Cinco de Mayo food

Last night, to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, we made a wonderful dinner. Rob butterflied a 2 lb boneless pork loin roast and marinated it in a mixture of chipotles in adobo sauce and lots of chopped garlic. Then he tied it back together and slow roasted it on the grill. I made a coleslaw with cabbage, jicama, carrot, jalapeno, and cilantro, then whisked together lime juice, olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, and a touch of both ancho powder and cinnamon and tossed it together. Rob sliced the pork thin, and we piled the pork and the coleslaw on corn tortillas. Yummy, and although the Spanish rose we were drinking while cooking was overwhelmed by the spicy dish, the fresh lime juice margaritas were perfect!

I went to an Irish pub and had bangers and mash.

We had Indian. Sambar and idli. Okra and tomatoes. Potatoes with mustard seeds, curry leaf, and lemon.

I wanted chilaquiles, but didn't get a chance to buy some epazote...

Several bottles of Corona with lime!

[Jenise]

We had dinner with friends who have just moved out of their home and into a local RV Park. Yesterday was their first day and dinner had to be made in an electric skillet plugged into a small generator in the back of a pickup. So dinner was sausages and kraut--but as a nod to the day we washed it down with tequila. Lots of tequila.

Oh my aching head.

Why, five jars of mayonnaise, of course!

Most people don't know that back in 1912, Hellmann's mayonnaise was manufactured in England.

In fact, the Titanic was carrying 12,000 jars of the condiment scheduled for delivery in Vera Cruz, Mexico,
which was to be the next port of call for the great ship after its stop in New York.

This would have been the largest single shipment of mayonnaise ever delivered to Mexico. But as we know, the great ship did not make it to New York. The ship
hit an iceberg and sank, and the cargo was forever lost.

The people of Mexico, who were crazy about mayonnaise,
and were eagerly awaiting its delivery, were devastated at the loss. Their anguish was so great, that they declared a National Day of Mourning, which they
still observe to this day.

The National Day of Mourning occurs each year on May 5th and is known, of course,as..........................

Sinko de Mayo.

Did Bob leave put the marinade inside the rolled loin? This sounds very tasty, and my kind of dish!

We had a huge party at my workplace because one of the participants is from Mexico. We even had mariachis!

The star of the food was the chicken in mole. Yum!

Someone said to me on Saturday that they had had "too much salt" the night before and that's why they looked so bad. Um.... sure. The salt. Right!

[Jenise]

Oh, isn't chicken mole wonderful? You're lucky you're in Santa Fe--up here in Northern Washington a local restaurant makes mole with Hershey's Quick. I kid you not.

Oh my, Jenise. I'd laugh if that wasn't so tragic.

Our fantastic cook, Della, made her mother-in-law's recipe. Awesome.

[Jenise]

Go ahead and laugh--it was one of the grossest things I've ever tasted in my life. Heavy, thick sweet milk chocolate flavor with just a hint of red chile. In a Mexican restaurant owned by real Mexicans, I hasten to add. Abominable!

Yikes! It even sounds gross. Wonder why in the world they would do that....

[Jenise]

wonder why they would do that

Hard to imagine. The first thought is that they hugely overreacted to a perceived need to make the dish appealing to simplified American tastes. There's a disturbing tendency in this area to put a lot of sugar in places sugar doesn't belong, especially if the food's at all ethnic. And all the food in this particular restaurant (at least based on the two dishes I tasted, my husband's and my own--oh, and the salsa) tastes not just mild but diluted--AND ITS THE MOST POPULAR MEXICAN RETAURANT IN TOWN, which says they haven't miscalculated.

Btw, you know what the worst thing was? This was a business dinner--and I had to eat some of what I'd never taken a second bite of under any other circumstances. (Or make the kind of spectacle that some circumstances prohibit you from making--this was one.)

Yep, and it was! He also basted the pork while grilling with the rest of the chipotle and garlic.