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The Rogue Smoked Blue is just divine. They do several other good blues, but I hold out for this one. It never makes it in to anything...I eat it as is alone. I did manage to put it on a steak (per experiece with blue cheese and meat in Spain) and let it heat up and soften while the second side cooked. Now that's a steak-with the cheese melting in to the meat and the pan juices. Must lick the plate and the pan. You can visit the Rogue Creamery in Southern Oregon (Central Point) quite close to Medford.

I'm heading off to my Mazatlan timeshare Wednesday and I love to cook there. I do love to go out for shrimp for dinner and fish tacos at the pool for lunch, but we always cook breakfast, usually eat BLTs with avocado or salad for lunch, and cook or go out for dinner. If I could on take one thing (it has to be 2) it would be the santoku and the thin plastic cutting boards. But I do quite well with all this: I always take my Swiss Army Knife, good paring knife, a good santoku, a couple of thin plastic cutting boards, recipe cards (substantial salad dressings, Cowboy Caviar, enchiladas), cheap plastic meas. cup and spoons, a square flexible microwave pan for the enchiladas (you never have a pan for the microwave), Saran (you cant imagine how worthless the plastic wrap in MZT is), fresh ground Starbucks, personal french press coffee cups (take down to the pool in the am),cooler cups for beer/Coke), frozen bacon in zip top freezer bags (more big freezer bags too), extra Sharp White Tillamook cheese, and blue cheese. Most of this doesnt take up much space or weight in the checked baggage. We get in late, so first thing in the am the next day we head to Gigante supermercado to buy bags of avocados and limes, wonderful fruits and veg (unless we go all the way downtown to the traditional market and pick up all the veg, fruit, and lots of fresh shrimp!), lime flavored Sabritas potato chops, chillied peanuts, olive oil, veg oil, vinegars, eggs, chicken breasts, chorizo, salami, fresh tortillas, beans, Bimbo balloon bread, sour cream, milk, beer, diet Coke, and maybe a bit of rum. You could skip toting the cheese, bacon, and salami but between the salads and sandwiches we use a lot and I dont want to experiment with new brands. Bell boys at the hotel laugh and drag out a huge wooden box to get all the food bags out of the pulmonia (Mazatlan's golf cart taxi) and up to the room. I always ask the maid a day or two before we leave if she would like anything, she always does, so I clear out the rejects, leave the good food for her, and a healthy tip.

Chicken Piccata with lots of fresh lemon juice and capers.

My Dad introduced my sister and I to steak and lobster early on, and would spear bites of lobster from our plates until we were old enough to defend our plates. I love lobster, and think of my dad.