Ten pounds of red potatoes are bubbling on my stove, first step in this morning's massive potato-salad project. I'll be putting it together for tonight's benefit pig roast at the Harmony School; and while I realize that no one may notice if one woman's potato salad is different from any other's, I intend to fuss over it just because I can't help myself. This is what will go into my version (in addition to the red potatoes): sliced hard-boiled eggs, large amounts of chopped fresh chives, homemade mayonnaise, thick whole-milk yogurt, a soupcon of crushed garlic, diced homemade dill beans, kosher salt, freshly ground green peppercorns. It will be pretty and it will be delicious, and I think it won't scare anyone even if it is a little strange. I say this modestly. If you're a cook, you know what I mean.

Yesterday afternoon I made my obligatory cakes: (1) an applesauce and raisin sheet cake with lemon icing and (2) a crabapple-jam bundt cake with a milk glaze. They--along with the giant potato salad, being a roadie, and playing music all evening--are the sum total of my required contribution. Fortunately I do not have to roast any pigs, and singing and playing the fiddle should get me out of a considerable amount of 8th-grader herding and greasy dishwashing.

Don't forget to drop in and see what's going on. You will be amused, possibly even entertained.