Hi from the great north-wet Seattle!

[lutzzz]

Howdy hi.. I'm about as new as one can get just a few minutes I guess...

I'm Dave aka "lutzzz" pronounced "loots".. the user name comes from Lutz, the name of my first Giant Schnauzer dog whom I loved dearly... so in honor of him, when I first signed on to the net (back shortly after Al Gore invented it), I used his name... but usually there are a bunch of "Lutz's" so I had to add a couple of "z's" to avoid duplication...

I live in Edmonds, about 12 miles north and a bit west of Seattle on the water. Good view of the ferry boats going across to Kingston (for those of you who might know the area).

I'm recently divorced and semi-retired and spend most of my time sailing/sailboat (around the San Juan Islands of Puget Sound; to Alaska, Hawaii, and Baja area of Mexico) and I'm fairly heavily involved in Orca whale conservation efforts here.

I got tired of either eating at someone's house, or at a restaurant, or the frozen stuff from the supermarket.. so I bought a bunch of cookbooks and decided to learn how to cook for myself...

I gave most of my cookware to my departing soon-to-be "ex-wife" and as I was heading out to Walmart to buy new cookware,, I was fortunate enough to be stopped by the wife of my next door neighbor who took away my car keys and drove me to a nice store to buy some All Clad and a few Sitram pieces and some pretty good knives.. something I'll be forever grateful for, even though it damaged my pocketbook more than I could imagine

I've been reading the cooking newsgroups, specifically rec.food.cooking and I think that's where I learned about, or heard of, this group. So I hunted you down and just signed up.

Don't count on me contributing much 'cause I just know enough to realize how much I don't know.. so I'm looking forward to learning more about cooking. I AM fairly proficient in slow BBQ and grilling (charcoal) and also coffee, especially espresso.. so perhaps I can contribute *something*.. if only a dumb question

I have an avatar but can't figure out how to activate it,, but I'll re-read the FAQ and stuff and hopefully figure it out...

Good to be here... I'm looking forward to learning and contributing what I can.

[lutzzz]

Thank you all for the "warm welcome".. not that it matters.. I came here to learn more about cooking, not to chat..

But one day perhaps someone can/will explain how this site made #3 on the top 100 list... must be a TON of very useful information about cooking here