Jaymes

Tana....am eager to see your recipes, but can't get this link to work.

I drink Dry Sack. Have for years. Also use it to cook with. There are better sherries out there, but I still think Dry Sack is darn acceptable.

And there you go....we're right back in 'people's homes' with someone responsible for doing the entertaining. After all, that's considered to be the highest of compliments in most cultures. Including our own.

Ranchismo.... Next time you travel to the Yucatan, I'd suggest you make Merida your headquarters. Merida is a wonderful city, full of art, music and romance, excellent markets, shops and restaurants, and fine old mansions from its heyday as one of the wealtiest cities in Mexico. It has three nicknames....'The Paris of Mexico,' 'The Music City,' and 'The White City.' And also to recommend it, because it's inland and off of the tourist trails, the place is absolutely crawling with real Mexicans. There are three hotels I'd suggest...Hotel Caribe (old convent, with rooms starting at $35), Casa del Balam (a slight step up in budget and accommodations) and, if you want elegance, the Fiesta Americana, perfectly located on the broad boulevard, Paseo de Montejo, and still a bargain with rooms beginning at $85. There are several ruins to visit within an easy daytrip (including Chichen Itza), and you can get up to the coast at Celestun in about an hour. I love Merida. If I ever manage to achieve my goal of living a year or so in Mexico, Merida is one of the cities I'll try.

I don't suppose you made it to either Merida or Celestun....my recommendations.

I'm not sure I think it's so terrible that foreigners are overrunning the beaches. The economy of the Yucatan has certainly been lifted. And the Mexicans I know like having jobs and cement houses with electricity, even if they're not so picturesque. I guess like everything else, there's some good and some bad. But.... The thing that really gets me, and I mean really gets me, is that many of the most beloved, and beautiful, and even sacred, places of the Maya, are now theme parks, like Xcaret, Xel-Ha, Aktun Chen, Tres Rios, that cost $40 or so to get in...far beyond the means of the average Maya, much less an entire family. I asked if there were reduced rates (like free) for the Maya but was told that there is not. One taxi driver told me that he had managed to get in one time when he had taken a group of gringos and they paid his way in. "I really love for my wife and children to see, too," he said sadly, knowing that it was probably never going to happen in this world. I think that's beyond being merely a travesty. Or even a theft. In fact, the only word that comes to my mind to adequately express it is rape.

I'm not where you are, but I can assure you that you'll have no trouble finding them in the US south. Especially this time of year when Ham Hocks & Black Eyed Peas is practically the required dish for folks in that region. Just call them ham hocks. You should be able to find them at any local grocery store.

Exact situation, late 70's, Keg 'n Cleaver in Kelowna, BC ... except Biff's name was Dave & his hand was on my mom's knee. Dad got up, pushed Dave and we never ate at the Keg in Kelowna again. That's a great story. I love it. I only wish I could have been there to see Dave on his can deciding never to do that again.

When this happens to me, as it just did last week, I always say, "Oh, my, I see you're kneeling. I've read that that's a trick that's supposed to increase your tips! Does it work?" Not only do they bounce right up in an embarrassed manner, which I enjoy, but I've gotten some interesting conversations out of it, as well.

My dad (84) who's been reading along said, "Those folks all live too close to the grocery stores. When I was a kid, we'd dip some hominy out of the soaking barrel where it was soaking in lye and grind it on the grinding stone to make grits...finely if we were going to have it as cereal, or not so fine if the chicken had laid some eggs and we were going to have it that way. Then after breakfast, we'd get our biscuits that Mom had made with clabbered milk, and a piece of bacon, for lunch, and get on the horse (and damn, she was a mean ol' mare) and go to school." But, he says, he shore does enjoy the comments from all you pampered kids.

A real American home. Hmm, interesting. So I'm an American, but I guess my dinners of kalbi, rice and sides would be out of the question. You know, you and I as Americans undoubtedly have a completely different picture of a typical "real American" home than does someone from a foreign country. I've hosted many folks from other countries, and most of them think all of us eat steak and hamburgers and french fries every night. One night, I had invited eight Indonesian fighter pilots to my house. They showed up with bags of food and went immediately to the kitchen and set to work. The food they made was great but, when I asked them why they were preparing their own food, they told me that they felt sure I was planning to prepare hamburgers for them, and they couldn't eat ham.

Wow, eG's an amazing place. New Year's celebrations all the way from 2# of caviar to Miss Nascar and Velveeta queso. Jane, your "New Year's at the Trailer Park" sounds like a hoot!

According to my friend, whom I quizzed at some length about all of this, he said that having more than one drink at a dinner was not considered to be "bad manners." What they were trying to do was to be as certain as possible that they didn't hire anyone with a drinking problem. And, at these "screening" dinners, the management team, and their spouses usually did have a pre-dinner cocktail, and an additional glass or two of wine. So, if the prospective executive or spouse had more than one drink, it wasn't necessarily a 'show stopper,' but they'd take note. And watch to see if there were any other 'warning signs' of a problem with alcohol. The bottom line was that many of these high-powered business deals were sealed in social settings....on the golf course, at the sports club, over dinner, preferably in the head of the international division's warm and gracious home. This company didn't want to hire someone, either employee or spouse, who was unskilled in the social graces. They didn't want someone talking with their mouth full, or waving their fork with a chunk of steak on it to make a point, or getting drunk and putting the moves on an important client, or his/her spouse. And that's just the way it is, according to them. And so you know it going in. You don't take a job digging ditches if you don't want to bend your back. You don't sign up for the military if you don't like long deployments. And, you shouldn't aim for top-level management positions in the corporate world if your table manners suck. Or so it seems, anyway, if my friends are correct. After all, a very large part of 'sales' is building relationships. And if you've got something to sell, I think it helps if you can make the other person believe you come from a similar background.

"It's Cream of Wheat weather, I repeat, So guard your family with hot Cream of Wheat."

It's very old-fashioned, indeed. Thank God, here in CA, there are far fewer companies that operate this way anymore. I think it may be more prevalent in really high-powered, top level sales positions. My friend the investment banker was brokering multimillion dollar (and more) deals. He seemed to think a nice impromptu dinner was not too much to ask. And his wife did seem pretty happy to enjoy the lifestyle his paycheck provided. Seems like it's better if you know up front that it's part of the job description. And you either accept it or not. But to get back to the topic, sloppy manners would not have helped to clinch the sale.

How charming. Especially if the wife happens to be a working woman and possibly even, as are many of the spouses of executives that I know, a high-powered executive herself. And no, the ones I know don't have live-in private chefs either. As my friend's wife and I frequently pointed out to him in heated exchanges. But his comment was, "Well, fine, then they don't have to come to work here." So whatcha gonna do.

Couldn't you do two soups a week? One new 'recipe of the week' one, and one 'use up the leftovers' one?

I remember many cold mornings of my youth. The only schoolday breakfast variable was exactly which hot cereal we'd get. There was oatmeal, and farina, and Malt-O-Meal, and Cream of Wheat.... And along with it, how much of the 'good stuff' -- butter, sugar (or its variations of syrup, honey, brown sugar, etc.) we could either wheedle out of Mom, or add when she wasn't looking. I'd push the hot cereal up into a big ball in my bowl. And then dig a hole in the middle for the butter and sugar. The cold milk was poured around like a moat. It looked like a mini-science-project-volcano, with a sugar and butter center. I'd eat around the volcano, making occasional forays into the sweet spot, until finally the whole thing collapsed. Sound familiar? Anyone else out there remember hot cereals as part of their mornings? Are they still popular, or have they gone the way of dial telephones and other quaint notions? Which hot cereals did your mother force you to eat?

Yes, and I had a friend that was highly placed in the corporate world (investment banker at a large international bank). He told me that before they made a final decision to hire anyone at the senior management level, they took both the prospective new executive and his wife out to dinner. They were watching to see whether he or his wife had table manners that would embarrass the company, and just how they handled themselves in general in a social setting. Among other things, they took note if either had more than one drink. And another thing they did (where's Robyn, she's gonna love this) was warn the candidate that one of the 'tests' was an impromptu dinner party at their home. They were told that the boss would call and say, we'll be there in one hour for dinner. The wife was expected to throw together a nice evening. The husband was supposed to still be escorting the high-profile guest. The point was that many out-of-town high-level management staff, or large-account important customers (especially from foreign countries), would say something like, "I'd love to have dinner in a real American home." Or, "I've been traveling all week, and would love a home-cooked meal...hint...hint." Say it's 'silly' if you want, or say 'it shouldn't matter' if you want, but that's the way the business world works. Is all I'm saying.

What with all the chitchat in Maggie's soup thread about cold soups, thought I'd bring this back up to the top. And point out that in the recipe above for Cold Cherry Soup, in place of the whipped cream, I sometimes put a dollop of sour cream, or even yogurt.

Sounds like you could use a nice, steaming bowl of chicken soup. Yes, Maggie....a nice, steaming bowl of chicken soup....with a little salsa, and some tortillas on top. Voila! Tortilla soup! Actually, I've got an easy quicky version which is what I whip up when I'm too sick to actually "cook" anything. Quick-I'm-Sick Tortilla Soup 1 can condensed Chicken w/ Rice soup 1 soup can water 1 5-oz Can white chicken meat bottled salsa to taste (remembering that spicy stuff helps clear the sinuses) tortilla chips grated cheese Combine soup, water, chicken meat and heat. Add salsa to taste. Ladle into bowl. Top with tortilla chips and grated cheese. Sniff.

Maggie -- I hope sometime fairly early on in your project you'll try Tortilla Soup. It's practically the Official State Soup of the Great State of Texas. It's what we eat down here when we feel a cold coming on. Or when we're tired, lonely or bored. Or just cranky. Like immediately after a Cowboys' football game.

I think you're right about this. I've always been told that it's not that you can't EVER put your elbows on the table....it's that you're not supposed to EAT with your elbows on the table. I mean, if you think about the positions your arms have to be in in order to put your elbows on the table, and then get the food onto the untensil, and then into your mouth, it's difficult to do all that in a graceful manner. Seems to me the 'no elbows on the table' rule is an effort to avoid the 'hovering-hunched-and- srawled-over-your-plate-and-entire-side-of-the-table-and-shoveling-it-in-lumberjack' method, as well as the higher, but no less annoying, 'swinging-and-waving-crane/cherry-picker-in-the-sky' method.

Brooks....the link for their vinaigrette isn't working. What proportions did you use for yours?