from the Yucatán : sopa de lima

Our Mexican cooking class featuring meals from the Yucatán began with sopa de lima (lime soup). This uniquely Yucatán dish is made from a special lime that grows only this region.

sopa de lima with the broth poured over the chicken, tortilla strips and lime

pour the broth over the chicken, tortilla strips and lime

The sopa de lima prepared in our class was a basic chicken broth to which was added ‘sweated’ onions, green peppers and tomatoes, and a whole lot of ‘lima agria‘ juice. The mixture was strained and kept warm in a kettle.

sweating green peppers, onions and tomatoes

sweating green peppers, onions and tomatoes

The tortillas were sliced fine and deep fried until golden.

deep fried tortilla strips

deep fried tortilla strips

They were placed in individual bowls, along with shredded chicken and a slice of lime.

plating the sopa de lima

plating the sopa de lima

The chicken/lime broth was poured over everything and roasted habaneros added as a side.

 

Overall I found this soup a little too sour, unusual for me as I love sour food! Because of the difficulty in obtaining these special limes we ended up using regular limes.  I have had trouble with these before; they are very sour compared to the limes of Mexico. A friend once told me to add some orange juice to sweeten up an almost inedible ceviche and it worked quite well, although I’m not sure if it would have worked in this situation.

Note that there are many regional variations of this soup such as sopa azteca, sopa de Tarasca or sopa de tortilla.)

For the rest of the menu see: https://blogs.ubc.ca/albatz/2011/02/10/mexican-cooking-the-yucatan/

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Salut! a television series designed to teach French to Grade 7s

1978: Salut! a series of 26 television programs designed to introduce French to Grade 7s, produced by the Provincial Educational Media Centre. The series won the Ohio Award for Educational Productions, was purchased by Ontario and Maritime Ministries of Education, and is still on television decades later.

Credit: Textes/Conception graphique

  • developed characters designed to appeal to 12 and 13 year olds,
  • wrote scripts featuring these characters
  • produced illustrations & graphics

CHARACTER #1:
the ‘Detective’ plus assorted villains

the detective looks UNDER a plate

the Detective finds the phone in a bowl of fruit

after searching high and low, the Detective finds the phone in a bowl of fruit

A sample script
Où est le téléphone?
The Detective has a hard time finding the ringing telephone.
Narrator:
Où est le téléphone?
Le téléphone est derrière le réfrigérateur? Non, non.
Le téléphone est sous l’assiette? Non, non, non.
Le téléphone est sur la cuisinière? Non, non, non.
Ah, ah! Le téléphone est dans le panier de fruits.

CHARACTER #2:

the ‘Bratty Little Sister’, who makes her older sister’s life a misery.

little sister steals the penA sample script featuring the Bratty Little Sister

La petite soeur est tannante
Diane has a date with her boyfriend; unfortunatly everywhere they go, la petite soeur goes as well.
Narrator:
Diane a rendez-vous avec son ami.
Ils vont à la bibliothèque.
La petite soeur va à la bibliothèque aussi.
Elle est tannante.
Diane et son ami vont au cinéma.
La petite soeur va au cinéma aussi.
Elle est encore tannante.
Ils vont au restaurant.
Elle va au restaurant aussi.
Oh, elle est toujours tannante.
L’ami de Diane s’en va!
Les deux soeurs rentrent à la maison.

Current language-learning videos: http://www.soleducational.com/videos/index.html
Travelling to Buenos Aires? Want to brush up on your Spanish and learn more about Buenos Aires at the same time? Check out our free videos filmed in Buenos Aires!

little sister squeezes mustard all over big sister's date

little sister squeezes mustard all over big sister's date

big sister catches butterflies

big sister catches butterflies (little sister catches snakes)

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Fave Photoshop Filter # 3: ‘drybrush’ mini-tutorial

african dance & storytelling using drybrush filter

the drybrush filter was used to calm down this very contrasty photo

I use the ‘Drybrush’ filter in photos that are already fairly contrasty (above). It has a softer effect than the watercolour filter. It also works well on photos that are slightly out of focus in a critical area (below).

fern unfurling

the ‘sharpening’ tool was used to bring the slightly out-of-focus centre of the fern fiddlehead back into focus; then the ‘drybrush’ filter was applied to get rid of the over-sharpened look.

For more on Fave Photoshop filters: http://www.albatz.com/photos/faves_plus/filters.html

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Fave Photoshop Filters #2: ‘watercolor’ mini-tutorial

image of aspara at Angkor Wat

using the watercolour filter increases contrast

I find the ‘Watercolor’ filter creates interesting dark and light areas in photos that might otherwise be a bit flat. I usually set the brush detail to fairly high (9); the shadow intensity to 0; and the texture to 1 or 2. It’s also helpful if you want to print a low res photo in a larger format. Blown up to about 4x, people commented about how ‘sharp’ this low-res photo was.

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Fave Photoshop Filters #1: ‘cutout’ mini-tutorial

Hong Kong orchid tree flower

using the Photoshop 'Artistic' Cutout flter

I use the ‘Cutout’ filter for a posterized or graphic effect. I usually set the ‘Number of Levels’ (which is actually the number of colours/tones) to 8 (the highest). I keep the ‘Edge simplicity’ low (1) and then play around with ‘Edge fidelity’ until I get the look that I want.
Hong Kong orchid flower original photo

For more on Fave Photoshop filters: http://www.albatz.com/photos/faves_plus/filters.html

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