Pizzelles and tangos

I took Margaret Jane to the airport today, where she's heading toward a few weeks in New Jersey. When I got back to the house, I thought of a number of useful things I could do - practice Spanish verbs, write letters, iron clothes. Instead, I decided it was time to make pizzelles. In case you don't know, pizzelles are crisp cookies like very thin waffles, made on a special pizzelle iron. Thanks to Sister Grace Didomenicantonio, we have a pizzelle iron that she bought here back in 2002, and thanks to Sister Grace and Sister Angie Picardo, I have quite a collection of pizzelle recipes, but I've never tried to actually make them. Today I tried. The first pizzelle was a disaster: I had to scrape it off the pizzelle iron and then spend a lot of time washing the iron to get rid of the little bits of pizzelle. So then I went on line and read pizzelle instructions and decided I had put too much on the iron and hadn't given the pizzelle enough time. Sure enough, the pizzelles that followed came out just as they should, crisp and beautifully patterned, and I felt almost, well, Italian. Thanks, Grace and Angie!

With a stash of pizzelles tucked away, I walked over to the Teatro de las Ruinas where the program for the evening was glorious Latin dance. The heat of the evening didn't slow the dancers, who gave us everything from sensuous tangos to slow rumbas and quick cha-chas. Hard to imagine how anyone can dance like that in 90 degree heat, but they were a joy to watch. Living in a small city is something new for me, and I like so much that when there's a special event everyone goes to it. I missed things all the time as a city dweller, but here - getting to an event just involves walking a few blocks, and everyone is there. And tonight we'll all be dancing in our dreams.