This was a rather lovely week, sunny and mild. I actually spent an hour on a beach chair on the patio, reading and watching the birds on my feeders. I thought I had seen a Baltimore oriole, so I went to Johnson’s Hardware and bought a curlicue feeder that I could thread with oranges, since I knew orioles like oranges.

At the same time, I filled the hummingbird feeder. Mostly I saw a lot of catbirds (whom I adore) and downy woodpeckers and finches, but no orioles that day or any other day. And, for the sixth year, no hummingbirds.

Oh, well, my cat loves watching the birds from the window. She doesn’t care what they are.

Also last week, my friend Tom Cherry made a lamb ragout with spring vegetables and, mask on, drove to my condo with a big portion for dinner. It was beyond delicious and, he says, is a recipe from a 1971 Gourmet magazine. He also says it is not hard to make but is tedious. He will send me the recipe. His wife, Lynne, said this is why she married him.

So last weekend, still thinking about that lamb ragout, I went to Shop Rite for lamb chops for the grill. They didn’t have any, but someone found me a rack of lamb. It was $21, but it was almost eight ribs, so I cut it in half, froze one and grilled the other.

While I marinated it, I boiled some tiny potatoes. When they were done, I poured out the water, allowed the potatoes to dry a bit and added some butter and salt. With a small salad, it was a delicious dinner and easy. Here is the recipe.

Rack of Lamb on the Grill

Serves 2

1 rack of lamb (around a pound)

3 tablespoons olive oil

zest of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon stone ground mustard

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon minced rosemary

1/2 teaspoon each salt and freshly cracked black pepper or to taste

Mint jelly, optional

Mix the marinade in a small bowl. Rub the lamb, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for eight hours or so. Take it out of the fridge an hour before you are ready to grill it.

In a propane grill, turn the heat to high and place the rack fat side down, to sear the meat, about 5 minutes. Do not leave the grill, because there may be flare-ups. Then turn the grill to about 425 degrees. meat side up, and cook for 13 to 15 minutes for medium rare (longer if you want medium to well-done).

With a temperature gauge, meat should be 120 degrees. (There is some carry-on cooking while you let it rest, so perhaps you should take it off a little earlier, if you want it rare.) Let it rest on a cutting board for up to 10 minutes. Then cut the rack into ribs and serve, with or without mint jelly.

Cook’s Tip: If using a charcoal grill, once the charcoal is almost gray, push some of it to one side and sear the rack on the hot side. Then move the lamb, meat side up, on the cooler side of the charcoal grill.

On the Side

I consider myself very lucky to have three large supermarkets within 5 minutes of my condo. I do look for coupons, but I am just feeding myself and I usually find many of the markets work pretty well.

Unfortunately, over the past couple of months, I have found a problem with produce at one of them. A bunch of bananas will begin to brown within a day or two, while even the very yellow ones look like they've been thrown onto the shelves. Recently I bought a pound of mushrooms to make barley soup, and when I opened the bag, the mushrooms were brown and slimy. What this means for me is that I now have to go to all three supermarkets to get what I want.

Are you finding this, too? Where is the best?

Lee White lives in Groton. She can be reached at leeawhite@aol.com.