I haven't, even though I've been to Venice five times. Oh well, maybe next time ...

I thought it would be fun to start a game guessing the location of some of my pictures.

Where in the world are these photos from?

(a) Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

(b) Guadalajara, Mexico

(c) San Juan, Puerto Rico

(d) Santiago de Compostela, Spain

There were two correct answers and one very courageous stab in the dark. The answer is Guadalajara but the Metropolitan Cathedral in this city bears a striking resemblance to the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. Thank you Annie, Kathy and Girasoli for playing the game.

Guadalajara is a city that has been on my list of places to visit for three decades. I lived in Mexico City for two years in the mid 1970’s and even though I traveled extensively throughout the country I did not venture any place north of the Mexican capital; most of my travels were to the southern states and to the Pacific coast. Four years ago a friend invited me to join her on a trip to the land of the Mariachis and the delicious tapatio food. We had a lovely stay but I only have these three images worthy of showing since my friend took most of the photos.

Construction of the Cathedral began in 1561. It took fifty seven years for the cathedral to be completed and dedicated in a Mass and Consecration of the Altar. The beautiful towers seen in the photo are not the original ones. The first ones were built in the late 17th century and were square and much shorter than the ones we see today. An earthquake in 1818 destroyed the towers and new ones were constructed in 1854 using the base of the first ones which survived the earthquake.

The Degollados Theatre was built in the mid 19th century and bears the name of the governor of Jalisco, Santos Degollado, who ordered its construction. The portico is neo-classical with columns topped with a marble relief of Apollo and the Nine Muses. The interior is in a style that is reminiscent of the great European opera houses with red velvet seats and curtain, chandelier and stunning frescoes inspired by the fourth canto of the Divine Comedy.

My friend and I visited the theater during a rehearsal of the Symphonic Orchestra. For this reason we refrained from taking pictures of the amazing frescoes but I found on the Web this photograph of the magnificent vault.

photo from: http://www.gdltours.com/

Wrinkled fondant on my friend's birthday cake.

Happy hunting and a great weekend to everyone!

I don't like comercially produced sherbets or sorbets, and the few that I have tasted were too sweet and lacking real fruit flavor. I made a sherbet for the very first time using the recipe Annie posted and I was amazed at how good it was. It was smooth and creamy, with the perfect sweetness. It was so good that I knew I was going to make this recipe again using other fruits.

That was exactly two weeks ago and since then I've become the owner of an ice cream maker, made a mango sherbet, a milk chocolate ice cream from Dolce Italiano and received in the mail my copy of The Perfect Scoop. This is the book the Sunday Slow Scoopers are using for their weekly recipe during the next four months. I couldn't join them due to diet restrictions but I found on Lebovitz's book an abundance of recipes for sherbets, sorbets and granitas which I'll be making in the next couple of months.

The Creamy Lemon Sorbet recipe is from Gina De Palma's book, Dolce Italiano. The creaminess comes from Greek yogurt which imparts a nice smooth texture to the sorbet. The addition of limoncello produces a nice extra lemony flavor and sweetness. Gina notes that about an additional tablespoon of simple syrup should be added if the liqueur is omitted from the recipe. The only substitution I made was using agave nectar instead of sugar and simple syrup, adding it in 1/4 cup increments until it reached the sweetness/tart ratio I liked. In the end it came to about a total of 3/4 cup of agave nectar.

Sherbets and sorbets tend to melt rather fast. To help keep them solid for a bit longer, I put the dish in the freezer prior to serving.

2 medium lemons
1 cup plain Greek-style yogurt, such as Total, classic or 2%
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup Simple Syrup (recipe below)
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons limoncello (optional)

Grate the zest of one of the lemons. Squeeze the juice of both lemons into a small bowl and strain it to remove any seeds or pulp. You should have 1/2 cup lemon juice.

Place the juice and grated zest in a blender. Add the yogurt and sugar and blend on medium speed to liquefy the yogurt, about 20 seconds. Add the syrup, water, and, if desired, limoncello and blend to combine thoroughly.

Freeze the sorbet immediately in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions. Makes about 3 cups.

Continue reading "Sorbetto di Limone" »

This is my 9 year old shitzu grand-puppy. He's not very fond of the pool but my daughter and I managed to get him in our lounger so he would cool off a bit. With the increased humidity the monsoon season brings to Arizona, we've been doing a lot of lounging in the pool with sangrias on hand. It is so hot that the water temperature in the pool is a steady 93 degrees.