Just came home from 56 hours of "conference" with work out in the beautiful Stockholm archipelago. This time I decided to be a true "carrying" chile head, so I packed a flask with JC's dried Habanero (not smoked). Mmmm... doesn't it feel good in your pocket.... The menus out there are usually basic and subtle, fresh salmon and other fish, cooked without too much spice, just letting the natural flavours through. However, I managed to totally redefine Swedish Pea Soup ("Ärtsoppa"). This is our traditional army food... soak yellow dried peas for 24 hours, cook them in a pork stock with fat pork meat, salt, pepper, majoram and thyme. This is not bad food at all. Filling, protein-rich and with a solid basic taste. NOW.... by adding hot hab powder, you get the SAME basic taste and aroma, it still feels authentic, but the hot-hot-HOT hab taste, gives a whole new dimension to Military Food... ;) Boiled eggs for breakfast. With hab powder. OK, so I learned to like breakfasts again. Last night we all invaded a restaurant kitchen, to cook and present our own high-class dinner, coached by the proprietor. Don't you just love to have a true restaurant kitchen at your disposal for an evening. It is not that hard fixing a dinner for 13 people.... unless you have to do it at home... ;) Yours truly, working in the Main Course Group, at last learned how to make a professional wine/mushroom gravy for salmon. Geez, gotta change careers. Sorry, no chiles. It was just too balanced to get Habanerized. But I left JC's powder behind. May it be used creatively. Nevertheless, we were 13 people. No one except for me wanted to "hab" their food. Statistically, so far, we are less than 7% chile-heads here. Uhhh... better get some wider base data... get back to you all later... ;) Kristofer /with a sun-and-wind-burnt brain/