roasted lamb, potatoes

A profuse extravagance of fresh cracked black pepper, sea salt, and sage pre-mixed and ready in a bowl. The roast was rinsed, dried with a kitchen towel then slavered with olive oil and completely coated by packing on pepper/salt/sage.

Why sage? A woody herb is needed here for roasting. A fresh herb, basil, parsley, cilantro, etc., would shrivel and disintegrate. I do have rosemary but I'm saving that for crackers. I also have dried rosemary too, quite a lot of it actually, but I'm thinking of tossing it all out. If it was ever any good it's exhausted now, like lifeless little dead pine needles. No sense of evergreen or mint at all. (Rosemary is a member of the mint Lamiaceae.)   

When I was a little bitty kid I used to imitate Euell Gibbons who I knew only from Grape Nuts® commercials. I'd smash my 'S's so that saliva would bubble out the side of my mouth, and I'd say in a distortion of a halting Texas accent,

"Hello, I'm Euell Gibbonsxh."

Then I'd stand there and wait for a reaction. "Have you ever eaten a pine tree? " Which right there put me in stitches inside but I held it together outwardly for comedic effect. " I am the author of sxheven booksxh on natural foodsxh. Mah firsxht book is titled, You and Natural Foodsxh.

Mah schecond book is titled,  Natural Foodsxh and You. 

Mah third bood is titled, Foodsxh Natural and You. 

My fourth book is titled,  Food and You Natural."

I'd maintain an earnest expression as I persisted through an imagined bibliography, the book titles becoming increasingly implausible but keeping to the same four words.

"Mah fifth book is titled,  You Natural and Foods

Mah sxhth book is titled,  And Foods Natural You

Mah sxheventh book is titled, You Foodsxh Natural and."

Falsely impugning an innocent person, who I didn't even know, as lacking imagination and which was a very mean-spirited thing for a little kid to do, but I'd do anything to keep my parents amused and possibly a little bit worried. 

I don't know why Euell Gibbons struck me as being hilarious. I think he was eating some woodsy crap in the advert. Plus Grape Nuts gave me the fear.  When I was five, between kindergarden and first grade, I sat down one summer morning really really really hungry and poured a full bowl of Grape Nuts from their undersized box. I poured nearly half the box into my cereal bow. Mum saw this and checked me. I thought it was like regular cereal. I didn't realize Grape Nuts is nuclear fusion high-pressure super compressed heavy metal nuggets. Mum goes, "You can not possibly eat all that."  It was actually the first time I'd  ever even seen Grape Nuts, but I was certain I could finish the whole  bowl. I go, "I can too." Mum snapped, "You're going to sit there UNTIL YOU FINISH, Young Man!"  And she meant it. She could be quite the authoritarian sometimes. So I started in. They were like little stones. They swelled up with milk but they remained hard. They hurt my teeth. I ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate, but the bowl of Grape Nuts never diminished. In fact, it grew. I thought, "how am I going to get out of this?" Oh I know, I'll cry, that's how. I started laying it on real thick. Oh I could be soooooo pathetic. Any human being would take pity on me. "I can't do this. I didn't knoooowooooohoooohooooohooooo." 

So anyway. The seasoning is really packed on the lamb roast to a relatively thick crust. It's fantastic. It filled the apartment with wonderful aroma. The potatoes too. Didn't have any mint, which would have been perfect, nor mint jelly, so I used apricot preserves, which was fine, if a little overly sweet. 

The lamb roast came with a pop-out timer. I wish they wouldn't do that. They are very misleading.  It popped out way too early. I use my own thermometer and cooked it to internal 155℉ / 68℃ internal temperature expecting some 10℉ / 5.5℃ carryover.  Tested at several spots. It turned out perfectly to my taste. I'd be pleased to serve this roast and these roasted potatoes to guests.  Both roast and potatoes at a hot 400℉ / 200℃ .