guajolote

The fish sounds great, especially with good tomatoes. Maybe add a squeeze of lime juice and/or some lime zest (Seville or bitter orange would be better but it's hard to find). A little bit of chopped Havana chile would spice it up a bit. When I make Cuban style black beans and rice I always add vinegar.

Maybe squirrel croquettes?

I usually make croquettes (well, actually I've only made them once, but they were good) by making a standard bechamel, stir in the ham, and let cool in the fridge. Cut them into blocks and coat with flour, egg, breadcrumbs. Pan-fry in 1/2 of canola oil. A little cheese mixed in with the bechamel would be good. This is kind of like my recipe

Don't forget the mojitos! Everything else sounds good, especially Dave's salad

What should I bring? There will be lots of Mexican and Puerto Rican food there, and I'd like to bring something different. Any ideas?

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I love to go shopping with my kids. They seem to love it too. My daughter is especially good at the Farmer's Market, last week she got all of this free: an apple, small bag of rasberries, a gladiolus, and three pieces of French bread.

More here

Here's my menu: Ham Croquettes Fried Plantains w/ creme fraiche Ropa Vieja, Yuca con Mojo, Black Beans and Rice, steamed broccoli - if you want to grill do some double thick pork chops instead Simple salad (lettuce, tomotoes, onions, green olives) w/ seville orange vinegrette Flan

Cuban Ideas: Croquettes Garbanzo Soup Empanadas Fried Plantains Ropa Viejo (braised flank steak) Lechon (roast pork) Yuca w/ that garlicky limey sauce Black Beans and Rice

Probably a good idea. I'll need help though. Those are weak areas in my cookbook collection. Pick what you want and I'll help. Maybe someone else will pitch in too.

How about breaking out of the rutt by doing something totally differant, like Mexican or Cuban?

More on the Painted Ladies

We currently have an abundance of Painted Lady butterfies in our yard. At one point yesterday there were over 20 in my small yard. Has anyone else noticed this, or is it just a Chicago thing?

It's on the right side of the Daily Gullet, in black text.

That takes care of Friday night dinner. Yumm

OK, I've talked to some peeps in Chicago about this, but haven't posted it yet. Every single worker at the Chicago (Lincoln Ave.) store is white (non-immigrant white). The typical grocery store around here has maybe a 25% (probably less) non-immigrant white workforce. What's up with this? I promise I'll ask why next time I go in. Oh yeah, why the hell don;t they have conveyer belts at the checkout? It would save a lot of time.

How'd it go? Was it the 36 pricks on the back? I've been through it twice. Iris' back swelled up into one huge welt that stayed there for about 4 days (it was mostly the cats, mold, pollen, and peanuts) while Robert just had a couple of tiny ones (milk, eggs, peanuts)

Did you see that we're planning to smoke a prime rib?

Go get a burger (or an Ultimate Cheese sandwich) with the mixed fried veggies at Blimpy Burger. There used to be a good Indian place called Moti Mahal, the owners sit next to my parents at football games.

20 gauge shotgun + Portuguese water dog. Won't that Asian market you like have them?

It's going to be 71 and sunny on Saturday so I would go for the grill, it may be one of the last nice weekends of the year (except for October 19). You'll have 5 months to braise coming up. An appropriate thing to grill would be duck, served after the UM-Ore. game. Duck legs on the smoker would be good too.

Look what I got from Travelocity today

Please keep telling us what your kids ate, it's very interesting (at least to me). We had a 2:30 wake-up .

These also help if someone tries to shoot you in the hand.

I always tend to pick up a wet towel when I try this, and then end up with a steam burn .