Good enough for Grandpa?

I greatly enjoyed “Sure, Blame the Jalapenos” [by Leslie Brenner, Sept. 13]. I too have had that clipping in my book for many, many years. It is a wonderfully rich-tasting dish that I have never grown tired of. I believe it is that combination of cumin and vegetables and peppers with the chicken that does the trick.

JOYCE NEWMAN

Pasadena

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ONE must learn devious methods in order to accommodate those with lists of non-edibles. My dad had just such an attitude about Mexican food. He wouldn’t touch it. Years ago, while visiting them in Wisconsin, my sister had asked me to cook my chile verde dish, but she didn’t know what else we would prepare for Grandpa to eat. “Nothing,” I responded, to her horror. “Let’s just not call it ‘chile verde’; we’ll call it ‘California chili.’ ” Wouldn’t you know? Gramps just loved it. And we never told him the truth.

HOWIE PLZAK

Los Angeles

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WHILE I appreciate the deliciousness of Leslie Brenner’s detailed and anecdotal telling, I confess I am saddened for the dear “Grandpa” whose sudden and tragic death is used as a comic prop repeatedly in the article -- six times, including the recipe title.

Might Leslie Brenner have fleshed out Grandpa for us a little, let some of his precious life get in on the joke? To repeatedly mention his sudden death so unfeelingly, without a single reference to his endeared place in the family circle, for example, seems callous to me.

ANN CONWAY

Huntington Beach