These are amanitas cesareas (also locally called "yemas de huevo"), a type of mushroom that grows beneath chestnut trees. This year we are already seeing quite a bit of these mushroom on offer for sale. The people that bring do not tell us where they found them to preserve their mushroom hunting grounds.

Ivan has been preparing dishes with these mushrooms. They are very pretty for a mushroom.

We are now full swing into wild mushrooms season thanks to the rain of late and the continued sunshine. We have been buying these wild mushrooms from various suppliers of late as well, nice and fresh.

So this weekend, we will have a special menu which Ivan has been diligently working on the past couple of days. This is what is in the line up for the weekend if you like mushrooms...

**Potaje de Castañas y Garbanzos - Chic pea and chestnut stew.

**Ensalada con amanitas y granada - Salad with yema mushroom and pomegranate.

**Aluvias rojas con conejo y castañas - Red beans stew with rabbit and chestnuts.

**Aluvias blancas con codorniz y amanitas - White bean stew with quail and yema mushrooms.

**Carrillada ibérica estofada con boletos - Pork cheek stew with boletus mushrooms.

**Lenguado a la plancha con setas confitadas - Grilled dover sole with confit mushrooms.

**Arroz con boletos y espárragos trigueros - Risotto of asparagus & boletus mushrooms

**Revuelto de setas y espárragos trigueros - Scrambled egg with mushrooms & asparagus .

And of course we will have the usual line up of desserts on offer. Looking good for a food fest this weekend.

Ciao for now.

Some of you may have noticed that our website has been revised yet again. The problem with the new format was that it was not being indexed by Google. Furthermore, since I revised the website, not one booking had come in so I figured go back to tried and true, simple format, easy text and photos. I will be adding a photo album soon to make it easier to view the photos of events in the hotel. The ESP version of the website will be revised back to the old version shortly. It's lots of work to maintain a website so there you have it.

If anyone has any comments or criticism, please do let me know. Comments appreciated.

Thanks.

We had the American group of painters here earlier this month for a 9 night visit. They had a very nice time painting the Serrania de Ronda yet again. This group was the most diverse yet in terms of origins, having come from North Carolina, Wisconsin, Maryland, California, New Mexico, Washington, DC, Illinois, Florida, Oregon and Texas... very interesting for us. One evening we all went into Ronda for a flamenco performance and the main dancer was someone who had taught Ivan some flamenco last year. During the performance, she surprised Ivan and invited him onto the stage with them. This is the video of that taken by Bruce S. of Wisconsin.