January 10, 2019 - Morelia

The bells ring eighteen times, every quarter of an hour!  They don’t wake us up;  but once you’re awake, you can’t help but hear them!  Of course the cathedral is right across the street.  We go upstairs for breakfast and today we have a private dining room, with a full view of the cathedral.  There are baskets of specialty breads to enjoy while we choose our meals.  I have hot chocolate (oh boy!) And decide to see if I can eat a waffle and crispy bacon without repercussions.  Sure is tasty!

Sure do love our hotel!

After breakfast we make a quick stop by the rooms and regroup at the van for a quick trip to the market to meet Cynthia, a world-famous chef who sill be teaching our cooking class.  She has represented Mexico at an international cooking competition, has cooked for a thousand people, and has even cooked for the Pope!!  With her is her assistant, Gustavos, who translates for her and will help her with the class.  

We are treated to a tour of the market as Cynthia purchases the ingredients for our class.  She teaches us all about the various peppers and types of corn and beans, with Gusatovos and some of our group carrying bags of produce.  We stop at the machine that is mass-producing tortillas and see the vats where the dried corn is soaked before it is ground up for the flour.  We taste a warm, fresh taco with just a dash of fresh salsa. (On my tongue’s scale of heat, it’s about an 8!). Barb has to get a drink!  And I take some!

Cynthia Martinez and Gustavos

The market has all the accoutrements of life - beautiful flowers, fresh chickens and turkeys and rabbit, children’s toys, baskets, candy, and cooking implements.  Cynthia shows us how many of those are used and assures us that we can eat food that has been prepared in the earthenware pots that are for sale.  She tells us that each little town has its own distinctive decorations.

With our shopping done, with walk to Cynthia’s shop and kitchen.  At this point we have split off into two groups, with the “experienced” ladies staying for the first class and the young ‘uns going off on their own.  Our group is Barbara, Kathleen, Marilyn, and me.  And that’s all that will fit in her little kitchen.  We drop our belongings, wash our hands, don our aprons and begin!  We each are given a recipe booklet that Gustavos has translated for us, so we’ll be able to reproduce our results when we get home (right!).  

Cynthia's shop, Mexico Magico, and the location of our class.

The world's most beautiful toilet!

And matching sink and mirror!

Some of our ingredients!

Before charring for the salsa.  And the leaves for the triangular tamales.

You have to use your hands!

It's like origami, wrapping those little triangles!

You start by filling the pocket you've made...

then keep wrapping until you just have the tail left to secure the packet.

Then they get steamed.  It's all right if the green ones are in the water.

Marilyn's mashing tomatoes in the metata.  Hard work, and everyone got a turn!

See?

Yep!

You add water to get just the right consistency.

There's no grease on the tortilla pan, and you flip it twice.

Delicious creme des frijoles!

Heavenly avocado gelatin dessert!!

Our first dish will be an avocado dessert!  Three kinds of milk, sugar, gelatin and avocado, all blended together (there are a few more steps!), poured in a silicon mold, and refrigerated for an hour.  We make an avocado drink in two versions.  I like the one with grapefruit soda the best;  but both are very refreshing!  We grind up charred tomatoes, garlic, chili, and onion for salsa.  We mix up and ingredients for tamales and wrap them in both corn husks (the version I’m sued to seeing, and in a long, green leaf that you wrap in a triangular shape, like origami!  And our final task is to make tortillas!  You roll them into a small ball, smush them in a press, and fry them in a special pan, turning them twice.

While we’re there a friend of Cynthia’s come in whom she hasn’t seen in twenty years!  With her is a designer who is working on the lady’s daughter’s wedding dress!

When our cooking is finished, and everyone has had a chance to try their hand at everything, we get to eat our results!  While the table is being prepared we have a few minutes to check out the beautiful products in the shop.

Marilyn and I have to eat and run because we have massages scheduled back at the hotel!  Everything is so tasty!!  But we’ve got to go.  At least we get some of everything, including the gelatin mold!!  It looks like a crysanthemum!  Marilyn asks Gustavos what they do with all the left over food, of which there is a lot!  They share it with the staff at the shop, at Cynthia’s restaurant, and with the homeless.  That makes us feel better.

We take off in search of an ATM and then back to the hotel.  We make it with five minutes to spare!  The first masseuse comes in with a young man who is carrying her table and helps her set it up.  I suspect that he is also making sure that there is nothing sketchy in the room before he leaves her alone. I type on my computer while Marilyn gets her massage.

I have a different masseuse, another young lady, who comes right on time.  The first girl stays, though, playing on her phone while I get my massage.  Marilyn has gone to sleep and the whole atmosphere couldn’t be more relaxing, with meditative music playing on someone’s phone and the lights down low.

After the girls leave we convince our selves that 5:30 is too early to go to bed, so we get hot showers and get dressed.  It sure is hard to get out of that shower!!  We text Ginger to see what’s going on and pretty soon she’s at our door!  We sit and chat until it’s time for organize for dinner.  The kids are at their cooking class, so it will just be us old farts, Ginger, Juan, Adan, Barb, Kathleen, Marilyn and me.  We walk to another charming little place just a couple of blocks away and I have the hibiscus salad!  The flowers are carmelized and crunchy and sweet! It’s the perfect size and I almost finish it!  I think my tummy has about forgiven me for the high altitude I forced it to endure!  Now if I could shake the cough I’d be grand.  Several of us are sharing this chorus of disruption;  but no one is forced to miss out on anything because of it!

The pink things are the crunchy, carmelized, sweet hibiscus blossoms!

The cathedral at night (like you might not have guessed!)

We stroll back to the hotel and as we’re riding back up in the elevator, Barb suggests that Marilyn and I try a topical anti-inflammatory that she first learned about in France.  Marilyn’s knee is really messed up and I’ve done a job on my right quad, so anything that might help would be most appreciated!!  We slather up and crawl into bed, hoping for an over-night miracle!  (I love this bed and huge, fluffy duvet!)  The hotel, Los Juaninos was given by the bishop to the government when a hospital was needed.  It was where the first medical courses in Mexico were taught.  Now it’s a lovely place to rest your head!