> To completely change the subject: > I wasn't able to go to the Austin Hotluck and really wanted to. Can > someone fill us in on what we missed? Vicarious is much better than > carious after all... Deb in Houston > Deb (and all the others who missed it) -- here's the Austin Hotluck write-up. First, I gotta apologize for the delay in getting this posted, but hopefully my lame excuse will make itself clear as this goes along. It wasn't from an overdose of El Grande. El Grande was fine and kind to us two Saturdays ago. However... The tale of the hotluck begins on Friday, the night before. With a goodly number of guests anticipated, my wife had put in her time cleaning the house and baking her signature habenero cheesecakes, while I had spent most of my day sitting on my keister at the office. Needless to say when I got home, making dinner was not high on the schedule, so I did my best to be generous and offered dinner at the local burger joint. This went over well and so out we went -- on foot. Four hours and an ambulance ride to the emergency room later, we finally got to eat cold cereal before taking our pain pills and hobbling into bed. While crossing the street just before our burger goal, we were both hit by a car pulling out of a parking lot. As a result I was left on crutches and my wife was hobbling very, very slowly. But, you see, NOTHING can stop the unstoppable force of a chilehead hotluck. Not threat of rain, not cars, not moving cross-country. Nothing can stop a hotluck except the dreaded lack of hot stuff and that we had plenty. Thanks to Jim Campbell the Elder of Mild to Wild Chiles, we had a fine selection of sauces and treats for everybody. So, with the help of friends, the Austin Hotluck went forward. Although the actual list member turnout was a little small (and thanks Yvonne, David, and Bill for all your help being hands and feet), there was a fair turnout of secret chileheads (ie. not list members) and chilehead wannabes. For those who weren't there, we can only tantalize you with the spread: Homemade pico de gallo Bill's homemade salsa Thai Grilled Steak (based on the late Colonel's recipe) Chipotle Scalloped Potatoes Thai Appetizers (deep-fired meatballs wrapped around a chile; again, the Colonel's recipe) Habenero Chile Dried Sardines Fried in Chiles Dried cuttlefish with hot dipping sauce (for the adventurous) Lime-Habenero Cheesecake Orange-Rum-Habenero Cheesecake And of course, being Austin, plenty of Shiner Bock and Celis beer. If anybody wants recipes of these, I'll post them as soon as I get them from the respective folks. A good time was had by all, the weather was perfect, the food was delicious and there weren't a lot of leftovers. My wife and I had a grand time, even if we did mostly just sit with our legs propped up on pillows. Again, we want to thank all the folks who came and helped out so unexpectedly. Stay tuned, there will be another Austin Hotluck sometime in the future. David Cook