"So How was YOUR Cinco de Mayo?"
One of the things in the USA that has changed, thanks to massive amounts of Mexican Immigration, is that Cinco de Mayo has now become a part of the lexicon of American holidays. When I was in the Air Force in San Antonio, Texas over 20 years ago, you just about had to be in south Texas, Arizona, New Mexico or Southern California to know about this holiday. http://www.vivacincodemayo.org/history.htm
I guess you can say that it gives my countrymen another excuse to drink too much and party after New Years Eve and Saint Patrick's Day. For Cinco de Mayo, people tend to drink Mexican beers like Tecate, Coruna, Dos Equis...oh, hell, ANY Mexican beverage up to and including Mezcal and Tequila will do. Most of the celebrations in the Twin Cities were this past weekend. I did not make it to any of them, because my friend Karen, who I refer to as "The Merry Mexican", is having a belated Cinco de Mayo get together at her place this coming Saturday. Karen throws GREAT parties, so I am looking forward to it.
What I did for my family on Monday, Cinco de Mayo evening, is that I made ground meat and cheese Enchiladas, Chicken Fajitas, served with refried beans, rice, corn, flour tortillas(Tortillas taste much better if they are homemade, but I did not have the time today to make homemade flour tortillas-the white wings tortilla mix makes really good tortillas, if you get a chance to try making them), salsa, and salad. I forgot to get avacados yesterday, so I could not make fresh guacamole, but I felt that the the meal turned out pretty well. I did not have any Mexican beer, but I did have a nice bottle of Spanish red wine that went just fine with the meal.
If I ever hit the lottery, along with taking a Spanish Immersion class in Mexico, I would really love to go to Mexico to take a cooking class. There really is so much variety to Mexican cuisine-it is so much more than Tacos and Burritos.
Hasta Manana!
