Jaymes

Have you ever attended the San Xavier Festival? "The San Xavier Festival is held the evening of the Friday after Easter and features a torch-light parade of Tohono O’odham and Yaqui tribal members." That festival is truly spectacular. I still remember the first time I attended, many decades back, because (among many things, of course) that was my first encounter with fry bread, and a few other tasty treats. So many fond memories of our years in Tucson, but San Xavier del Bac is right up there at the top.

I really love serving soups at buffets, but you do have to be creative. I've served soups that you just have to sip, so don't need spoons - really spicy soups (both hot and cold) in shot glasses, cool creamy soups in pitchers and you pour it into those squat plastic cups, and then just sip. Regarding the hot soups served for large crowds, I've done this for up to 100 people. I don't have that many Christmas mugs (have about two dozen), so rent some plain white ones. And stack the spoons into another mug, so they don't take up a lot of space on the buffet table. I've found that few guests try to eat the soup at the same time as the rest of the meal, so no "balancing both a plate and a cup or bowl." They usually have the soup by itself as a starter. They walk around with the mug and soup, and then go get the rest of the meal. I dunno. But it's always a big hit, and very well-received. I do this with chili, too. In fact, some of my kids now have two soups - the Potato Bacon Chowder, and chili - as their traditional Christmas Eve meals. Haven't had oyster stew on Christmas Eve in a very long time, but remember it with considerable nostalgia. Right up there with Mama bundling us all up against the cold, and hurrying out the door to get to Midnight Mass on time. We were usually late anyway, although Dad said that it was okay as long as we beat the Mansuetti's - another big family like ours, that also seemed to have issues with promptness.

I guess it's just our family but nowhere did I see any suggestion of soup for Christmas Eve. When I was growing up, it was always oyster stew, made by my father, and his mother before him. When I had my own children, I tried to continue the tradition but my kids weren't really fans. That meant they ate what they had to, and then I finished off the rest of it -- savoring every slurp of the buttery, creamy, fattening broth. Tasted great, but not so great for me. So I decided to come up with another soup. Went with Julia Child's luxurious cream of mushroom for a few years but it's a lot of work. With all of the hectic activities of Christmas Eve including, in our family, Midnight Mass, finally decided to settle in with something that was a lot less work. That was about thirty years ago. And, to this day, everyone in our family, kids, grandkids, everybody, continues the tradition with Bacon Potato Chowder. When I'm hosting a big crowd, serve the soup in a crockpot. I have a collection of Christmas mugs, and everybody ladles the soup into the mugs, easy for eating while standing around. So, that would be my one suggestion to you for Christmas Eve - maybe consider adding a soup?

I'm going to try, Lare. Depends upon how my dad is doing. Might have to go to Atlanta.

Very good to know. But I so rarely have it at the ready.

Since you are the one that doesn't like spoonsful of liquid fire, got a couple more suggestions. I understand why testing really hot foods in order to reach a heat level that pleases your husband might be a daunting and unpleasant task. The first suggestion is probably obvious - wait until he's home and have him mix and match until he gets to his desired heat level. But here's the second: be sure the sugar bowl is handy. Not only will a spoonful of sugar help the medicine go down, it's the only thing I know that adequately soothes hot chile pepper heat searing the roof of your mouth. In fact, that's a trick I learned many years ago while dining out in Mexican, Thai, Korean, Chinese, etc., restaurants, with my family, including three children. My former husband, like yours, thought that unless flames were shooting out of his mouth, the food wasn't hot enough. And he was always trying to entice the kids to try just a little. I always made sure there was one of those containers with little packets of sugar on the table. That way, I was ready when I needed to make a quick rescue.

May I humbly suggest that you don't make a second batch without the peppers and just mix it with the first batch without doing a little tasting and testing. Obviously, I'm not there, and don't know how hot the first batch is, and don't know how hot you want the finished product to be, but it's certainly a possibility that an entire second batch will be too much. So in my view, you should make your second batch, but then add it to the first batch a little at a time, until you get the desired amount of heat. I'd also like to point out that, given my stated ignorance of your exact situation and desired heat level for your finished salsa, your first batch might be so hot that even an entire second batch won't save it. If that's the case, and you just blithely combine the two, rather than fixing your problem, you might be exacerbating it by winding up with twice as much inedible salsa. As you're learning, when you're dealing with hot chile peppers, there simply is no tried-and-true never-fail measurement method. It always comes down to fiddling around with them a bit in order to get the perfect heat level. My heartfelt advice is to make your second batch. Then put both batches in front of you and do a little mixing and matching, tasting and testing and trying and experimenting, until you get it exactly how you want it.

I don't know how much salsa-making is in your future but I make a lot of it. So much so that, in a previous neighborhood, I was known as the "Salsa Lady." I also don't have a Thermomix and don't really understand much about them, other than that it seems like I heard somewhere you put everything in basically at the beginning, and it mixes, cooks, etc., all at the same time. So this advice might not be of much value, but, just in case... As Liuzhou and others have pointed out, you can't really judge the exact heat of a pepper before you get to the tongue test. You can make an educated guess, of course, but the final test has to wait until it hits your mouth. I make gallons of salsa, often for entertaining groups, and that requires various levels of heat in the final product. As one Texan friend told me years ago, you need to be sure to make a batch that's really mild if you're entertaining a bunch of little kids or Yankees. The only way I can do that reliably is to first make up the base for whatever sort of salsa I'm making. Maybe I've cut up a bunch of mangos and onions and pineapple. Or maybe it's olives and green onions. Or maybe, like you, it's the traditional tomatoes. But whatever it is, I prepare that first. And then I prepare my chile peppers. In my case, I usually start that by blackening them on a comal. Then, I often take out the ribs and membranes of a few of the really hot ones, and leave them in for a few to give me that good heat, and then either chop them all fine or make a paste or whatever. After my chiles are ready to go, I stir them into the pre-prepared base until I get to whatever heat level I desire. That way it's easy to turn out two or three batches with varying heat levels. But whenever I get into the kitchen and start making salsa I always make sure I have some extra base ingredients in case I go overboard with the chiles. Which definitely can happen to anyone, even those of us that have been making salsa for several decades. By the way, we home cooks are not the only ones that have gotten into "hot salsa" by trying to prejudge the exact heat of chile peppers. In fact, years back, Texas A&M developed a standardly reliable mild jalapeno in response to commercial canners with the same problem.

Probably don't want to stick a pint of yogurt in there, but you can mix some of your salsa with sour cream to make a good "Southwestern Style" dip that's good enough that I've taken it to parties where folks are supposed to bring appetizers. And you can stir some salsa into Ranch Dressing, to make a good "Southwestern Style" dressing for salads. There are lots of recipes online for southwestern style salads, taco salads, etc., with things like browned hamburger meat, shredded chicken, and so on. But you can also just add a can of well-drained cooked corn or beans and a handful of crumbled tortilla chips to a regular tossed green salad, and it's pretty dang good.

Well, I can tell you what I do when this happens to me - not very imaginative, but I have to do it pretty often. I just add more of all of the other ingredients, tomatoes, vinegar, etc., until I get the level of heat I want. Then, because clearly I now have more salsa than I need, I either freeze what I'm not going to use right away, or give it as gifts to friends that I know really love my salsa. When I freeze it, it does get a little watery upon thawing, but it's still good. And I've found that works far better than trying to add more stuff that didn't belong in it in the first place. If the additional ingredient was beneficial to the recipe, I figure it would have been included from the gitgo. Not only is it wasteful to just throw it out because it's too hot - you still don't have any salsa. So you're going to have to start over. Which means you're going to use up another recipe's worth of the other ingredients anyway. Why not just add the additional recipe's worth of ingredients to what you already have? You can tone down the heat and have some extra salsa to stash away in the freezer. Or to share.

Interestingly enough, in this other instance, folks in the restaurant handled the Toddler's Tantrum differently because these parents handled it differently. Far differently. These parents were worried about their child disrupting everybody in the place, took the child outside twice, and when the child still couldn't calm down, these parents left. A far cry from the "diner owner screaming at toddler" parents that just thought everybody should put up with it because that's what little kids do and refused to leave, despite being asked (politely at first) to do something or leave, several times. And in this new example, nobody had to ask these parents to leave. They were smart enough to figure it out all by themselves. As opposed to those other parents, who shouldn't have had to be asked, but were, and ignored it. I raised three kids, from birth to college graduates, and I can tell you that if you want to eat in a restaurant with little kids it's totally incumbent upon you to ride herd over them and see to it that they don't ruin everybody else's meal. It's not fun and it's not easy. Wrangling little kids in a public place is work. Tedious and stressful work. If that's not what you want to do, if you're just not up for that, if you want to have a nice, relaxing dinner at a restaurant, figure out a way to leave the kids home. Even if that means you don't go to restaurants until the kids are old enough to behave themselves. If somebody is going to be inconvenienced, it ought to be you. Not others that had no say in any of your decisions. If you don't want strangers yelling at your kids, make different decisions, and don't put them in situations where that reasonably might occur. I'm 100% team diner owner.​ 100%.

And also, Thanksgiving is a celebration of the food, and about the food, and the fact that the first pilgrims had a good harvest and had enough food to be able to eat well and then store enough food to make it through the winter. The food and the meal itself is the reason for the celebration. I don't know. All speculation on my part. But that traditional meal is so sacrosanct for so many folks, couldn't help but ponder why.

Do I really need to explain that I understand not every single thing applies to every single person? But it's a fact (you and your family and many others notwithstanding) that there is something about Thanksgiving that causes a great many Americans (although not you and your family and many others) that are normally adventuresome and inventive and non-traditional eaters, to get really upset if "their" traditional Thanksgiving dinner isn't on the table. I recall once when we were living out of the US (far out of the US, on the other side of the world), we were invited over to the home of some American friends for Thanksgiving. Among other dishes that were traditional for them, there was what looked exactly like canned jellied cranberry sauce, complete with the ridges. I knew that wasn't available in the local markets and asked if it had been sent to them by family from back home. "Oh no," they said. "We thought about it but it was so expensive. So we worked really hard to recreate it, ridges and all." There must be something about tradition and Thanksgiving and that dinner, whatever it is for each individual family, that carries more importance than meals at other holidays. I've been trying to think about what that importance could be. If you'd like, I'll be happy to say that I know my conclusion is a generality. And it certainly doesn't apply to everyone. There. Better?

Sounds pretty smart, and I'll definitely be employing this technique for salads. But as far as cabbage rolls goes, while I'm there going through all that trouble, I've found it's easiest for me to go ahead and make up the whole big pot. And then freeze the individual cooked cabbage rolls in single servings. They freeze beautifully, and it's so wonderfully welcome and comforting for me to come home hungry and tired on a cold, wet, blustery day, and pop a couple into the microwave. I really love cabbage rolls (my recipe here http://forums.egullet.org/topic/126444-russian-stuffed-cabbage-rolls/?p=1695076&hl=stuffed%20cabbage&fromsearch=1#entry1695076 ) but I'd never be able to go through all that trouble several times a month, especially not right after I get home from work, even if I had the time, which I don't. I've bought some great little plastic storage boxes that are just big enough for two rolls and some sauce. Works perfectly for me. And isn't it interesting how hungry minds think alike? Because just last week was thinking that it's time to be making up a big pot of cabbage rolls. And then I come here and this thread has been revived again.

Almost time for Thanksgiving talk again. And I've been thinking about this subject for a while. The question so often arises as to why some folks are dead set against any kind of major fiddling with their traditional menu, whatever it is. And I think that, unlike so many other holidays, the entire point of Thanksgiving is about the food. In our house, we celebrate Christmas. Traditionally, we have a festive meal to celebrate. But the point of Christmas is not the meal. We can have anything that seems festive and appropriate and celebratory - rack of lamb, prime rib, goose, turkey - anything goes and nobody complains so long as it's really good. And Easter. Traditionally, we have a festive meal to celebrate. But the point of Easter is not the meal. We can have anything that seems festive and appropriate and celebratory - lamb, ham, deviled eggs, fresh spring peas - anything goes and nobody complains so long as it's really good. And July Fourth. Traditionally, we have a festive meal to celebrate. But the point of July Fourth is not the meal. We can have anything that seems festive and appropriate and celebratory - barbecue brisket, ribs, potato salad, baked beans, apple pie, strawberry shortcake - anything goes and nobody complains so long as it's really good. But Thanksgiving is about the meal. So, in my family anyway, I can change up the menu somewhat, but I had darn sure also better include the things that, to them, mean Thanksgiving, and always have: turkey, cornbread dressing, giblet gravy, cranberry sauce, green beans, candied yams, Waldorf salad, homemade rolls, relish tray, pumpkin pie, pecan pie. That's not "Thanksgiving" to everybody, of course. Maybe yours is lasagna and macaroni and Sunday gravy. But that's Thanksgiving to us. And woe to me if I try to spring something "weird" on them. . ​ The only other holidays I can think of where the menu actually is about more than just a way to celebrate and nourish ourselves when we get together are the shank bone, bitter herbs, hard-boiled egg, etc., of the Passover Seder. And the oil at Hannukah. Now, I certainly don't mean to imply that turkey and dressing carries anywhere nearly so much historical and religious significance as these two sacred Jewish meals (I know it doesn't), but they're the only other holidays I can think of where the food carries more importance than just something to eat while we all gather to celebrate something else. I think that's why changing up the Thanksgiving meal menu engenders such strong emotions with so many people. Because, in their view, you're not just messing with the food - you're messing with the holiday itself.

And they remind me of Rie Munoz - a very popular Alaskan artist: https://www.google.com/search?q=rie+munoz+prints&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CEsQ7AlqFQoTCP2ixOHf1MgCFRPNYwodx0cN_w&biw=1008&bih=584&dpr=0.95 ​ ​ Liuzhou - are all the prints you posted from the same artist? Or is that just a common style of the culture's artwork? And, in the "BBQ" scene, I notice that the things waiting to be cooked - the fish and chicken - seem to have white things that look like ribbons or strips of cloth coming out from underneath them. Is that just a design, or does it depict some particular wrapping or method of cooking? Finally - let me add my profound thanks to you for taking the time to post these. You never fail to inform, intrigue, educate, entertain. We're really lucky to have you here.

A bit of trivia that I found interesting - so just in case others might as well: I've always wondered why I equate gin so strongly with India and the other "colonies" to which the Brits "went out" early in the previous century. I knew gin wasn't a "New World" invention, having first been distilled in Europe from juniper berries, back in the Middle Ages. So I did a bit of research. And it turns out that quinine was really the only accepted treatment for malaria. They needed something with a strong flavor to offset the bitterness of the quinine. Gin was just the ticket. Still is so good with tonic water, even though there's very little quinine (if any) in most modern-day tonic water. Interesting to me that, from this "spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down" sort of beginning, Gin & Tonic is now one of the world's greatest drinks.

Did see an announcement saying "Late 2015" - whatever that means.

Had the same thought. Even went searching. No mention of date. And, on their Facebook page, other folks asking. Curious indeed.

Yeah, those comments were hilarious. No need to bother actually reading the article, much less making an effort to understand it. I've not been to any of the new Houston locations listed. Must make that effort. After all, if I'm willing to drive several hours to make a round trip to Luling/Lockhart (and I am), surely 45 minutes into downtown Houston would be workable. Thanks Bruce.

This is tricky. And my suggestion might not be a lot of help but I did live in Panama for several years, and my experience is that basically you're talking about stewed chicken. And almost every home cook in Latin America makes it and there are just as many versions. So asking for a particular "recipe" is like asking for a recipe for beef stew. I'd suggest that you start with the basics that you listed in your sentence that begins "the items that seem to be standard are, of course" and then fiddle with adding interesting extras like capers, pineapple and olives after you get your basic stewed chicken to a dish you like. Some folks make a soupy version, so you'd eat it like that, in a bowl with a spoon. And others cook it until it's drier, and then serve it over rice.

Bruce - your reports are a thing of beauty. Thanks for taking the time to post this. As you know, I'm planning on meeting friends at Coltivare soon for their charuterie plate. I'll try to post opinions, but it will be nowhere nearly so thorough as yours. Charcuterie, the Dish of the Month for our Houston group is a personal favorite and I'm going to do my best to try several places, a la Bruce, but, living out in Suburbia, it's kinda difficult. Guess I could just go get a sampler plate at the deli counter at my local HEB. Actually, now that I think about it, that's not a half-bad idea. Maybe I'll do that very thing.

That marinade does look amazing. As far as the cooking goes, what I've done for lo these thirty years is to take the meat (and, as I've said, it was always flank steak but I'm sure you could do something similar with top round), and score it pretty deeply on both sides, then lay strips of bacon on it (across the grain), roll it up, slice (across the grain) into pinwheels with the bacon rolled up inside, then thread the pinwheels onto skewers, put it into a dish with the marinade and then into the fridge to marinate overnight. And then next day, cook the skewered, marinated pinwheels, either by broiling in the oven, or on the grill outside. This is pretty dang terrific, even with what I now know is my mediocre marinade. But with yours, I suspect that will kick this dish into the stratosphere! Thanks for taking the time to post that.

Sign me up with the "per trip" crowd. I do order delivery quite a bit (although rarely, okay never) pizza. Most often, it's Chinese, or Middle-Eastern. I tip $5, unless I've got friends over, and we've ordered several sack's-worth. Then, might go up to $6 or 7. Occasionally, for a really big order, up to $10. But $5 it usually is. As far as the salary/wage of the delivery drivers, you never know. When my son was in high school, he worked as a delivery driver at Little Caesar's. He made the same wage as the folks that worked in the store, plus tips. He did have to use his own car and pay for his gas, etc., though, so it all worked out. At many of the small "ethnic" eateries I patronize, it's a relative. Most of these restaurants are family-run businesses and it's a son, brother, uncle, cousin. One Chinese place in particular, I know it's the husband/grandfather. His wife and daughters run the place. When you dine in, you see him sitting over in the corner reading a Chinese-language newspaper. I think the wife and daughters make him do the delivery just to keep him busy and out of their hair. So as far as compensation for family members goes, I suspect they probably just 'divvy up' the profits at the end of the week according to some formula worked out amongst themselves.

Well, in the immortal words of a legendary previous poster, "if you care to and have the time," would you mind sharing that marinade recipe? I do much of the cooking for my daughter's family of six and do make London Broil occasionally. I've got a marinade I've been using, but I'm not one to take undue and false territorial pride in my recipes. If I can find one better, I'll discard my previous recipe faster than you can throw beef onto a grill. But if it's a family secret, that's swell, too.