The painful trip is finally over. It was basically irritating more than anything else, and whatever bright spots there were did not compensate for the difficult parts. I won't dwell on the negatives (there are too many of them), but I will mention some of the enjoyable parts. My sister did order Pok-E-Jo's, and they managed to get about 50% of the order wrong. We ordered turkey, they gave us chicken (which we made them change), we ordered broccoli, they gave us green beans (which we decided to accept), we ordered cherry cobbler, they gave us peach, which we did not discover until too late. I had none of it, since it was made with a biscuit dough top instead of a pie crust. Instead of potato salad, we ordered the potato casserole, which I think was better. According to the menu, we were supposed to get white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies, pickle spears, ringed onions, and sliced jalapenos, and we only got the pickle spears and the jalapenos - no cookies and no onions. My sister cut up some onions at home to add to the box. The one thing they did right was to include a large amount of BBQ sauce, which was excellent. Unfortunately, after the meal, my mother gave all the sauce away, and so the leftover turkey was so dry as to be inedible. We had to go to the store to buy more sauce in Temple, but we could not find anything nearly as good as what we got from the caterer. That was a huge disappointment for me. Most of the BBQ sauce options at the store were extremely sweet and listed HFCS or some other sweetener as the first or second ingredient. The sauce was Austin was slightly sweet, but overpoweringly, and so it was reasonable (although it would have been even better if it had been less sweet). At home I always make my own BBQ sauce,and it is always somewhat tart. Well, the rest of the trip went downhill from there, although I did enjoy seeing some of my old classmates and had a nice lunch one day with my cousin Janet, who is going through chemo but is in remission. She is my favorite cousin, and I always like seeing her, but her health has not bee great lately. Kevin and I took her to the eye doctor just before lunch and then drove for her, since her one eye had been dilated. The lunch we had in Temple at Cafe 35 was very good and the only meal we had out while at our parents' house. I had a very good chicken-fried steak (which I don't eat here in L.A.), and for an appetizer, we had fried avocado, which was especially good. I'm surprised I haven't seen that here, but maybe I haven't been looking. It was served with chipotle mayonnaise, which is something that I make frequently. On the way back to L.A., we spent the night with our niece in Pflugerville (suburb of Austin) and went to a very lively Cajun restaurant (along with Zydeco band) that was very good and very authentic. I felt like I was in Lafayette, LA. Unfortunately they were out of gator, and so I had spinach crab cakes and crawfish etouffee. The restaurant was BYOB, but they had a $3 corkage fee for the beer, which was more than the beer cost. I enjoyed the food and the band. One good thing is that we had non-stop flights between L.A. and Austin both ways, and both planes were only half full. I'm afraid they may stop offering this, since there is so little demand for travel between L.A. and Austin. It made the flights very pleasant not to be so crowded, and this is one of the reasons I wanted to do this trip off-season. Lars

Not cole slaw, but a very popular slaw in my groups. You can make Napa Slaw head of time and quickly assemble before serving. Have fun! Napa Coleslaw NOODLE MIX 3 packages original flavor Ramen noodles -- crushed 4 tbls black sesame seeds 8 oz sliced almonds ½ stick melted butter THE DRESSING 1 c. peanut oil 2 tsp. soy sauce 1 c. sugar 1/2 c. rice vinegar 1/2 tsp. salt 2 flavor packets from the Raman noodles THE ASSEMBLY Napa cabbage (Bok Choy)  shred entire head for a party 1 bunch green onions  thinly sliced The Noodle Mix The Dressing FOR NOODLE MIX: Combine to coat with butter and heat in 300F oven for approximately 15-20 minutes, watching that the mixture does not get too brown. Cool. It keeps well in a zip-lock. FOR THE DRESSING: Combine and blend well. I use the stick blender. FOR THE ASSEMBLY: Make all components separately the day before. When ready to serve, combine cabbage, dressing, and noodle mix and toss. OPTION: Grilled chicken can be added to the salad to make a main course.

Perhaps we should also consider the following; There are restaurants you go to because you want a quick meal, restaurants you go to because you want cheap food, restaurants you go to because you want a romantic atmosphere, restaurants you go to because you want normal familiar good food, ----. Palate may be a restaurant you go to because you enjoy something that�s new. I am not saying Palate is good or bad. It probably is not a restaurant you would take your family for a regular dinner, not the first time anyway. It appears to me that Palate is a well thought out place based on many factors, including their mission statement. Keeping in mind that a good chef may be a lousy menu designer. As I tried to illustrate my point by the examples I have given, strange ingredients can be surprisingly good. There is a very famous restaurant, Stone Barns at Blue Hills in NY, expensive, and reservation in advance a must. http://www.bluehillfarm.com/ A very interesting restaurant that they farm their own organic food and meats next to the restaurant. If you dine early, you can take a tour around the farm. The restaurant is owned by David Rockefeller. The menu is very unique, creative and impressively original; however the few times I was there I did not like the food which I ordered. I felt the entire concept was a little dictatorial. Take it or leave it, this is the way we cook. For instance, a beef dish came basically raw. I can eat raw beef, but that�s not the point, they never told me on the menu, or the waitress that the meat would be near raw. Still, I respect what they are doing, I highly recommend going there just for the adventure and experience. You may find that what I didn�t like, you like. dcarch

The people that frequent GW Kitchens forum are researchers who look far and wide for the perfect faucet, sink, range etc. The internet has made this possible. If you are not internet savvy (or just don't like searching endlessly), do not have a big box store or design center nearby, or don't have access to tons of design magazines--You Wouldnt know what options are available. When my parents designed their kitchen 40+ years ago, they drove 2 hours each way to get something that was not the ONLY option available in our small town: two major builders whose interior fixtures and finishes were all identical in every house they built (and every house was "custom"). Anything that has been replaced since has been on the advice of a local plumber (whatever kitchen faucet he had on the truck--and its a cheap horrible faucet), and whatever fridge fit in the slot that the local appliance store had...coupled with the fact that my mother in particular seems to think a faucet you spent 50 bucks on in 1969 should cost $50 now, not $500. So they were told what was available and they took the advice. For them it WAS what was available. I recently did a kitchen for a client who moved, but I had done some interior design work for her when she lived in her old place. When I saw the kitchen...I said Wow! this kitchen has held up well!. She said "Huh?" and I said "For a kitchen that was put in in 1980 or so it looks great!" She said: "But I put in new cabinets and countertops and floor in 1997!" She hired a kitchen fabricator from her church bulletin who came and measured and semi-custom fabricated her cabinets and countertops: He gave her an option of two door styles, two wood species and one finish(natural). Same with hardware, same with laminate...she didnt even really know what Corian was. So, she got the same kitchen more or less that anybody who hired him got. And he happened to be in a time warp. He is probably still installing the same kitchen. When we did her new kitchen in 2006-7 she was shocked, (and overwhelmed) by all the options. People who are not design junkies really have very little idea of whats out there. (And before the internet had no real way of finding it either, unless they had a good designer or builder)