1. What are you wearing? Merrell clogs, jeans, black v-neck sweater 2. What have you eaten today or plan on eating? A few bites of pancakes, some trail mix, and a margarita. At 11 a.m. I'm packing and it's tedious. 3. What are your plans this weekend? Going to Big Sky, MT, to ski with family and friends 4. Do you believe in spirits/ghosts? Have you had a spirit/ghostly experience? Yes, I believe souls in Heaven help me by praying for me... I see the effects every day. 5. Are you working on any little projects/crafts at the moment? Painting a room, and compiling photo albums to celebrate our 20th anniversary 6. What is the color scheme of your kitchen? Espresso and gold. Tried to bring the outside inside. 7. As much as you love them, do your pets drive you insane at times? Yes, the dog always barks at the wildlife and must be let in and out to chase off deer. It is somewhat amusing, but a pain more often than not. 8. If you had only 2 colors to use inside your house, what would they be? If I were limited to two, I think I would just paint everything BM Linen White, and hang lots of art. 9. Have you been, or are you going skiiing this winter? Yes! My husband, myself, and our kids are avid and dare I say expert skiers. I will ski 18 days this season, at Snowbasin, Powder Mountain, Big Sky, Moonlight Basin, Vail, Wintergreen, and our all-time favorite, Alta. It's not a great snow year, but still a lot of fun. I love to hike to the peaks and chutes and ski down. List your TV watching guilty pleasures. It can be more than one show. We won't tell. :) 30-Rock and SNL. I rarely watch TV and often miss these.

How does Lauder sell a single bottle of Youth Dew? I truly wonder. Have never heard one person say a kind word about the stuff...ever! When I was about thirteen years old, the lifeguard at our community pool, Chris, about 18, so cute, and my "buddy," came over to me and started whispering about some ladies who were visiting the pool that day. He said, "...and one of them has on a perfume that I know must be Youth Dew! Yick! It's the worst perfume in the world. My mother was given a bottle and she wore it once, but she never will again, because she hated it, and my dad and I told her to wash it off it smelled so bad!" I do love woodsy, exotic fragrances, which I think YD is trying to be, but it misses the mark somehow. Maybe it's just too much of a good thing...no nuance or subtlety?

Thanks Chase, I'll sacrifice the shank slices I was going to use for soup and add them to the bones. I would think that three pounds of very meaty shank would be enough to add to six pounds of bones, is that OK? FOAS, in our main stream markets beef shank is $5.99 a pound so a real find at the Mexican supermarket for $2.69. Maybe I'll go back and look at their "soup bones" which were the odd shaped chunks. Our markets mark down meat too, but only by about 25%. The Mexican market is still my best choice. I looked at several videos, including a four part one from a cooking school with a huge kitchen and they all used clean bones, but I know that Chase has been making demi-glace for a long time and I trust her choices. In our house, there is no such thing as steak or roast bones with meat left on them and I think Max would know I was crazy if I asked him to give up chewing the bones. L

I think it is perfectly appropriate to discuss growing citrus on a cooking forum, since having fresh citrus on a tree is a very welcome convenience for any cook, I would think. A couple of months ago, I was getting blood oranges from a co-worker who lives further inland (where it gets hotter than where I live), and his oranges were the sweetest I had ever eaten. I thought about getting a blood orange tree for my yard, but then I decided that it would never be as sweet in my neighborhood, and I think I have some bad soil as well. It's not a citrus, but I do have a white zapote in my back yard, although I do not expect to get fruit for at least another year. I also have a mamey tree that may or may not make it, and if it does, it will take four years before I get any fruit. The papaya trees I planted last year did not survive, and I'm not sure what I did wrong. Maybe they got too much water. I had papayas in Venice, and they grow well in San Diego, and so I haven't given up on them yet. I like them because they do not take up too much space. I am still unable to send you an email, but you can send one to me now, and I will then send you my address, as I am very interested in the Kaffir lime seeds! Glad to see that you have decided to stay a spell! Laras