Home, home on the range, Where the lamb and the zinfandel play

It's January. Cold, gray, dreary January! Things could get depressing were it not for my penchant to match ugly days with great food and wine. I'm actually thinking about Arizona and the Sonoran dessert. I'm getting inspired! Here it comes...I've got it: Grilled lamb over mesquite coals washed down with a bottle of Zinfandel so big and juicy it'll make your teeth itch! Okay, so I'm taking a few liberties with conventional Southwest cuisine by substituting lamb for beef, but I think you're going to like this.

Thinking of this dish reminds me of an old Johnny Cash song about cowboys and their feelings about shepherds and sheep. These lines say it all: "A sheep herder come once and put up a fence/ We seen him that time, but we ain't seen him since/ But if you're needin' mutton, we got mutton to sell/ 'cause we're cow-punchers and we're mean as hell."

Thatt line is from a mid-1960's album by Cash called "Ballads of the Old West." Goes great with grillin'. But I digress.

Anyway, here are the marching orders (note that marinade time!):
1. Begin with a six-pound boned and butterflied leg of lamb. Make sure you trim most of the fat from the leg and then rub it all over with coarse ground black pepper, finely chopped garlic and ground cumin.
2. Next, make a marinade of one-half cup of extra virgin olive oil, one-third cup of fresh lime juice, one tablespoon of ground cumin, two tablespoons of chili powder, one teaspoon of dried oregano, one teaspoon of salt and seven chopped garlic cloves.
3. Put all the ingredients into a food processor and process until smooth. Cover the meat with the mixture either in a bowl or a gallon freezer bag and allow it to marinate, from 12 hours to 24 hours. Most normal human beings would then place the lamb on a roasting pan and inject it into an oven heated to 375 degrees F, where it would roast for about 45 minutes to one hour. Me? I'm grilling that sucker over a hot charcoal fire onto which I will have liberally sprinkled water-soaked mesquite chips.
4. You want to baste the lamb with the leftover marinade and turn it at least once while grilling. Grilling should be completed in about 30 minutes. Slice the lamb and serve it over grits baked with jalepeno peppers and Monterey jack cheese. This dish will warm the cockles of even the blackest heart!
The absolute best wine for this meal is a big red Zinfandel. Uncork a Marietta Old Vines, Ravenswood, Ridge Lytton Springs or Renwood Old Vines. You might also try Red Truck or Marietta Old Vines Red which are Zinfandel blends.