While variable amounts of cloudiness will break over the strong high pressure ridge that is planted over the west coast, said ridge will also result in dry conditions and very warm temperatures throughout the rest of the week. Highs will climb into the mid-60s Wednesday and stay there until the weekend, where they will fall only slightly into the low 60s. At this point, the next chance of precipitation doesn’t come along until mid to late next week.

Joseph Kielbasa (a very appropriate name as you’ll see) sent me a delightful packet in the mail some time ago. In it he said that while visiting family in New Mexico over the holidays, his mom showed his wife some recipes for Southwestern cooking. But it wasn’t the culinary nature of the books that caught his interest, but rather the first several pages that contained information about cooking at high altitudes.

For the uninitiated, you really do have to change some of your cooking habits here as compared to, say, San Francisco. And no, that doesn’t mean you need less tofu here. But you may need to adjust the thermostat… and ingredient list.  It all has to do with air pressure… and water.

More tomorrow.