Japanese Dashi [bonito Fish Stock]

56, an Army brat who has lived in 20 different locations [born in germany, went to kindergarten in japan] including new york city, palo alto CA, maine, georgia, chicago, after growing up in small-town kansas... have some fabulous recipes from well-traveled army people... recently started adding just a splash of bourbon or brandy to real maple syrup - and it really gives french toast or pancakes a special, more sophisticated flavor... a friend jokes that bourbon is my new "secret ingredient" that i'll be adding to everything - it's not true but i'm telling you - you should try it! it's really very good [for adults, anyway] sugarpea's apple pancake recipe is a deadringer for Walker Brothers Pancake House in north shore Chicago - i've searchd for this for 34 years - and it's easy as well as To Die For!!! the Dutch Baby pancake is a huge seller there too - with the same gooey comfort-food but elegant batter... also if you search for lettuce wrap - the 2 recipes for PF Chang's come up... this is also SO GOOD, truly a memorable entree... for cookbooks: With a Jug of Wine, More Recipes With a Jug of Wine were written by the San Francisco Chronicle food writer decades ago - and most everything in them is superb - and i learned a lot as a new cook, young wife, from reading through them in the late 1970s... i got a [very French] sense of food as a way of life