2 Days In A Row!

Yes, I'm getting better at this, 2 days in a row. Lots of new information coming along.

The chef of the day is Mario Batali. For those of you with excess time and money on November 16, 2009, Mario will be hosting a dinner with wine tasting with winemaker, Chiara Leonini at the Babbo Restaurant in New York City. $495 per person, includes wines, food, tax & gratuity. For more information, please call 917-715-3599. www.mariobatali.com

Up is a cheese dip recipe that I tried last night. Very, very good-but you have to keep this hot, to keep the flavor going.

Val's Cheese Dip

1/2 cup diced onion, 1 cup regular or non-alcoholic beer, 8 oz shredded Cheddar cheese, 8 oz shredded Pepper Jack cheese, 2 tbsp all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 tbsp taco seasoning, 2 tbsp chopped chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, 1 cup sour cream, tortilla chips for dipping

Place onion and beer in a heavy medium-size saucepan. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer 3 to 4 minutes. In a large bowl, combine cheeses, flour and taco seasoning. Slowly add handfuls to hot beer until melted, stirring constantly. Repeat until all of the cheese is used. Stir in chipotle pepper and sour cream. Serve with tortilla chips.

My recommendations: this takes alot of work, to get this really hot-I would place the finished product in a chafing dish or fondue pot and let it go on its own. I have never worked with chipotle pepper in adobo sauce before, it smells so wonderful. I will have to find more things to use it in.

Extra smooth hands with a butter, sugar and squalene oil treatment:

Stir 3 tbsp sugar into 1 tsp softened butter. Massage sweet scrub onto hands for 1 minute. Soak a kitchen towel in very warm water, squeeze out excess water and wrap around both hands. Leave on for 3 minutes. Wipe away excess scrub and wash hands with moisturizing hand wash. Pat dry and massage squalene oil into cuticles and hands.

Las Vegas Strip Trivia:

Gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1931.

Howard Hughes moved to the Desert Inn in 1966.

The world-famous inexpensive Las Vegas buffet debuted at the original El Rancho in the early 1940's.

March is the busiest month for tourism in Las Vegas. Except for Christmas and New Year's, December is the slowest month.

Visitors arrive by car (41%), air (44%), bus (8%), RV (6%) and train (0.4 %).

Useless, but interesting information about the town I am living in now.

Still working my EBay cookbook listing, but sales are way..... down (almost non-existent). Look for me at Valerie2901 or under the general listing of cookbooks. 117 cookbooks listed , there must be something you need!

That's all for now.

Cookbook Val