Towards the end of summer, I feel so excited to make soups and use my oven again! Dinner making this summer fell a little flat probably in part because of my nausea and exhaustion, but also from the lack of oven use! I recently needed an "I still like cooking and eating good food" pick me up, so I made a galette and an heirloom tomato salad and we enjoyed them picnic style in the backyard. Sometimes it feels so good to feel like oneself!

On our last full day in Oaxaca, I took a cooking class with my friend Valerie. That same morning, we received a phone call from Conor's Mom, because Conor's Dad, Jim, was being transferred to the ICU and was in rough shape. Together, we made the decision to fly Conor to Calgary immediately. He left at about 5:15am and I wasn't able to go back to sleep. I reached out to my friend, Claudia, and asked her to help me with my girls, which she did so willingly and so I was still able to attend my cooking class. 

It was a lot of fun, but it took me probably an hour to relax into it because I was feeling a lot of stress. We cooked on a traditional oven with all organic food. We made a few warm drinks. We made an amazing soup. We made tortillas and quesadillas and memelas and mole with chicken. It was pretty incredible. I would love to do this again! I ate so much delicious food. I had no hunger for the rest of the day! This was such a worthwhile experience and I'm so glad it worked out for me to still go. 

I had to take a photo of where we bought our tortillas every morning. This is Alisia and we bought almost always 3 pesos worth of tortillas. Alisia's son works with her and we met his wife and two daughters. I loved our daily exchanges. Whenever we left the neighborhood or returned we always waved hola and adios to them. They made our experience so awesome! On our last day they gave us a parting gift of queso de Chiapas and Horchata mix. So yummy! I know I keep saying this, but we were so blessed to have so many incredible people come into our lives in Mexico. It was such a rich experience!

A few times Maeve was grouchy and Alisia gave her tortillas. Sometimes we would pass by when they were making more and would receive fresh made (and HOT) tortillas. It was dreamy.

Elote is corn on the cob, smothered with mayo and cheese and drizzled with lime juice. Lots of people here also get chili sauce, but we're gringos so... we keep it mild. Maeve loves elote so much! Check out her face covered in mayo and cheese!

And here's a little something-something I picked up for myself... fried plantains topped with sweet stuff! 

Our lunch today was so delicious! We went to a restaurant called, Hierba Dulce. I ordered a salad that was made of jimaca, beets, mangoes, oranges and a tamarind dressing. And I had a veggie and cheese empanada with a big salad and guacamole. It was so yummy and FRESH!