Jaymes

Yep. Shel, you ain't the only one that likes those crusty bits. Buy one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Bakers-Edge-Nonstick-Brownie-Pan/dp/B000MMK448 Hell, maybe I'll buy you one.

That's actually on my bucket list. Being your friend. And dropping by.

Right. I had my earliest burger education in Texas. Then we moved to Omaha. Maybe you've heard of that. It's basically Iowa West. And we, too, all went through the burger just having meat and bread thing, maybe a slice of onion and a couple of pickles on the side. We all laughed at the "do it yourself" burger. We had to ask for the lettuce and tomato and were immediately made to understand that we were obviously furners.

Andie, those look great. Think I'll order some. I actually have these: http://www.crateandbarrel.com/set-of-4-iittala-krouvi-beer-mugs/s579044 20oz capacity. It says that they're not for hot liquids, but I've been using them for decades, for everything, including hot liquids that I heat in the microwave. I love love love them. And I've very frequently given sets as gifts for weddings, housewarmings, etc. But I'd probably be wise to get some of the ones to which you linked. They might not be so pretty when they're holding beer, for example, but I wouldn't have to worry about heating them in the microwave. Which I never have. But which perhaps I should.

Interesting about California. I also lived there for several years. First thing I thought of was tri-tip, as Annabelle suggested. And In-and-Out, certainly my personal favorite fast-food burger. But the produce is amazing. Love driving past all those gorgeous artichoke fields. And the strawberries around Watsonville. Would the garlic in Gilroy count for anything? But I can't think about food in California without considering the wonderful Asian food that's everywhere. And Cali-Mex. Like fish tacos.

I'd certainly suggest Crate & Barrel. These come to mind: http://www.crateandbarrel.com/bennett-large-mug/s326526 And I have some big glass mugs that I use for whatever - coffee, soup, beer, chili, etc. Also, I have some ceramic coffee mugs that are exactly like what you've described. I got them at Pier 1, several years ago.

And after conquering aqutak, if he'd like another Alaskan challenge, may I suggest Jellied Moose Nose? http://bertc.com/subfive/recipes/jelliednose.htm

RE Alaska - should have added that the Alaskan Native Americans have a few more traditional dishes. Reindeer/Caribou stew, cod cakes, and Eskimo Ice Cream, "Akutaq" - a concoction of lard/blubber/seal or whale oil, berries, sugar, and sometimes some sort of meat or fish. http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Akutaq_EskimoIceCream.htm

Interesting. I'll try to offer some suggestions for states where I've lived. Alaska - yep, there are king crabs. But you don't run into them all that often. Most of the catch seems to head for fancy restaurants in the Lower 48. What we did eat, all of the time, were salmon and halibut. The salmon was usually smoked or barbecued. When it was barbecued, it was often basted with some version of marinade similar to this one, from the Fairbanks Salmon Bake: 1 stick butter, melted 1/4 C brown sugar 1/4 C soy sauce 1/2 t dill weed 1/8 t cayenne juice of 1/2 lemon The halibut was often cut into large chunks, battered, and deep-fried. But I don't recall many parties up there wherein there was not a large broiled halibut and a smoked or broiled salmon presented on big platters garnished with lemon slices and served with small fish forks for you to pick off bits and put them on the accompanying crackers. And moose and reindeer. Everybody had pounds of ground moose and reindeer in their freezers. So, whatever you think of making with ground hamburger, up there you got it made with moose: moose burgers, meatloaf, etc. The other quintessential Alaska dish is sourdough pancakes. It seemed like absolutely everybody up there had some sourdough starter bubbling in their kitchens. They were very proud of these starters, with people often telling you that their starter dated back to the original "Sourdoughs," the nickname for the Alaska goldseekers of the late 1800's. The sourdough pancakes are often served with the blueberries that grow wild across Alaska. New Mexico: got to be green chiles. You can serve your green chiles any way you wish. Green chile stacked enchiladas are probably the most iconic, but there is also a bowl of green chile, or green chile stew made with pork. And you'll finish your meal with sopapillas. Nebraska: I think of steaks. Kansas: corn. Fresh corn just simmered and served with plenty of butter. Texas: chili (the type referred to fondly as "a bowl of Texas Red"), barbecue brisket, pinto beans, TexMex; for dessert - Pecan Pie, or Kolaches Florida: in addition to the obvious Key Lime Pie, I think of conch - stewed, fried, whatever. Just a few initial thoughts. I'll keep thinking.

Didn't know the story, but often grabbed Melinda's sauce because the label looked so similar to Marie Sharp's. Wondered why. However, I've traveled extensively throughout Belize, and always brought back a nice selection of Marie Sharp's. There are a great many dishes that I serve that can use a few dashes of hot sauce to enhance the flavor (like Mexican-style shrimp cocktails). Because I entertain folks with varying degrees of heat tolerance, I pass around a cute little basket holding several different hot sauces. I love all of Marie Sharp's, but particularly appreciate her milder sauces. They've got such great flavor, but not too much heat. Which makes them perfect when I'm entertaining little kids. Or Yankees.

Mama Leone's used to be a very famous, and excellent Italian restaurant. In 1967, her son, Gene, wrote a cookbook with many of the restaurant's best recipes, and someone gave it to me as a wedding gift. Most of the recipes were pretty long and involved, but all were excellent. Mama Leone put carrots into her red sauces for that very reason - adds a touch of sweetness. So I've always done it as well. Leone's Italian Restaurant Cookbook Awesome! I'm not alone in the carrot-adding world. I've also thrown diced celery in at times...it just depends on how vegetable-y I want the sauce. edited to add that I purchased this cookbook on Amazon--can't wait to get it! Thanks for showing it to me! Shelby - note that it's been a while since you bought the Mama Leone's book. What did you think of it?

Where is Kim Shook's Evergreen Dip?

Marvelous! This has opened up a whole new avenue for me to pursue. Thank you very much. I realize you want to make your own, and that a shrub might not be exactly what you're going for, but this company makes a terrific ginger shrub. I always have some on hand to add to various liquids to make cocktails, fizzes, etc.: http://www.napadistillery.com/Tait-Farms-Ginger-Shrub-p/tai-gin.htm

Well, I know I'm just a silly so-and-so, and never have been politically correct, but, as far as I'm concerned, there is so much food in the world, and so many people eating it, that another restaurant, even if it's serving a style of food that I don't much like, isn't a very good reason for despair. It's just more folks at the party, isn't it? I mean, you can say it's "ruined," but I doubt that any hummus or labneh police are coming to your house and confiscating your homemade hummus and labneh because it doesn't conform to the "ruined" standards. And, since both hummus and labneh are easy to make at home, surely that's what you're doing. So what do you care if I'm living next door to you and I'm eating crappy hummus and labneh? How on earth could that possibly ruin what you're eating? You might feel sorry for me, as in a "they know not what they do" sort of way. But I fail to see how what I eat, even if you find it deplorable, should cause you to "die inside." As for the article about the food in China, and the mention of Orange Chicken, I'm sure no expert, by anyone's standards, but I did live in Hong Kong several decades back, and recall "Old Peel Chicken" being fairly well available. It was made with dried tangerine peels, if I recall correctly. And, although admittedly it was nowhere nearly so sweet as Westernized Orange Chicken, it was still in the same culinary family. Again, in my view, not something worthy of "dying inside." There are some really horrific things in this world, you know. Having somebody else eat "ruined" hummus and labneh is surely not the hill to die on.

Do your Google search for ginger shrub.

Franci - many years ago, I was friends with an Italian family that made their meat sauce & pasta the exact same way, so that's how I've been doing it, too, for several decades. I don't serve the pasta with sauce as a first course, though. I've made it a little more "Americanized," or at least more how I've observed is common here. I serve it all at once, on the same plate, but I have to plate it in the kitchen to keep my 'Merican friends from dumping the whole thing, meat and sauce and all, over the pasta, as we are wont to do. What I do is to make the pasta, then toss it very simply with a little olive oil or butter and salt and pepper. I put a serving of meat (a pork chop, piece of sausage, rib, couple of meatballs) on each plate. Then a side of pasta, how you'd do mashed potatoes or rice or something. Then ladle the red sauce over the pasta. The meat is very clearly separate on the plate. Totally love doing it that way. If I'm making up a more typical American/Italian meat red sauce, rather than ground beef, I use bulk Italian sweet sausage. My family always liked it much better than hamburger meat. And Franci, let me take this opportunity to tell you how much I enjoy your posts. They're always fun, informative. Wonderful. Thank you for your generous spirit of sharing.

It should be pretty easy to determine whether or not the hepatitis rate drops significantly following implementation of this law. Let's hope it does.

Many people have suggested that you start by asking him what he likes to eat that he might also like learning how to prepare. I'd suggest that you back it up even further and really quiz him about how motivated he is to learn anything at all, before you knock yourself out trying to teach him something of value. It'd be one thing if he lived close by. But it sounds like he lives halfway across the country. If he's not pretty strongly motivated to do this, enough so that he will follow through on his own, I suspect that once he gets back home, and away from his mum and you, all your best efforts will be for naught. So I'd find that out first.

So, pep, since you said you're a 'book person,' you can always get one by Bayless as a backup and cross-reference. I have them all and agree they're good. Or, as someone pointed out, you can find many of his recipes online. However, I think I'll point out the obvious; which is, if you get stuck on something, or otherwise in a muddle, you can always come right back here where you'll find plenty of knowledgeable folks that are happy to help you out.

Well, I'm as much in favor of good hygiene and good health as anyone. So I guess we'll see if this turns out to be a great and effective idea. Or just an ineffective intrusive unenforceable nonsensical nuisance. .

Yes, of course, you can always request that someone change their gloves. And you can request that they wash their hands after handling money, the telephone, etc. You can make those requests and sometimes that request goes very well. But sometimes, a snotty kid gets really huffy about being asked to adjust his or her sanitation procedure. Like the last time I asked a kid at Subway to please put on gloves. I had been watching him and his hands that were constantly tucking his long hair back behind his ears, and scratching himself in various locations, and talking on the phone, and taking money from the three folks in front of me. And doing absolutely nothing regarding hand sanitizing in-between waiting on these customers and scratching and telling whomever it was on the phone what time the store closed, which was in about ten minutes. I was the last in line. Finally it was my turn. Me, as nicely as possible, so as not to rile him, "I thought y'all usually wore gloves here." "We're out." "Well, then, would you mind washing your hands before fixing my sandwich? I saw you making change, and you know what they say about money (nervous laugh) heheheh...." Whereupon he glared at me for a few minutes, then turned his back to me and walked over to the sink, made a BIG show of scrubbing and washing his hands all the way up to his elbows brain-surgeon style, then pulled a couple of paper towels from the dispenser and, turning slightly in order to completely shield his face (but I could see his face in the reflection of the shiny paper towel dispenser), blew his nose into the paper towels and proceeded to dry his hands with them. All I'm saying is that "you-can-always-ask" thing works great some of the time. And a lot of the time, it does not.

I think that's a perfect place to start. Mexican cuisine is such a wide and wonderful world that, really, any way you choose as your introduction is going to be terrific, and an excellent foundation from which to expand and grow (pun intended). I sure hope you take us along on your adventure. In my view, there's no human journey so delightful as a journey of discovery. I've been cooking Mexican food for some 50+ years and, while I wouldn't really trade in that expertise, nor any of those terrific meals and memories, in a great many very real ways, I envy you. Here's a thread you might enjoy: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/37928-mexican-and-diana-kennedy/?hl=%2Bdiana+%2Bkennedy And this: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/18096-diana-kennedy-cookbooks/?hl=%2Bdiana+%2Bkennedy

Diana Kennedy's "The Essential Cuisines of Mexico" published in 2001 is a compilation of her first three books: The Cuisines of Mexico, Mexican Regional Cooking, and The Tortilla Book. Here's a link to UK Amazon. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essential-Cuisines-Mexico-Diana-Kennedy/dp/0609603558 I can't think of a better place for you, or anyone, to start. Plus, if you're at all seriously interested in Mexican cooking, sooner or later, you're going to have to read Diana Kennedy. You might just as well get going on that now.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0307383253

Huge subject. Many opinions. Mine is that Mr. Bayless is fine, if you can't find something by Diana Kennedy.