Unlucky Dining

Are you kidding? I could not imagine myself making or even eating one of the dishes you featured (“Best of Lucks,� Dec. 8). Broccoli--the most hated vegetable? Soup--for people standing around? Something made with biscuit mix? Peanut brittle--that’s not even a food! This chocolate recipe is that same one with all the variations that my mother made: good but certainly not the best!

LAUREN BADAMI

From the Internet

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Loved the story, especially about the chiles rellenos first clipped from The Times in 1978. Some recipes just get recycled.

Decades ago (close to 40 years), in the days when we made lots of hors d’oeuvres, one of my specials was shrimp mixed with mandarin oranges and red onions and marinated in a complicated oil and vinegar marinade. Everyone asked for the recipe.

A decade ago, my daughter made a big hit with the shrimp dish at a potluck bridal shower. She enjoyed the fuss her friends made, but no one asked for the recipe; her friends were not interested in a time-consuming recipe.

Comes last holiday season and cousin Alice calls me laughing. She had been invited to a party in Ventura at her sister-in-law’s sister’s house, a lady she had never met before, and there was the shrimp and mandarin orange dish.

--MARTY RAUCH

Los Angeles