Confession… I have put a tiny pinch of cocoa in mine. Not enough where you can put your finger on it, though.

And that’s it for me, I had a wonderful night!

Goodnight, Irene.

my family was invited to share a seder dinner with friends

OK, one last yarn, then I’m out of here.

I once worked for a German blue-eyed, blonde haired genial Nazi chef. They celebrated Hitler’s birthday in this kitchen, and it was not in Germany, either. They referred to the bank of ovens in my bakery kitchen as “the Jew ovens” and other tasteless jokes in that vein. For all of that, this chef was, this crap aside, personable and likable. When I had first started with him, Easter was just ahead, and in those days I still celebrated Easter in a big way. I explained, or tried to explain, to the chef that I had got to attend Easter Mass. He replied that this was a big day: “all them Jews come and spend a lot of money here”. He told me to go back to my bake shop “and the god will understand”. Then he grew more serious and said, angrily: “Venn you tell me vhere vas the god vhen dem Jews in my country cried ‘God! God!’ in the gas chambers, den I vill talk to you about your god! I saw that I was getting nowhere with him, and returned to work with my tail between my legs, so to speak. Later, the chef came to see me: “Vell, look, I don’t want to take any chances vith this god; I’ll drive you to the Holy Mass in my Mercedes! And he did.

Came Passover. The standard greeting between myself and the chef was: “Boss, how goes it?” To which he always made the reply “Vell, you know how it is!” You see, he was honing after women, it cost him a fortune, and things did not often last long or go well. And sommeties his hair dyd failed, and came out orange, not yellow! He looked serious and also said “I vent to a Passover seder last night. Oh! Did I learn some things.” As I said, there were redeeming things about this often brutish Nazi.

I can’t imagine anyone putting pasta in it though, that’s just wrong. (It was in my rules link.)

And I agree that chili needs to meld for awhile. Gotta let the flavors marry.