Old World/New World Fiesta

Our fiesta was a huge success, despite that literally half of my guests who I invited backed out at the last minute. Needless to say, I was very hurt and frustrated with this, but the show must go on, right?! And go on it did. 🙂

I prepared ALL this food. Half of it was from Spain and half of it was from Mexico. They are traditional, everyday dishes from both places, Spain, being the old world and Mexico being the new world. Everyone was very happy and it was a delicious fiesta and evening. As you all know, I have tons of cookbooks, from all over and many different ethnic cookbooks. I love them all too. But this whole menu came from just two cookbooks o solamente dos libres de cocina.

You will see the recipes for everything I prepared, all in good time. My friend Elizabeth was so funny. She didn’t think I could do all this all by myself. Surprise! That’s what you learn how to do in almost 40 years in the restaurant and catering business. You learn real quick how to meet deadlines, work under pressure and to cook large amounts of food fast and clean. 🙂

The menu for the evening’s festivities included:

1) a charcuterie board with Spanish chorizos, Manchego cheese from Spain and Asadaro cheese from Mexico.

2) Barcelona style olives Barcelona Style Olives

3) pickled onions Pickled Onions

4) pico de gallo, guacamole and sour cream Pico de Gallo

5) an heirloom tomato salad

6) sweet and sour chorizo with figs

7) mole verde chicken with both corn and flour tortillas

8) steak marinated in lime juice, chili oil and cilantro, for steak tacos

9) garlic shrimp or gambons al ajillo (shrimp in Spain are known as gambons, whereas in Mexico, they are known as camarones.)

10) Spanish rice

11) frijoles (beans) charro

12) flan

13) churros with chocolate

14) chocolate covered strawberries

15) sangria

Everything, with the exceptions of the chocolate covered strawberries and the tortillas, was handmade, with lots of love, by me. Most everything was made yesterday. I was in the kitchen all day, but it was definitely a labor of love. The thing that hurt the most with all of my no-shows was that this was my birthday party, and I had already delayed it 10 days after my birthday. But, it all worked out, as it usually does. For those who missed my fiesta grande, their loss. That’s all I can say about it. There will be plenty of other parties and grand celebrations yet to come in the future, of that, I am very sure. I love to entertain and I love to cook for people, and yes, I love to show off my cooking expertise as well. The garlic shrimp was made al minute (at the last minute) and of course I was showing off a bit, and I purposely created a huge flambe flame to wow and awe everyone. 🙂

After we were all full and no spacio para nada mas, (no room for anything else) we all sat down and enjoyed the slide presentation I put together with our pictures from both Barcelona and Cabo San Lucas. I had it all set to Spanish Flamenco music to set the mood, and to put us all in a Spanish frame of mind. It was a deliciously fun evening.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Make everyday a fiesta, grande o pequino. Make the most out of every opportunity. Have fun, enjoy each and every moment, stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.