Back Up to The Cooking Class

Jenny catching a photo of chorizo almost done

Mendoza family plus

Our beautiful table ready ot receive the morning's products and eager eaters

Salad containing napales and jicama plus

Oh, that gorgeous chorizo almost done 

One of Reyna's brothers looking on

A good look at Reyna's lovely kitchen

Thayudas in the making

Reyna does a perfect drop

Reyna does a perfect pick-up

Mike makes it perfect

Checking the fire

Jennie at the prensa

At work over the Calda

I really want one of these for Tlayudas

Reyna at her prep table

Reyna checking out the market's possibilities

Reyna working at the Matate

Michael checking out the  indoor market

I have just finished one week out of four at Instituto Cultural Oaxaca. Last year I graduated from A2 and understood that I would be going to B1 but after taking the oral placement exam the woman who tested me insisted that I should be in B2. I'm here to tell you that it's a bit of a stretch for sure. But I know after five days that my understanding of rapid speech is way past what it was before. So another woman and I who had both told the instructor that we thought we should be a notch lower, are both happy and pleased even though it's difficult.  We feel we're understanding about  90% of what we hear and that before this week, that would not have been the case. So we'll just see how it goes. If I feel too much in the dark (especially about the subjunctive) I'll ask for a change. It's great to be making some advancement in comprehension anyway.

I'd like to back up just a bit and describe the cooking class that four of us took the week before last in Teotitlan from Reyna Mendoza Ruiz. She is Tito Mendoza's sister. Tito is one of the finest weavers in Oaxaca. We did the class in the same compound where Jennie Henderson studied with Tito last year when we were all in Teotitlan. 

The class took place in the lovely outdoor kitchen where many family events take place and where Reyna entertains and teaches many people each year. 

I think I already told you about going to the morning market with Reyna to buy the last minute, fresh ingredients. What a pleasure to follow her from stall to stall. That market is a bustling and very happy place.

We began by making masa from corn herena and water, kneading it superbly with an old fashioned matate (sp) which is a rough stone similar to that used for a mortar and pestle. The masa is mixed and kneaded by pushing a rolling pin shaped stone of the same type away from the worker and then returned to the forward position and pushed forward again. We have also seen these used for grinding plant materials and cochineal by the natural dyers.  The masa is eventually formed into a large ball using about 1 kilo of herena. We made at least four different items using the same material. First we made small balls and pressed them in a tortilla press for making Memelitas using bean paste, rendered pork and queso fresco as well as minced chorizo. I'm coming back with recipes in case anyone is interested.

Next we made squash flower quesadillas using the same masa. Besides the masa, for these we used Oaxacan cheese, pumpkin flowers and epazote leaves. They were really tasty.

A wonderful cactus salad was made using Napales (Prickly Pear), avacado leaves, epazote leaves, cubed tomatoes, diced white onion and one cup of cubed jicama. These individual salads were served in a short corn husk....... Beautiful and delicious.

Then we made Salsa de Miltomate and Chile Pasilla de Oaxaca. We used miltomates or tomatillos, chiles pasillas de Oaxaca, cloves of garlic finely chopped and salt to taste. 

After using a tortilla sized metal press for the above dishes, we were presented with a much large  masa press for making the thin, delicate Tlayuda sized tortillas which are used to make a kind of Mexican pizza. Some of us have eaten these at the San Pablo restaurant near the Textile Museum.  They are wonderful and more delicate than a pizza but much like a pizza in diameter. I'd like to own one of these large metal presses becuause, of course, you can also make smaller sized tortillas with this press.

The last item to be made was a raspberry ice cream.  For it, Reyna used  two pounds of raspberries, one cup of thick cream, one and a half cups of cajeta (goat's mil caramel!) and one half cup toasted pecans chopped. She added the pecans at the last and the whole thing only took approximately ten minutes to make in her ice cream maker which had been in the freezer ahead of time. You never tasted anything so delicious. 

As I said earlier, Norma Hawthorn joined us for lunch and you can well imagine what a happy group we were sitting around the beautifully appointed table. Thank you for everything, Reyna. And thank you Norma for setting up this class. I will never forget the taste of that amazing ice cream. Yum!

Today is Sunday — Class begins tomorrow

Long view of pleasant narco cop who walks the park witih his beautiful Shepherd

This little guy wants to switch toys

Shoes came off before allowed on the slide

I arrive early tomorrow morning for my oral test and then I get my placement. I've never been disappointed with that process so, que sera sera.

I woke up this morning with a clear feeling that my condition was improved. That lasted through most of the morning .........then as the day wore on I began to be not so sure. But now I've just eaten a bowl of Raman and feel quite good. It's just the recurrence (or lack of disappearance) of the cough that irritates me. I'll do another early to bed and I really think it will keep inching forward in the right direction.

I had huevos rancheros this morning at the "100% Natural" restaurant which is around the corner from my hotel and across the street from Llano Park, one of the best people watching places in town. I had a green health drink and then a cup of coffee at the end to prolong the experience of  looking out the window at the people walking around and into the park. While I watched, a man began putting down a tarp on the cement surrounding one side of the large southernmost fountain in the park.  I was a bit curious as to what was going to happen there but didn't think much more about it. When I left the restaurant,  walked across the street and entered the park, I had the answer to my wonderment.  That man with the tarp had installed a huge, inflatable, double sided, almost vertical slide playground. There were children (mostly small) climbing up a central stairway, and at the top, they turned to the right or to the left and then went swishing down a steep slide with great glee. I sat down on a bench and watched them from one side and then I moved to the fountain and watched from there. Each place offered a whole new perspective. Back to the bench for a long time. There is endless entertainment in just such a little scene. A street vender with all kinds of food moved in quite near me and that just added to the complexity of things to watch. Then two beautiful young pre-teenage girls sat on the bench across the way from me. They were so engrossed in conversation and earnest about it all, I could hardly keep from staring. First, one had a large, thick book in her hand and sometimes it would be passed to the other to share a paragraph. And then, lo and behold, they each had a copy of the same book. How I wished I could have known what reading they were so deeply into. Just to add to the scene, two pigeons began walking around the vendor and in front of the girls with heads cocking forward and back in unison. I always find pigeons beautiful but these two had the most exquisite blend of iridescent purple and blue feathers on the necks I wished my camera hadn't just run out of battery while I was photographing the little ones.

I could have watched the pigeons, girls and the sliding small people forever if I hadn't begun to tire and feel the need to get back to my room and its comforts. Good that I did because I wasn't back five minutes before a  friend from the previous week's class came to visit me. She volunteers for Envia, the group that is centered at my language school and gives tours to outer villages. On each of these tours they visit at least three women who are hoping for monetary assistance in the form of a micro loan to aid them in the formation of a small business. The tour costs 650 pesos per person  and that money all goes to the making of those loans. A really good cause to say the least.

One last word about that visit to the park and the view of it from the restaurant. You know, we all hear about the "poor" dogs. Well, I have to tell you that when you live in a city and frequent a place like Llano Park, you get a different perspective. Of course, you all know I adopted one such poor little guy who now lives happily in my (I should say his) home. But the dogs that go walking past you at the park, mostly on leash are a very different story. Every possible breed. Many washed and brushed to show dog perfection. I was passed by what looked like brother and sister Golden Retrievers that looked like they had just come from the groomer. Gorgeous. So there are always two sides to a story.

My camera is charging as I bring this to a close. I promise I'll transfer some pics to this post from it tomorrow. Hope you all had a good weekend. (Just emptied the card — Pics to be added momentarily)

Time to catch up but not quite there yet

Our north coast Jennie always on the job

Have patience, dear ones. I'm fine but the cold I developed  on the way down here still has a firm grip on me. And I'll have to admit, it slows me down. I'm spending  as much time as possible nearby, doing necessary bill catch-up where I can do it by phone or computer. Had a visit this morning from Laura de Alba  from Mexico City and wanted sincerely to join her and some cousins of hers on a trip to St. Augustine, Etla. But I didn't and it's a good thing. I had a short relapse in coughing plus, and I'd hate to think I might have given this to any of them. I'm still feeling pangs of guilt for attending the natural dye class while having this little bit of a plague. Tried very hard not to sneeze in front of anyone but sometimes you get caught without warning. So I'm crossing my fingers for everyone I was with in Teotitlan.

The dye class was first class and Eric Chavez really gave his all. I may be collecting more pics from it soon. At the time, my camera gave out and I thought I had fried it by using some Apple peripherals with my Nikon camera, but it turned out to be a faulty outlet in my room. All's back to normal with it now but the catch-up hasn't happened yet. (Pictures just added to this post)

Eric is now married to Elsa as I reported earlier. They are lovely together. And I'm posting a picture of a great moment we had last week while our class was working away. Nach, their lovely, incredibly silver miniature schnouser (sp) decided that a pile of our un-dyed yarn was the most attractive bed in the room and promptly took possession. It was silver threads among the gold.

That class ended Sunday and we had a great last mid-day supper at Norma's casita which is on the edge of town to the north. It was a joy to be in that precious house with those lovely people. All gave thanks to Norma Hawthorn, who organized this great class as well as the one four of us took the next day. Yes, Monday was cooking class day. It began with a morning visit to the market. That is always the most pleasurable place to be and having our teacher, the lovely Reyna, with us doubled the quality of the experience. And did we have a fine time cooking with Reyna. Norma arrived to eat lunch with us and we thanked her profusely again for both of the workshops. I hereby repeat that thanks with all my heart.

Pics to follow soon. I get  my chosen room 10 here tomorrow and the maids left a note on my door inviting me to organize my  belongings so that they can carry them across the courtyard to what they know is my favorite room. Life can be so sweet. I'll stop with that thought and hope that the Pacific Textile Arts board meeting went well this afternoon and that our several dilemmas are merely transitory. Goodnight all.