Things have changed a lot it seems. Many more of the French speak English now and don't seem as offended to use it. I have been told that if you don't say bonjour when entering an establishment that it is considered rude. Pretty much opposite of how an American would perceive things, don't you think? As the daughter of a salesman, I wouldn't imagine it the customer's job to iniate greetings. Anyway, apparently cracking that code helps. All the folks we met in France (and the French folks we have met in the Netherlands) seem to be willing to put up with my dreadful mangling of their language. It is funny but in our travels we have decided that Germany isn't terrifically friendly. They seem to be a bit of a dour lot, but we think our lack of German language skills has something to do the perception. I consider the Dutch to be friendly. That probably has something to do with their (generally) open minded culture and near universal English language skills. That was a most unusual army career to be sure. We are having fun. Spring seems to be our travel season. We have lined up a week skiing in Bavaria in Feb(yeah! it finally snowed), a weekend at Disneyland Paris in March, a week London for spring break (Easter), and a 4 day weekend in Paris at the end of April (Queen's and Labor day). We have another 4 day weekend for Ascension Day. We are still deciding where to go. We'll be broke by them time summer rolls around. Then we can recover a bit before a week in Ireland in August with my sister and her family. We may try to fit Normandy in before Ireland and take the ferry over. Tough life, no? I find your dehydrating experiments very interesting. We plan to get one when we move back.

I also cast my vote for the hot hungarian wax. But, I cannot discount jalapenos, which I make poppers out of. But, I make my poppers a bit differently, with no batter and no deep fryer. Here's what I do: Cut peppers in half length wise. Depending who else intends to eat them, you may need to clean out the hot guts. Fill the halves with cream cheese that has a bit of spices mixed in. I keep it simple and use seasoned salt, garlic powder, and a bit of pepper. Wrap them in a piece of raw bacon, and stab a toothpick through to hold it together. Slap them on the grill until the bacon is cooked and the cheese has a nice light brown tinge on top. Commence eating. I prefer to dip mine in Tapatio hot sauce, but any would work. They are very addicting, and also be carfeul with the hot cheese at first. I usually sit and eat a couple dozen, or basically until I eat myself sick. The hot wax peppers I either just eat outright, or slice them up and put them in my sandwiches. They are good for dropping into pickles if you make them. Also, hot dilly beans. Ok, I'm hungry now, gotta go. Joe

Wow! Lots of good ideas. We have frozen broccoli in the fridge. I'll give the combination a try when I make mac & cheese this week. I usually barely thaw the broccoli with a little water in a covered sauté pan and then drain the water, turn up the heat, and finish it with a bit of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. msazadi - I've followed DW's example in cutting way back on, rather than completely eliminating, problematic foods. Catsup is a good example. Instead of slathering my cheese steak with catsup, as I did in the good old days, I used just enough to taste that it was there when I made them for lunch today. And I will probably try a slice of Jersey tomato on a burger this summer.

Nancy, This is the mac and beef recipe I've worked on for a few years, and when I finally got it to our taste I wrote it down - so I'll share it with you. It's a slurpy, mild version of American Chop Suey/Johnny Marzetti...I can't eat much spice since I've gone through chemo, but this has lots of flavor and agrees with just about everybody. 1.5 lbs. ground round 1 large Vidalia onion, chopped 1 small green bell pepper, finely chopped 1/2 small sweet red bell pepper, finely chopped 1/3 cup finely sliced celery 1/4 cup finely chopped carrots (shredded, then chopped) 1 clove fresh garlic, chopped 2 28 oz. cans diced tomatoes in juice (I use Hunt's, because that's what the neighborhood store sells) 2 tsps. sugar a tiny, very tiny bit of cinnamon l lb. cooked casserole macaroni (elbows on steriods :0) In a heavy deep pot, saute veggies & garlic in a bit of olive oil, when they start to soften, add beef and brown well. Then add tomatoes, sugar and cinnamon - salt & pepper to taste. Simmer uncovered until flavors are blended (about an hour). Serve over macaroni. seagrass