An enormous (to me!) egg sack. I’ll have to post another entry with the photo.

She would guard it alternately with resting in the center of her web.

Here’s the flan recipe from Fonda San Miguel:

Ingredients
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 2/3 cup blanched, slivered almonds
* 1 1/2 (14-ounce) cans Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
* 1 cup whole milk
* 3 whole eggs
* 3 egg yolks
* 1 teaspoon Mexican vanilla extract*

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place oven rack in middle position. Put sugar in a round 9-by-3-inch cake pan (I used ramekins). Using a heavy oven mitt or tongs, place the pan directly over medium heat to caramelize the sugar. Heat until the sugar liquefies, about 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Do not touch the melted sugar — it will cause serious burns. When the hot liquid in the pan is a golden brown color, remove from heat and set aside on a rack to cool and harden.

In a blender, combine the almonds, condensed milk, whole milk, eggs, yolks, and vanilla. Process on medium speed until well blended. Pour custard mixture over the prepared caramel. Place the cake pan(or ramekins) in a larger, deeper pan and pour about an inch of hot water around the cake pan to make a water bath. Cover the flan loosely with a foil tent and place the larger pan on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until flan is set in the center (it will no longer jiggle). Remove from the oven and cool on a rack at room temperature. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 1 hour.

To serve, run a knife or thin spatula around the edge of the flan to release it from the sides of the pan. Place a 10-inch (or larger) serving platter on top of the pan. Turn the platter over and gently remove the cake pan, leaving flan on the serving platter. Using a flexible spatula, scrape up as much of the caramel as possible from the bottom of the pan and pour over the flan. Cut into triangular wedges (or not, if you’re using ramekins) and serve.