Retreat - Part II (The Food)

September 15, 2009 | Filed Under food!, personal, travel | Leave a Comment 

Little did I know, as I drove toward the inn, that my friend expected me to help her cook a feast for the two of us.

We were to start by making our own tortillas.

I had no idea that people did this outside the pages of Martha Stewart Living.  Did you?

Thankfully, she did most of the work, allowing me to drink wine and take photos of the process.

We had to let the dough sit for a while, so I was handed a knife and told to chop a collection of onions and peppers, which were added to a pot of black beans along with a TON of cumin.  We discussed our mutual love of cumin, and how sad our lives were before we knew of its delights.

It turns out she had already made pico de gallo, so our feast was nearly complete.  All we had to do after that was roll out the tortillas, cook them on the stovetop, and assemble our feast.

It was so good, I made it again a week later - without the homemade tortillas.

Let them eat cake!

August 31, 2009 | Filed Under food! | Leave a Comment 

One of my friends has recently started baking wedding cakes to distract her from a full-time job as an elementary school teacher.  She dragged me along to one of the reception venues back in the spring, where I acted as Artistic Director A.K.A. The One Who Decides Where The Flowers Should Be Placed, and also so that I could take a few pictures of her final creation.

It was delightful.  My only complaint is that she didn’t let me take a slice of cake home with me.

(P.S. One of my other friends, who is getting her PhD in french studies, will most likely request that I set the record straight - Marie Antoinette NEVER said, “Let them eat cake!”)