(Veinti)cinco de Mayo

As you may recall, Riley had a whopper of a fever a few weeks ago.  As a result, we had to cancel our Cinco de Mayo plans (I still made the churros though, remember!).  We rescheduled for this past weekend on the 25th and celebrated Veinticinco de Mayo instead!  It turned out to be a better day for it anyway because Charlie was able to come (he was away for work on the 5th) and the pool was ready for swimming!

On the menu we had:

guacamole (made with my new, giant mortar and pestol that is so heavy I can barely life it!)
*In mine I use avocado (I've figured out that Costco has the best avocados.  Always excellent quality and a good price), diced tomato, red onion, cilantro, salt, and lime.  If the kids aren't eating it, I'll add in some jalapeno, but they usually are so it's served on the side.  I used to add in garlic but usually don't anymore.

mango salsa
*In mine I use mango, jalapeno, red onion, lime, salt, and cilantro.  I could eat this just with a spoon ... well, to be honest, I sometimes do!

baked chicken and cream cheese taquitos with lime sour cream
*I love fried taquitos, but it's much easier to bake them when making them at home, I figured.  This is what I came up with.  I marinated the chicken breast in a little EVOO, lime juice, honey, salt, and garlic and then baked it, shredded it in my KitchenAid (soooooo fast and easy - the picture below is of two chicken breasts after less than 30 seconds under the mixer!),  mixed it with a little softened cream cheese and loads of cilantro (skipped the bacon from the inspiration recipe), rolled it into yellow and while corn tortillas (the fresh made ones from the store - yum!), and then baked them in the oven.  For the lime sour cream, I simply added lime zest (lots!) and juice to sour cream.  As easy as it sounds!

Coronas
*No recipe here, just a cooler full of ice and some lime wedges!!

mango peach cocktails
*At first I wanted to make frozen margaritas to fit the theme.  Then I was wishing for frozen bellinis so I got the ingredients for those, but it didn't freeze in time to do the champagne mixed in with the frozen fruit & schnapps mixture.  So, it ended up just a cold fruit cocktail!  I blended a one whole mango, a handful of frozen mango chunks, some mango nectar and some peach nectar with some peach schnapps and vodka.  It was okay, but not how I wanted it to be.  However, the next day it had frozen really nicely and I was able to shave off a nice glass full to mix with a little more booze and juice.  Delicious!

BBQ beef fajitas
*Roy takes care of the meat and I quickly saute colored peppers and onions.  Buy some freshly made flour tortillas at the grocery store and we are in business!

rice & beans
*I have a delicious recipe for Spanish rice, but I ran out of time to get it done in advance, so instead I cheated this time around and just grabbed beans and rice from the Mexican restaurant while I was at the liquor store!

elotes
*I have been wanting to make this for a long time, and finally got around to doing so!  Roy grills corn for us the Zambian way often, but this Mexican version was something new for us.  I found various recipes and methods online and decided to combine them.  I mixed a little mayo with some chili powder, lime zest, and lime juice.  After this was slathered on the roasted corn cobs (and Lindsey and Charlie were warned to keep an open mind!), I sprinkled on some crumbled queso fresco that slightly melted onto the warm corn.  Next time I will roll the cobs into the cheese so that there is cheese all the way around in every bite!  I forgot to sprinkle with some fresh cilantro, so I will try that next time as well.

tres leches cake
*I had never made or even tasted a tres leches cake before this weekend.  I had read about them and drooled over the photos and descriptions though!  Since I had no tres leches experience, I wasn't sure what recipe to use when I googled.  There are, of course, so many out there to choose from.  I decided on The Pioneer Woman's recipe for 2 reasons: 1. she said it wasn't soggy and 2. everything of hers I have made is delicious and I trust her!  I did identify with her mention of it technically being a quatro leches cake though - and Roy encouraged me to sprinkle some powdered milk on it at some point so I could call it a cinco leches cake, but we didn't go that far!  It baked a little lopsided, and I assume that was due to not having the egg whites evenly folded in and/or some unevenness in my oven.  But, it really didn't matter in the end.  Slather it with whipped cream and who cares?!?!  It was scrumptious.  So amazing.  I want to eat it every day.

baked churros
I had planned to make them again, but ran out of time and energy.  The cake was plenty of dessert for the 8 of us, anyway!

Ok, so, there were actual people at this party, too!  Not just food!