Transported Back in Time with Rye Bread

Homemade salad with rye bread from Holland

Today I found a brick of bread labeled Rye bread, Pumpernickel, from Holland. Amazingly, a small brick of it weighed 500 grams. Being from Cincinnati, Ohio, I love rye bread. Growing up we had 26 varieties of rye bread available to choose from. I am lucky to find one hard loaf of Centeno Negro in either Chedraui or Mega, so this was quite a find. It was in the international section by the sliced ham and turkey at Chedraui.

But when I opened it up, to my utter delight, it was so much more than expected. This was not any ordinary rye bread. This was like the brown bread my mother used to make. As I took the first few bites before my salad was prepared, see the photo above ... I was transported back in time. 

I was a girl of 10 or 12 again, helping my mom in the kitchen. We had collected cans for a few weeks, cutting out the tops and saving the cans. We used the size that baked beans come in. Then on this special Saturday, my mom would make the brown bread from my grandmother's recipe. She would pour the thick mixture in to the cans and bake them in the oven. When the bread cooled sufficiently, we would turn them upside down, get out the hand can opener and open the bottom. Then I would help push the brown bread through the can and pop it on a plate. Grab a slab of cream cheese and be transported to Heaven.

If any of you have German or Dutch roots or have ever had this type of brown bread and loved it, I highly recommend this treat. I think it was $42 pesos for 500 grams. It is made by ven der Meulen of Holland. I could taste the molasses and for a few minutes, I was no longer in Cozumel. I was back in Ohio, enjoying my Saturday treat with my mom.

van der Meulen Dutch Pumpernickel wrapper

Miss you mom!

Coffee Filters

Coffee filters at Chedraui on Cozumel

I know I live in a sleepy little town when the discussion online revolves around where Chedraui, one of our local grocery stores, keeps the coffee filters. For years, the only place you could find filters was by the coffee makers. For us from the states, it just seems wrong. The other day, I noticed they are finally also selling coffee filters by the coffee. Now that is progress!

The best price I found on coffee filters was 300 (in 3 boxes of 100 each) at Costco in Cancun. But if you need filters here, Chedraui is the place to go!

The Magic of Design new website

Our new website,The Magic of Design Furniture & Interior Design,  is now up and running. We have bigger photos that you can sort by room, style or project. New and improved slideshow and our new color scheme and logo. Thanks, Ian, from Communication Common for making us such a wonderful new site. It has been seven years since he designed the old site for us. As much as we loved it, and it was state of the art when it was new, it was time for a change. 

I love it. Hope you do too. If you have any comments or questions, we would love to hear from you.

La Choza Restaurant: a Wonderful Cozumel Tradition

La Choza Restaurant

La Choza, on 10 near the corner of Rosado Salas, is one of my favorite restaurants in Cozumel. The Peralta sisters have been serving up great food for years, and their enthusiasm and pride in their wonderful restaurant shows. I hear there is a brother involved as well, but I know the three sisters as they buy furniture from our store. Always with a smile on their faces, they come see  me and are serious buyers, not shoppers, and I am always glad to see them.

One of the owners, Maria Carmen Peralta

The famous Cristian

When I can between appointments downtown, I stop for their fabulous breakfast. I get scrambled eggs with ham and cheese and it is always served with delicious beans on the side. The wait staff couldn't be nicer and I know at least one of the sisters is in the kitchen making something wonderful.


Their colorful and festive location has wonderful murals and decorative touches to remind us that Mexico is a fun and friendly place. And the chips with their famous salsa cannot be beat. 

Enjoy a margarita or beer, or as I do, a fresh squeezed orange juice. Que rico! (Literally how rich, but means really tasty!!!)

Mayair Flight: What a Delight

Mayair Cancun to Cozumel

Today was one of those perfect days. I went to Cancun on a Mayair flight that was full in the morning. A little bumpy, but fine. The driver who was supposed to pick me up either forgot or couldn't find the keys to the truck (for those who live in Cozumel, you can totally relate ... us foreigners usually walk around never really knowing what is going on and it isn't a language barrier. I think it is a polite thing. Nobody wanted to admit they just forgot about me. LOL) So I walked to Terminal 2, hopped on a bus, went to downtown Cancun and grabbed a cab to my first appointment. A few errands later, I ended up at Costco. They sure don't have as many things as they used to, but I still found a lot of treasures for both business and personal use.

Off to my freight forwarder to load the truck with furniture and back to Mayair at the Cancun airport Terminal 1. The flight back was a delight. There were only two passengers, an employee and the pilot. I love the new pilot. He has braces and is very cute when he smiles. We were in the little 4-seat Cessna so were able to fly very low. The green colors in the water on the Cancun side, the ebbing and flowing of the slight waves, the wonderful mistiness in the middle as we made our way back. Then to see beloved Cozumel. Everybody should see this island from a small plane sometimes. It makes me fall in love with it all over again.

What was even more amazing about it is I left on the 8am flight and was back in Cozumel a little after 4pm. In  the old days using the ferry with all the errands I ran, I would be looking at getting back between 9 to 10pm.

Thank you, Mayair. More information on their flights can be found here.

Cozumel: A Day at the Beach

These wonderful beach photos were taken on the east side of Cozumel and are courtesy of This is Cozumel.

Enjoy!

Galo Ramirez: artist extraordinaire

Galo posing with a 15 ft. painting he worked on in Cancun

Galo Ramirez is an old soul. He is also an incredible artist. Like a Renaissance man, he is a professional in many mediums - paintings, murals and statues for starters. He has worked in Cozumel for years and had many exhibitions on the island and elsewhere. Even though he is from Mexico City, he is a true Cozumeleño. Laid back, sincere and with a charismatic personality, it is impossible not to like him. I think he is terrific. I consider him not only an artist I like to work with, but a real friend.

Galo has a studio in his home at the corner of 25 and 1 South. Whenever the door is open, it signifies you are welcome to go in. He greets you with a handshake as if he has always known you, offers tea or a more adult beverage. He shows you with enthusiasm what he has in his showroom, but that is only the beginning. He also displays many of his works elsewhere. We have dressed models with his paintings. I especially love what he did with the Penthouse in Palmar Condominiums. I also have his paintings on the walls in our showroom, The Magic of Design.

Palmar penthouse model with contemporary art from Galo

Hall piece in waterfront condo

He has worked with clients of ours to finish the decoration of their condos. For example with our clients, Dr. Lourell and Lynda Sutliff, - once the furniture was in place, he went to meet them and together they chose five paintings that complement the interior furnishings. They are terrific.

Sutliff painting to complement the furniture

Jazz series painting that coordinates with the room

For Kandy Stahl and Chuck Long, they had some of his paintings in their home in the states they brought down. They also added more once they arrived to live here full-time. Kandy and Chuck are collectors of art and artifacts from many local artists. More about some of their other pieces in another post!

One of the most exciting projects I worked on with Galo was a painting five meters wide (about 15 feet) for a client of ours in Cancun. I worked on the furniture with the owners and we picked a beautiful, bright geometric print fabric from Germany for the accent pillows. This fabric then became the theme of the project. (I will try to dig up the sample to add here at some point.)

There were chocolate sofas, cream leather chairs, dark chocolate woods and red accent chairs. The geometric print worked to tie it all together. Sandy and Luis, the owners of the new 5,000 sq. ft. home, met with Galo and me to discuss their wall painting. They wanted it to be special. The couple flew from Cancun for the day and we visited the exhibition that Galo had at the Casa de la Cultura, some paintings he had at Playa Azul hotel and his studio. Luis loves jazz and Galo discovered this in conversation, and Galo has a jazz series of paintings that are super popular and impressive. 


From that, Luis and Galo met a few times to come up with the concept of the painting. I wanted a diptych or a triptych (split it up in to 2 or 3 paintings that flowed from one to the other,) but Luis insisted it be in one piece. This was a challenge as how would we get the painting to Cancun and in to the house? In the end, Galo actually built the frame in the living room and painted it on site. He spent six weeks in Cancun working on the painting.

Here it is in progress:

Work in progress

Here is the final product with Galo and the proud owners! You can see the scale of the piece. It is really incredible!

Final piece créme de la créme

 Galo's work can be found on his facebook page, click here