La Cocinera de Babalú

I have dozens of cookbooks in my kitchen library.
Dozens.
I have quite a few Cuban cookbooks and countless family recipes on cards.

I learned to cook Cuban using Nitza Villapol's book (what self-respecting Cuban woman didn't??) and trying to re-create stuff I had tasted in restaurants.
Cooking is just one of my hobbies. And, of course, cooking Cuban is an entire hobby sub-category unto itself.  In fact, (uber-geek confession time) sometimes I read cookbooks. Page by page and cover to cover - like a novel, and which I especially love if there are colorful pictures.  I know. That was a total overshare.
But my absolute favorite Cuban cookbooks are the ones from the 3 Guys from Miami (one of whom is not really Cuban at all, but that's not important right now).  And yes, both books are full of colorful pictures. =D

So, I'm sitting in the Babalú booth on Saturday, rocking sweet baby Matthew to sleep.  (Yes, that's right. I was rocking a baby.  Everyone connected to Babalú feels like family to me, so the whole weekend was like one big, fat Cuban family reunion. =D) 

Amanda (Matthew's mom) tells me that the 3 Guys (Left to Right: Raúl Musibay, Jorge Castillo, and Glenn Lindgren) are there to sign their new book.  And I think, "I totally have to have a picture taken with these guys", so I give the baby back to Amanda and go introduce myself to them and by way of explanation, I tell them that I'm "Marta, the cook at Babalú," ("la cocinera de Babalú)  and . . . (drum roll, please) . . . they. knew. who. I. was. 

SHUT. UP. (I felt soo accidentally cool)

I think I'm going to call this picture:

"3 Guys from Miami and the Poser from California."  =D