If you happened to read my column in the Richmond Times Dispatch a couple of days ago, you're well aware that it's been pasta-world over here for seemingly weeks. Now don't get me wrong.  I love pasta as much as you do.  However, having made so many batches of it that I lost track, and having eaten every single one...well, you won't be surprised that I'm having the inverse reaction to carb-loading or, at least a temporary carb aversion.

When they decide to start a new television series dubbed Cookbook Hoarders I just know my phone will ring and I'll be invited to appear in the premiere.  Yes, dear readers, I have a problem.  It seems to me, however, that there are a lot worse maladies than compulsively buying cookery books.  At least as long as the walls of our house don't implode, I suppose. 

On the plus side, I really do read them.  In fact, I do more than read them.  I pour over them, I consult them, I come back and reread themand somehow,  what I've read in the past is constantly percolating through what I'm reading in the present.

I love it when Kismet strikes and you know the Universe is sending you a message,  which is what happened to make this incredible dinner come together the other night.

It all started just before Thanksgiving when my beloved friends Charlotte and Sarah came from London for a festive,whirlwind weekend visit.  Stories abound, of course, but on the culinary front, I was mortified to have to admit to Sarah that there was nary a juniper berry in the house. " How in the world,"  she inquired with only very thinly veiled  horror in her voice, "do you make venison?"

The end of daylight saving time is a great excuse(as though you need one) to whip up this supremely easy, supremely delectable autumn feast.  It popped into my head yesterday as I was strolling through the glorious Virginia countryside with my friends.  Was it the ravishing sunset colors of the sugar maple that firmly planted sweet potatoes in my mind? Perhaps the crackling of the logs in the fireplace, as we feasted and laughed, that reminded me that nothing in the world is better than a divine, stick-to-your ribs, homey meal in the company of good friends.