Fiesta

I took a little break from cooking and writing, but I am back!  To celebrate spring, or what passes for spring in New England, we pulled out the margarita glasses last week for a Cinco de Mayo party.  It began as a little get-together but somehow exploded into a huge party, 70 people crammed into my house drinking margaritas and feasting at a taco bar.  I didn’t really panic until two weeks before, when I lay awake half the night trying to figure out what to cook for all of these people.

Naturally, we started with margaritas, using a very basic recipe of 1 cup reposada tequila, 1 cup triple sec, 1/2 cup each lime and lemon juice and 1 cup of simple syrup (multiplied by 15!). I also made several large pitchers of white sangria, but it was the margaritas that were slurped down first.

I decided to make chicken empanadas, using an empanada dough from Smitten Kitchen and a chicken filling with onions, peppers, smoked paprika and cayenne. The empanadas were easy enough to put together but took a few successive evenings of cooking, rolling dough and filling. Luckily,  they freeze beautifully and I am thrilled to have a little stash leftover in my freezer. For the taco bar, I made pulled pork carnitas, spicy radish slaw, pickled red onions, guacamole and salsa. We also served fajitas filled with spicy black beans and cheese, shrimp, oysters, and many bowl of chips with salsa.

Sweets were baked by my dear friend Jenni, mexican chocolate brownies and luscious little key lime pie bites- yum! It was a very fun evening..I love a great party!

Chicken Empanadas

Crispy Carnitas

Oysters!