Zack and I decided to take the opportunity to invite some friends over....We later realized that we invited all of our friends with Hispanic last names....ha! Guess that we were inadvertently trying to honor them!
A few days before Cinco de Mayo, I made the homemade salsa and the Mole BBQ sauce for the Tostadas. I have never made homemade salsa before and I was a little leery of trying. I was talking with my MA at work and her mother in law makes salsa a lot..so, she was giving me lots of pointers and tip for my Cinco de Mayo meal. I seeded and cored my tomatoes, cut and seeded the jalapeno, and quartered a sweet onion. I boiled these for a couple minutes and then drained these and added them to my food processor with the other ingredients. These were processed to desired chunkiness and then chilled in the fridge until needed. I also made the Mole BBQ sauce...I had never used Mole before and had no idea what to expect...I first had to figure out how to get into the crazy bottle, the instructions for opening were in Spanish. I made Zack come into the kitchen and use his Spanish to help me. With the bottle finally open, I go to get my first experience with Mole....to say I was leery is an understatement...but this was a Southern Living recipe...surely it would be good.
Thursday morning I headed to the grocery store to get the last things I would need for the table and menu. Then I headed home to get to work. I had a lot to get done before everyone came over at 6:30 that night. I got to work with another ingredient that I had never used before, Jicama. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the jicama looked like a big molding root. I was surprised to find that it was sweet and kinda earthy. I used the jicama in a jicama slaw that would go on the Tostadas. I also made a spring salsa, chipolte sour cream, and a queso dip.
The last thing that I needed was the pulled pork for the Tostadas. So, I headed out to our nearest BBQ place to get some....only to find that it was closed...So, I drove to a second BBQ place...which was closed. I was starting to panic a little...the pulled pork was definitely a key player in my meal. I called one of the girls that I work with and asked her if she knew of any BBQ placed that were open on Thursdays. She told me about a couple and so I headed to a third BBQ place and FINALLY found one that was open. At this point it was getting close to being time for people to come over. I put the pulled pork in a pan with a little chicken stock and warmed it through. I cut up some peppers and avocados. I warmed some refried beans...and tweaked the table decorations....and started making the Churros. Then it was time for or guests to arrive.
Rebecca and Joe were the first to arrive and I got a good laugh when I saw Joe. He had dressed in honor of Cinco de Mayo, complete with wrestling mask. Hector and Christy came a few minutes later and Hector had his Mexican flag with him...I loved it...I had wanted to make a t-shirt in honor of Cinco de Mayo that said "I "heart" Chips and Salsa" but I had run out of time...maybe next year.
Little C was peeking out between Christy's legs to look at Hector and Joe.
This is what he saw:
hahaI love our friends!
Here's the table setting.Menu:
Lemonade
Nonalcoholic strawberry Margaritas
Spicy Queso Dip
Fresh Salsa
Spring Salsa
Guacamole (made by Hector and Christy...YUM)
Easy Barbecue Tostadas
Oven Baked Churros
Vanilla Ice cream (thanks Rebecca and Joe)
Zack and I have never really made tostadas before. But it is layers of flavor on a crunchy shell.
Here are the layers.
Tostada shell
Refied bean
BBQ pork
Mole bbq sauce
Chipolte sour cream
Jicama slaw
Mexican crumbling cheese
After dinner we had our churros and ice cream
Zack really liked the Tostadas and even said that it was probably one of his favorite meals that I had ever made.
We had a great time getting to spend time with friends and share a meal in our home. We really should do this more often. Hope that ya'll had a fun filled Cinco de Mayo.
1 comment:
Okay, so I am SO JEALOUS! I absolutely LOVE Mexican food, another thing done right in Jersey:) I make my own salsa and guac a lot, and although I am not patting myself on the back, it's about the only thing I can take pride in when it comes to cooking :) Salsa is just time consuming! Looks like a blast!
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