Cooking Class

The all-day event — from 2:30 until 8 — was the mole verde cooking class at school. A teacher I haven't had, Sandra, was in charge. Ann was one of the students, and a couple from Moab, Utah made up our class of four.

Sarah and David are interesting people. They were accountants and biologists, respectively, in a former Boulder, Colorado life. Now they're organic farmers in the desert. They're about to adopt a kid from Nepal. (They've been to Nepal several times, so they "have a connection to the cultre," and the country is apparently one of the easier and cheaper to adopt from.) Ann's daughter worked in Moab for ten years as a tour guide. Small world.

I have printed copies of the recipes we supposedly followed, but I took notes and pictures to document the actual process. The nopal salad, nopalitos, was surprisingly tasty. (Some website claims it's the same thing as prickly pear cactus. Which means I could grow it at home. Cool.) I liked the mole verde too, but I think I prefer thicker to soupier when it comes to mole consistency. And the aqua de mandarinas was excellent, although pulpy.