozing off while staring at the sunlight filtering through the net of oval olive leaves, the dog spooning me, my shawl covered over both of us. I dreamed doggie dreams and imagined that our psyches had merged somehow as we lay there in the dappled light, and wondered if she was dreaming of juicy peaches.