The Little Mexican Cooking School!

We attended a day at the Little Mexican Cooking School, here in PM. It is run by Cat Brown and Patti Murphy with a great staff of locals, all of whom benefit from a good job in this small community. The ripples are everywhere....!

We got to learn how to make fabulous salsas, 

The full lunch menu included fruit salads, chicken with poblano mole sauce, fried banana, a potato like veg that I forget the name of, and a custard pudding with fresh berries.

Assistants Denise and Daisy charred veggies on this pan, cooked tortillas, and were the sous chefs for Pablo.

This elegant table was where we finally enjoyed the fruits of our labours.....

We made 3 delicious salsas and a guacamole that knocked your sandals off....!

The Cooking School store was filled with local ingredients, spices, utensils, locally made products and even hammocks and pottery.

Cat provided info during the day on local ingredients, tequila, cultural info, shopping tips and history of the area. Chef Pablo was amazing - fun, professional and so knowledgeable. 

Here we enjoy tortillas we made ourselves, and others that the staff made, filled with cheese and topped with all those great salsas and guacamole. 

We so enjoyed the day with the staff and the other guests. Lunch was served with a marvelous sangria, more tequila, and the comradie of sharing wonderful food with great people.

fun in PM

After the market, we had lunch at Las Papas, our new favourite restaurant, and then went back to our place for margaritas by the pool.










It a lovely afternoon and evening and then we headed downtown for some supper and music.












Wonderful salads and baguettes at the Cantina Bistro were the perfect end to the evening.













Kathy Wilson and her band and guests did a great show and we so enjoyed our day with our pals from Victoria!!

Chiapas Market in the square

We gathered up Pearl and Elna and took them on a scenic drive of PM, including showing them the beach we lived on for 5 months the year we bought our little house. Then we headed to the Colonia and wandered through a great flea market of goods brought here by the wonderful weavers and sewers of Chiapas, a state south and west of Quintana Roo where we are.








The market was set up in the Colonia town square, and was a colourful fun place to walk around.
















Pearl and Miki take a break from shopping in the conversation chairs in the square.










Amazing shawls, blouses, shirts, kids clothes and fabulous embroidery are the trademark of Chiapas.













There were also shelves of hand made wooden toys and musical instruments.

Peace and more blues.....

Saturday 2 great things happened - Pearl and Elna arrived from Victoria, and it was another Peace Day in Puerto Morelos. Goyo organized a morning silent walk on the beach, and then an evening of peaceful music in the square, finishing off with Lennon's song, Imagine, sung by everyone in a big circle around the gazebo. Powerful stuff.












Pearl and Elna got all settled in at Amar Inn, and then came into town to join us at Lau's for the Men in Blues, with our usual gang and our friend Kevin, who came in from a layover in Cancun (he flies with Canjet)








This is a dreadful picture, my aplogies, but Elna and Pearl were dancing up a storm and I was trying to avoid other dancers to get a shot.












Kevin, Valorie and Ken all enjoyed the music, and danced their buns off. I know it seems sometimes that all we do is party, but really, we have many nights at home just reading or lounging by the pool.....!

more blues in town

Good news - Cooker John is back in town for another winter, and he packed the house on Friday night at David Lau's!













We gathered Les, Sharon, Valorie, Ken and Les's friend Graham for a fun evening of music and dancing.











John had a great band with him, with musicians from California, Minnesota and of course Puerto Morelos.












John Cooker has a gentle old style blues, almost Dylanesque in his style, and has a firm following when he comes every winter.

this year's baby.......

Our original black and white cat, appropriately named Mama, has been with us for 3 winters now. Each year she presents us with a new baby. This is the newest one. We have no idea where she has them, or where she keeps them until they are old enough to get around the neighbourhood. Maybe she only has one, or maybe only one lives........









Anyway, this dear little boy is just old enough now to jump down from our courtyard wall (or climb down the tree) to get to the food box.











He is still nursing on her, but she won't let him go for long, and he is gobbling down the cat kibble, so is on his way to being independent.











Here he is peering in from the tree - very skittish, of course, no petting any of these guys and gals, but it is endless entertainment watching them come and go and eat every day. In the summer when we are not here, our wonderful house sitter feeds them once a week, and that seems to get them through. Cats are much more able to fend for themselves food wise than dogs. We have Christened this little guy Maya (just in case He turns out to be a She).

household projects......

So we wanted an umbrella stand in the back which we could move around as needed. The heavy metal or concrete ones are $80 (that's dollars!!) so we resorted to strapping it to whatever was handy. Then Daf found an old wooden cable spool in someone's yard, paid them 100 pesos ($10 dollars), painted it up purdy like, put a few tiles on top and.........













Voila!!!!! A sturdy moveable umbrella holder!!! You will notice the clever use of pvc pipe to hold the pole in place, but I am going to cut a really long piece of it so the pvc will go all the way up to the handle. Will be even more sturdy in the wind, and will look better.













Miki's project this last week was to refinish the wooden counter/bar in the kitchen. Some day we would love to have it tiled, along with that little shelf on the back wall, but the original wood was looking very tired.











She sanded the whole thing down (we brought a sander in our luggage this time), and put on 2 good coats of marine paint in a Coco colour. We would have loved a bright blue, but marine paint down here only comes in wood tones.....weird, eh? Anyway, it looks lovely, and has a little centre piece of white tiles to set off the dark wood!