Grandmother Dragon Forever

It feels like centuries since the last time I wrote something for the Dragon Cave. Only something of great importance would drag me out of my retirement and this is it; the passing of a kind, loving, caring lady like Jo Wake from Jo on Food, Life and a Scent of Chocolate. 

It was me who first gave her the title of "Grandmother Dragon". I met her during an A to Z Challenge, back in 2013, when I was a frequent blogger. She became a frequent visitor of the Dragon Cave and quickly grew into my heart. On 2014, she accepted my invitation to join a Goal Partner Group, along with Alex J. Cavanaugh, David Powers King, Elizabeth Seckman, Lisa Buie-Collard, Melissa Maygrove, Carrie Buttler, Mark Koopmans, Tina Downey, and Eva Solar, who joined us after Tina passed away. I never imagined this group would grow to become a family who shared a lot more than personal and professional goals. We became the Fellowship of the Dragon.

I remember I often argued with Captain Ninja about who of us was older (me, of course, for several centuries). Jo was the one who always remembered (and reminded us) of everybody's birthdays, special occasions, she encouraged us and put a smile on our faces with her comments. She was fun and loving but also firm and truthful. One day I asked her if I could adopt her as my grandmother, because she reminded me to my mother's mother. First time I told her she could be my grandmother she wasn't flattered. She said she wasn't THAT old, hahaha. I still laugh at the memory. I told her she wasn't as old as a dragon but she had the heart of one, and so she became my Grandmother Dragon. It didn't take too long for her to adopt everyone in the group under her "wing". We went through a lot of stuff together.  Along the years we shared thoughts, hearts and a bit of our souls. I never met her in the flesh but I knew her and she really knew me. The day her voice went silent was the day our Fellowship lost also a huge part of its essence. I feel very lucky and grateful for all the things she did and said that enriched my life and the life of all those in our group. My dragon heart will always treasure her memory for as long as I live. She had a heart of gold.

 She loved good recipes and in her honor, we are sharing a recipe that brings us memories of love, family and friendship. My recipe is for Molletes, as we know them in Mexico. In Spain they have something similar they call Tapas. Jo loved Tapas and my real grandmother loved Molletes. They are very easy to do.

Ingredients

Photo: Vvsupremo

1 bolillo (it's like a baguette but smaller)

1 cup of fried beans

1 cup of white onion

4 large red tomatoes

1/2 cup fresh coriander

1 jalapeño or serrano pepper (if you like hot)

1/4 cup lime juice

3/4 teaspoon sea salt

Manchego cheese in slices

Instructions

First chop the tomatoes, onion, coriander and  jalapeño finely. Add the salt and lime juice, to your taste. Mix everything and let it rest for 15 minutes. In Mexico this is known as salsa "Pico de Gallo".

Cut the bolillo in half horizontally. Spread two spoons of fried beans all over the surface. Put the slices of cheese over that and bake it until the cheese melts.  Decorate with the Pico de Gallo at will. 

You may also add chopped chorizo, ham, or meat on top. It's a very versatile dish.

And Father Dragon said "let there be a planet...."

Lo and behold, Dragon made a planet!! Oh, I'm so very proud of myself so forgive me if I brag a little bit - way too much. I'm in the process of learning Photoshop and as an exercise to better learn the tools, I asked Sir Jeffrey S. Hargett if I could borrow the map he did for his book "Strands of Pattern". He kindly agreed to let his world be subject of experimentation, all for academic purposes.

The dwarves brought me Sir Jeff's charts and I then started the task of finding the appropriate landscapes that would better suit the world where the story takes place, as envisioned by his author.  Now where would I find suitable satellite pictures of places I could transform and put together in a brand new continent? There were many options but the best was, of course, NASA Visible Earth.  If you have a moment to be amazed by amazing shots of our planet, go there.

It all started with the topography of Spain...That was the base canvas, a good start.

 It only needed a few changes, so I sent my dwarves out for the search. "Bring me mountains! Let's take the mountains off from right and get higher mountains in the north. The Alps with a bit of Himalayas. Tassin, bring some volcanos! The Stromboli, the Colima, this in Nepal looks good, Kasakstan? Where's that? Ah, a Canadian glacier! Mountain? Mmm... spin it like this and it looks like a sugar virgin snack. We'll use it! Holy Scales, we're missing the rivers! No river big enough, let's pain them. Two more. No. Three. This has a lake. What do you mean this is not a mountain? It's a forest, you sure? I don't remember forests look like that at dragon's flight. Ok, more forest. Hills. Not hilly enough. Ah, there it is!"

Wrapping the land in a 3D sphere was not easy. Dragon destroyed many spheres and got glue all over the dwarves but finally it was done. Few hundreds of hours,  overly sweaty scales, trembling pulse and tons of dragon cursing later I had managed the space point of view- stratospheric look. (Alright, alright, it was more like minutes but all the rest is accurate.) Anyway, to be my very first try at this, the result is pretty amazing, isn't it? Yes, I can't help it. I'm really strutting around the cave today, feeling brilliant, divine and all stuff. After all, I've just made a planet! Look everyone, I've made a planet!!!

Dragon Hugs!