This is how the mosaic advances....slowly!

Three hours of class translate in this amount of work. Most of the class time is spent cutting the stones with the hammer against the ax; Trying them on different available spots, attaching them, not liking the resul and detaching them back, disposing many and cutting more. Here is the model picture and here how I began.

I have just prepared for the book club meeting of tomorrow a very typical cheesecake which I flavored this time with lulo pulp; I made it from scratch and even the cookies were prepared with interesting ingredients: whole wheat flour, vanilla beans, lemon rinds and honey. Lulo is known by this name or "naranjilla" due to its sour flavor, but it really looks like a greenish-yellow tomatoe. The fruit grows in the Andean mountains between Cali, Colombia and Quito, Ecuador, at 1000-1200m altitude and its scientific name is solanum quitoense. Actually, it looks a lot like a Kaki!!! or persimmon of a smaller size. Lulo is one of the favorite flavors of any Colombian household for drinks, yogurt and desserts in general. I found this picture in flickr, by "Quimbaya" who has several other interesting images of it in his collection.

I also plan to offer avocado paste with lots of onions, lemon, salt and pepper (yes, guacamole) and yuca (tapioca? cassava?) chips. The book that we will be discussing has nothing to do with this quasi-menu (The dancing girl of Izu), but I can`t prepare, in fact I can not even procure good quality products from Japan. I would certainly like to learn, and I am making advances on that direction, given that Juulia "needs" to make a tea ceremony after Christmas, when she expects to get from "PAPA NOEL" a proper tea service...Later this month I will be posting some of my concerns regarding my 11 (almost 12) and 9 year old beliefs. They believe! Yes, they do! They still believe. And I worry a lot.