A week of vacation, a weekend of cooking

So I’m back from Mexico. For all those who are interested and/or care we (Robyn, Andrea and I … “the condiments” for future reference) stayed at the Catalonia Yucatan / Maya in Puerto Adventuras in the Mayan Riviera.

It was a great time, wonderful to catch up with those girls. It’d been almost 2 years since I last saw Robyn. She’s living in North Carolina now, going to school… and with me living up north it seemed we could never co-ordinate a visit.

The week was mostly spent on the beach. Reading, drinking, photog-ing, witty banter-ing. Also: snorkeling and touring. We were just 30 minutes away from some Mayan ruins (Tulum) and surrounded by the second largest barrier coral reef in the world (after the Great Barrier Reef). Killer location, that’s for sure. Though we were in a really tightly gated community (called Puerto Adventuras — they say it’s a town, but it’s not really. It’s a bunch of condos and resorts off the highway an hour and a half from Cancun), and I wasn’t so keen on that. Oh well. It without a doubt topped Rincon de Guaybitos, where I went last year (see here and here) for location… but I really enjoyed having the freedom to wander around town, mingling with locals. Oh well.

So all in all… a great week. An amazing vacation. And I came back yesterday afternoon with a full weekend ahead of me to recover from my oh-so-difficult week on the beach.

And spent all day Saturday and Sunday cooking.

Jalepeno popper dip,

My dad’s famous Superbowl chilli,

Curried carrot soup.

It was exactly what I needed after spending a week having others cook for me. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not a picky eater. But a girl can only eat so much buffet food. We were only allowed 3 non-buffet meals at our hotel, so by the time I left I was itching for a home-cooked meal. And now I have food for the next two weeks!

And yes, photos from the Mexcio trip are forthcoming… but I am in the middle of a book, with soup on the stove. So those will have to wait 🙂