Like I preface most of my conversations about the journey of creating my cookbook Pachamama’s Beautiful Food, I begin this post with the same sentence. I have no illusions of grandeur. No thoughts of huge fame, and surely not fortune, but a joy that this long term dream of mine wriggled through the recipe filled shift into metamorphosis and then flight.

Sharing a few photos from my first two events, book signings and talks at The Cupboard kitchen store in Fort Collins September 14, and Remedy Cafe in Paonia on the 19th, both here in Colorado. With thanks to my friend Jamye Richardson for the next two photos.

Sampling out a few fun recipes from the book for folks to try: honey balsamic pickled beets, four seed gluten free crackers and fresh herbed and au poivé cows milk cheese.

Many thanks to my sister Sandy Meyer for capturing photos of book buyers at The Cupboard signing!

It brought such joy to my heart for my first signing to be at The Cupboard. During my active professional cooking/catering career, I taught many cooking classes in the demonstration kitchen at The Cupboard. My very last class was on September 11, 2001. On that fateful, heart wrenching day, I had prepared by driving across the state to Fort Collins to teach the class on Recipes from Like Water for Chocolate. The class was booked solid. As The Cupboard coordinator and I decided on the phone – she would call each participant to see if they would still be interested in attending, given the horrific events taking place in the country that day. Every single person asked us to please not cancel, and so we held the class. As those of you dear readers who have read the book or seen the movie Like Water for Chocolate know, LOVE is a major ingredient in all the recipes Tita prepares. So it was fitting we spent our time that evening, preparing Chilies in Nut Sauce (a recipe included in my book), Turkey Molé, Three Kings Day Bread, and Quail in Rose Petal Sauce – with kindness, compassion and love. All these old memories swirled together into the joy of the two hour book signing event, and the family party afterwards at the Welsh Rabbit Bistro.

Meeting new people and sharing common interests and food loves were a very dear part of this signing. Food truly serves to unite people in almost instantly deepened ways, and I feel has an incredible healing capacity for that reason alone. Sometimes, the nutritional value is secondary – but it surely was fun, sharing bites of my grain free gluten free almond flour bundt cake as well, which is – I say unabashedly – divine and nutritional … 🙂

Then, just as I was recovering from one book signing, I was preparing for another, in my former beloved home town of Paonia over on the western slope of Colorado, pictured below.

With a big thank you to all these dear people and more, who came out to support me, buy the book, and eat up all the samples! (Chilies in Nut Sauce, Quechuan style avocado ginger dip and plantain chips, rose tea infused date and chocolate fudge, almond bundt cake, honey sherry vinegar and honey balsamic pickled beets …) You filled my heart to overflowing.

A great group of Paonia area friends gathered for an early equinox gathering a few days later, and I was so touched they wanted to choose a recipe from the book to prepare to add for our dinner – Grilled Colorado peach caprese with arugula, maple balsamic reduction and calendula petals … pictured here made with locally grown nectarines, melt in your mouth good. After dinner, the sunset matched the glow of the week spent in my second home, the North Fork Valley.

And collected petals from book signing bouquets will help keep these moments tangible…

Spotting Pachamama’s Beautiful Food in The Cupboard Book department helps too!

To purchase your own copy online, link here!

This Saturday, October 19 I am reading from the book at the Fort Collins 2019 “Food for Thought” Book Festival. Come by if you are in the area and be sure to check out all the wonderful nationally known and local writers coming to participate both Friday and Saturday! Link here for the local writers line up and more!

Then Saturday, October 26 I will be in Denver for a book signing at Fiction Beer Company!

With more to come … It’s a sweet little adventure and big project I’m so grateful is happening in my life this year, and for everyone along the course of my days that have offered and brought knowledge, support and love. And now, back to the path ahead! Blessings to us all as we forge onward with our dreams!