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As sticklerman, I feel it is my duty to point out that American Pale Ales and American IPAs are really separate styles of beer. I'm a big fan of IPAs, not so much the Pale Ales. My wife prefers the Pale Ales, and not so much the IPAs. Do shipyard make "Pumpkinhead"? We tried that and thought it was downright awful.

Is Wild Turkey 101 an acceptable substitute for the Rittenhouse? Or would you recommend something else? My rye options are pretty limited. Aside from the Wild Turkey, I can find Old Overholt, Jim Beam, Michter's, and the rather expensive Anchor and Black Maple ryes.

I dunno if any of the national ones are any good. I know a local liquor store here has a nice beer of the month club which features international and hard to find beers. You might want to check liquor stores in your neighborhood have something similar. At least you can avoid shipping. If you can't find a local one, there are several on this about.com site: Beer Buying Clubs The only one I've had any experience with are the Belmont Station folks. They were quite helpful. Only wish I lived closer to their store!

Finally tracked down some White Bols Creme de Cacao. Dusty old bottle in a tiny liquor store apparently run by the russian mafia. Odd that the larger liquor stores only seem to carry the American brands. I refuse to buy potter or hiram walker. Gave the 20th Century from "Vintage Spirits..." a try, and am not sure. I didn't tell my wife what it was before having her taste it, and she said, "Tastes like some sort of odd candy. What is that taste?" It certainly has an intriguing flavor. I was out of regular lemons, so had to use Meyer, perhaps their less assertive nature contributed to the cacao dominating. Will try it again with .5 oz cacao and a "regular" lemon. fix grammar

My wife and I would like to attend. Will be nice to attach faces to names. -Erik

The only one I've been to is the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchants. The staff seems knowledgeable and they have a nice selection of tasty wines. I didn't try any of the food, as we were killing time before going to dinner downtown. In the store they sometimes turn up unusual varieties of wines which I have hunted for elsewhere and not found. Somewhat surprisingly given the venue is in the Ferry Building, the mark ups in the store and in the tasting room aren't out of line with what you would expect to pay elsewhere. Because it is in the Ferry building and in the middle of a wine store, the atmophere leaves a bit to be desired. Certainly not an intimate romantic setting to savor wine with your loved one.

They add good texture to stir frys. Cut in 2 inch lengths, halve longitudinally, and then cut in longitudinal sections about 1/4 inch thick at the outside. I'm sure there is some technical term for this. They have a nice firm "cartiligenous" texture. As others have noted, unlike porcini or matsutake, they do not have a very strong flavor. Very nice grilled, too.

For you Fernet-o-philes, this article in today's SF Weekly contains many amusing anecdotes and quotes. The Myth of Fernet

This episode of Eat This with Dave Lieberman is available online and had a segment at the Pegu Club with Audrey Saunders and David Wondrich. He also sampled some very large drinks at Employees Only, and hung out with "friends" at XYZ in San Francisco. Several recipes for the cocktails made are available on the website as well. -Erik (first became aware of this through Robert Hess' online Forums.)

I enjoy simple things on "alcohol free days". Squeeze half a lemon or lime into a glass, add a dash or two of angostora, and a couple teaspoons of simple syrup. Ice, top glass up with soda water, and stir to combine. It's not quite a gin and tonic, but it's refreshing all the same. Mojito and Caipirinha type drinks are also pretty nice without alcohol. The list of fresh herbs and varieties of citrus is nearly limitless. Basil, lemon verbena, lemon balm, grapefruit mint... I made an alcohol free kalamansi (calmondin) Caipiriniha just the other night, and it was quite bracing. I would like to get a soda siphon, so I don't have to keep buying sparkling water.

Along with the annual roundup of their Top 100 Wines, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine also had an article about wines being marketed to women. The article notes that 56% of US wine drinkers are women and that up until now, wine marketing has mostly targeted men. Mother's Little Helper Personally, I resent that the article's assertations about men's use of wines, "...Neanderthal man takes his prized bottle of wine to his cave and shows it off to his buddies, saying "Look what I've got and you can't have." The Neanderthal woman takes her wine to the cave, invites her girlfriends over and shares the bottle with rack of yak." Anyhoo, if you're a woman, did you notice the "target" on your back? If you're a man do you have a secret collection of wines with "pinup" labels?

Oh, that is interesting. So if I can find quality sirops from Monin or Torani and only crap crème liqueur from Hiram Walker or Potter's, the sirop might be the better choice for, say, Creme de Cacao?

Digest: San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Sunday, December 04, 2005 Publican at the Plank , Sam Whiting Top 100 Wines 2005, Linda Murphy Pairings: Perfect Pairs, Lynne Char Bennett Five recipes to match the complexities of our 10 favorite wines Recipes: Crab Cakes & Aioli Duo Fish & Lentils Nut-Crusted Pork Tenderloin With Red Wine-Mustard Sauce Mu Shu Roast Duck & Vegetable Tacos Farro With Olive & Tomato Sauce Marketing: Mommy's Little Helper, Linda Murphy Redefining the Steakhouse , Michael Bauer Michael Bauer reviews Alexander's Steakhouse in Cupertino. Sounds tasty; but, Cotton Candy? They really serve Cotton Candy!? ----- For more on holiday planning check out this round up of this year's recipes at this Chronicle website: Holiday Food

Mmmmm... Persimmon Pudding Part of the problem with persimmons, is they flower, fruit and ripen on the tree all at once. They also grow to be sizeable trees in mild climates. Sort of a zucchini type thing. By the end you will be looking for people to please take them from you. Puree and freeze. In January or February, you'll be glad to taste that delicious elixir of fall once more.

In the interests of experimentation, I purchased Calamondin (Kalamansi), Yuzu, and Yuzu Juice. In the photo above, from left to right, Lime, Yuzu, and Calamondin. The purchased Yuzu juice ended up being a bust, having that cooked bottled citrus taste (real-lemon) and the added detriment of being salted. Yuck. Very attractive packaging, however. In order of sourness, Calamondin is the most sour, lime next, and Yuzu the least sour. Trying to describe the flavors, we thought the easiest way to describe it was Calamondin is lime-tangerine-indescribable and Yuzu is lemon-tangerine-grapefruit(a little pine). At $1.50 for two, I fastidiously zested those Yuzus and added them to a cup of vodka to macerate for a while. Should make a tasty, if small, batch of yuzu-cello. Both of the grocery stores in Japan Town on Post Street had Yuzu, I haven't seen them anywhere else.

Most left coast breweries I've been to use diatomaceous filters; but, yeah, sheesh, carbon filtration? There'd certainly be nothing left in your beer. I think most breweries use some sort of filter for the water they use in the beer. I wouldn't be surprised if carbon filters were involved at this point in the process.

This might be too basic for your class, but, one thing that occurred to me is, prepared food items that households regularly spend a fair amount of money on, which are really quite simple to prepare. Things like quality Salsa or Tomato sauce. Even if you are using canned tomatoes, what you come up with just by using other fresh ingredients will be better tasting and more economical than the premade products from Pace or Prego.

I made a pizza crust and topped it with a base of thin slices of meyer lemon and peeled asian pear. I dropped on some nuggets of bellwether farms fromage blanc seasoned with oregano and lemon zest. Baked until golden brown. Was pretty darn tasty. I like Meyer Lemons when they get a bit over-ripe. You can really taste the tangerine in their ancestry.

My quest to create a palatable cocktail with Navarro's absolutely delicious Chardonnay verjus continues. Today it was an Aviation variation with verjus standing in for the lemon. The verjus just didn't bring enough sparkle to the drink, and its relatively mild mannered demeanor allowed the Maraschino to bully its way to the front. Maybe if I reduced the Maraschino by half... Aside from just verjus, soda, and a touch of simple, so far the best has been the Rye, Benedictine, and Verjus. Still, it was nothing to write home about. Ah, well, back to the drawing board.

Or maybe all the cases of absinthe they could no longer sell legally.

Digest: San Francisco Chronicle Wine Section for Thursday, December 01, 2005 Bon Aperitifs, Janet Fletcher Whet your appetite with light drinks and snacks Recipes: Rosebud Cocktail Gadaldi Cocktail Lillet Spritzer Americano Cocktail Persian Olive, Walnut and Pomegranate Tapenade Dip Marinated Manchego Cheese with Herbs and Orange Zest Smoked Whitefish Pate Toasted Almonds with Smoked Paprika A cookbook plays matchmaker to wines and desserts, Lynne Char Bennett Chronicle Pairings columnist Lynne Char Bennett takes a look at the new cookbook, "A Wine Lover's Dessert Cookbook". Recipe: Browned Butter Cheesecake Two Cents: What influences your wine purchases? Pairings: From the steamer -- memories and rice-covered meatballs, Lynne Char Bennett Recipe: Steamed Pork-Turkey Meatballs with Dipping Sauce The Chronicle's Wine Selections: Mendocino County & Lake County Sauvignon Blanc The Cheese Course: Fresh look at Brescianella reveals new version, Janet Fletcher Wine Business Insider:Overexpansion leads to bankruptcy, Cyril Penn Shipping wine? Don't ask, don't tell, W. Blake Gray For more on holiday planning check out this round up of this year's recipes at this Chronicle website: Holiday Food

Among my friends who are interested in cooking but have no professional experience, a desire for learning proper knife skills seem to come up the most often. Kitchen Safety and Sanitation would definitely make my list. Can you teach someone to tell if a recipe is going to be any good? One of the most frustrating experiences in cooking or baking can be expending the effort to negotiate a poorly written (or just poor) recipe.

I often see assertations that Pastis wasn't invented until after Absinthe was banned. For example, in this article featuring aperitifs in today's Chronicle. Is this really correct? As far as I can tell, it is true that Msrs. Pernod and Ricard did not go into the pastis business until after Absinthe was banned. However, it is my understanding that true Absinthe is a flavored distilled spirit more like gin, than a liqueur like Pastis. Certainly, mediteranean anis seed flavored liquors like Arak pre-date the "invention" of Absinthe, which is attributed to Dr. Pierre Ordinaire in 1797. There are also several herbaceous elixirs, like Chartruese and Benedictine, which pre-date the invention of Absinthe. Did Pernod and Ricard really invent Pastis? Or were they just the first to market it as an Absinthe substitute to a public hungry for the now illegal green faerie? fixed broken url

Certa is a brand of powdered or liquid pectin available in the US often used to thicken jams and jellies. Splenda is a sugar substitute made from sucralose, a sucrose derivative which the human body can't digest.

Maybe for us in CA. Not so for states with harsher winters. For me, there are times, especially during the rainy season, when I don't feel like tromping the 3 blocks to my community garden just to get some fresh sage. I agree with the posters above who say fresh and dried herbs aren't superior or inferior but completely different things, which must be handled in different ways. The problem is most recipes don't go much beyond telling you to use 1 teaspoon dried vs. 1 tablespoon fresh herbs. There are some dried herbs like cilantro, parsley, dill and chives which are almost completely worthless, because so much of their flavor has vanished.