one of those people that throws everything in a pot, snaps a cloth that smells like newly fallen leaves across the table, sets it with heavy forks and candelabras, soaks in a tub, shoves herself into a dress, cuts the bread, pours the wine and calls everybody to dinner.

I don’t have a bathtub. I’m not going to let it deter me.

1. Take a shower.
2. Find a sheet and get creative. There’s a lot you can do with a sheet if you dim the lights.
3. Cube up 3 pounds of lamb shoulder and just say no when I try to sear it.
4. Throw it in a pot with 2 and a half cups of homemade chicken stock, a clove of garlic and a few sprigs of thyme. Simmer on low for an hour. Add 2 pounds of yukon gold potates, peeled and cubed into big chunks, 1/4 pound of cubed Finnochiona (Tuscan salame) or your favorite salame, a whole pepperoncino, (or a few red pepper flakes), a few more sprigs of thyme, a bay leaf, an onion, a few peeled, chopped carrots, a rib of chopped celery, and a roughly chopped head of escarole.
Cook for about another hour and a half.

Serve with ripped bread thrown right down onto the tablecloth, red wine and that’s it. Don’t mess with anything else.