¡Viva Mexico!

Happy Cinco de Mayo! It has kind of become a family tradition to use the 5th of May as an excuse for making all of the Mexican food we love and crave but don't get around to making very often. This year we opened it up to others outside of family and it was a hit!

Last Fall I had "splurged" at a garage sale (if you can call it a splurge) and bought this lovely dress. I don't know what I was thinking when I bought it. Maybe, "Hey, maybe this could also serve as a tent" or "I always wanted an outfit that could stop traffic!" This was my first time wearing it. It is really comfy and festive but don't expect to see it again any time soon (I don't think hunter orange is my color). Aedan got this fun poncho from his Grandpa when he had a business trip down in Mexico. Aedan wasn't too keen on wearing it the right way though...

Whenever we do a Cinco de Mayo celebration, we (ok just I) make a rather large batch of tamales, a plethora if you will. They are so dainty and the way I make them you could call them Mexican push-pops. I love tamales and they are not difficult to make, but whoa are they time consuming. Luckily they freeze well so any leftovers go straight to the freezer where we can pull them out individually to satisfy a tamale craving.

This year I used a Carnitas Tamales recipe (times 18...) and used only about 1/3rd of the spices in the masa dough and they still turned out to be hot tamales! I made half of the dough minus the spices for those who couldn't handle the heat. I must say, the pork in this recipe is VERY good. Instead of tying them up like fancy little parcels, I use this method, quick and easy. I kept all sauces to serve on the side (versus adding to the filling which I prefer). We have leftovers if anyone wants to be our friend...

Neal's sister A made this beautiful llama piñata from scratch and it held up pretty good - good enough that each kid had multiple whacks at it before Neal helped make it fall off the string. It was fun for the kids and while it is sad to see such a wonderful piece of artwork get beaten down by the little tykes, it sure is worth the fun and treats! We had an experience a few years back at my nephew R's birthday party where they had a Winnie the Pooh piñata and it was a little scary for nephew G who couldn't understand why everyone was hitting that cute cuddly bear. Something to think about before you pick out your piñata. I don't think we had any traumatized kids from the event so that's good.

Coming back from the party I found a stray tamale turned roadkill that must have fallen off a tray when we were transporting them earlier. Sigh... maybe the local birds will like their pork a little caliente!