some bitter greens

"And therefore since I cannot prove a lover

to entertain these fair well-spoken days, 

I am determined to prove a villain . . ."

What would you prepare for a dinner in honor of reading Shakespeare's Richard III? 

Tonight our menu is darkly plotted. We've joked around about preparing a savory pot roast, still bloody, sided, perhaps, with a few bitter greens tossed in herbed vinegar. Of course, there would also be hunks of crusty bread and goblets of dark red wine.  Lots of goblets of dark red wine, eaten in a tower haunted by ghosts. (An imaginary tower.)

I've insisted we make chocolate souffle for dessert using the fresh eggs from our chickens and a bar of - you probably guessed it - bitter dark chocolate. 

To start off the festivities we're watching Al Pacino's Looking for Richard, a 1997 documentary about the making of a production of Richard III in London. The documentary is led and directed by Pacino. 

The cast includes Winona Ryder, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey and Aidan Quinn. There's even a cameo by James Earl Jones. It's fantastic and gripping. Shakespeare's Richard has to be one of the best villains of all time. And the way Pacino plays him . . . you just love to hate him. 

You've see these socks before, my sweetheart socks from Interweave knits Holiday 2007. I let them slip for about a month, but now I'm back on top of them.