Cooking in Cozumel

Mark and I just returned from a week long vacation in Cozumel. Our stay at the Cozumel Palace was wonderful, although if I never have to visit the Miami airport again I will be happy. We are both pretty active, so we scheduled a few activities besides the scuba diving that Mark loves including renting a Jeep for the day and traveling to the ruins, and a cooking class with a native.
I know what you probably think - we took a class at the resort and called it a day. Not us, we dont want any cheesy cooking class. Mark found a link on the internet for a woman who actually takes you to the market, purchases the food you use, and will teach you how to make many dishes out of your purchases. After a few calls, we had our class scheduled. We took a cab to the local market and we were ready.
Josefina is a wonderful teacher. She met us at the local market dressed in a red apron just like her website. She was wearing a dress from a local dress maker which was absolutely beautiful. We started discussing our menu options, and we were off. Here are a few pictures from the market:


Joesefina Peppers and spices at the market.


Masa for tortillas Herbs and spices at the market.

After purchasing all of the items we would need, we made a pit stop to a tortillaria (wow that was hot) and to a local artist's home to view his paintings. (You can find his work at our house now). We entered the home of Josefina which was only a block away from the market. It was a great house for the area which she shared with her son and daughter-in-law (and of course their daughter Luz pronounced Lucy). We were listening to wonderful records on her record player and had a native drink of a hibucus tea- made from hibucus flowers. They dry their own flowers and store them to mix with water as a tea-- but tastes more like a juice.
We got to work right away making cactus leaf salad and cucumber mango salad. We made Pollo Pibil, which is chicken with a traditional sauce, hand rolled tortillas stuffed with cheese and the herbs in the picture above, traditional salsa with crushed pumpkin seads, Josefina's guacamole (wonderful) and black beans. It was a lot of food. If you ever venture to Cozumel- let us know. We will get you in contact with her. It was worth every penny and we can only hope others will experience what we did that day. Here are some more pictures.

Just a little introduction

After many requests, I am now going to share what we eat for dinner. I cant always say its going to be good (I am known for my bad eating habits), but as I change these habits and attempt to eat like a normal adult, I have to share the wonderful food my boyfriend, Mark, makes on a regular basis.
I brag on a regular basis about Mark's cooking and have been asked to blog about his culinary adventures and what we do for food. In response, here is our blog. I cant always promise the food we eat is good for you, however, we enjoy it. We hope you enjoy. We will try to add as much information about what he does (and sometimes when I cook, what I do) but if you ever have any questions about recipes, let us know.