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That is all.

ideas for cinco de mayo: four festive decorations

I've got four festive ideas for decorations for your Cinco de Mayo celebrations this weekend! I've been pretty excited about these, so let's jump right in.

1. Mexican oilcloth bunting!

JUST in case you haven't had enough bunting (it's everywhere!), I whipped up these two in just a few hours last night, using triangles of assorted Mexican oilcloth, kitchen twine, and my glue gun. I did a how-to using fabric last year, which you can see here.

2. Big cheerful bowl of Jarritos! 

This one is a slam dunk, super easy. Nothing is brighter than sunlight through a bottle of Jarritos, the crazy, sugary soda that is hecho en Mexico. Put a dozen in a giant colorful bowl of ice. This would look awesome in the middle of a big picnic table of food, maybe set on an oilcloth tablecloth.

3. Mini egg piñatas!

Yeah, I'm making these for every occasion now. I'm still in love with them.

Here's Oliver smashing his. It took some muscle (mine)! If only I had a real camera and could've caught the moment it popped it open.

4. Giant crepe paper flowers!

You could use these to decorate your table, your wall, your chandelier, etc. I am using them to decorate myself on Saturday! They'll either go in my hair, or up one shoulder. It's the burlesque, I know. 

I bought these red, white and green flowers several years ago in the Mission, but here is a great tutorial on how to make your own. Really beautiful.

Please note: The "Cybil-Shepard-in-Moonlighting" white, fuzzy appearance of these photos is due to my new best friend, Photo Booth.

I am my mother's daughter. NO holiday gets past me, even if I'm not really sure what the holiday stands for. And one that is celebrated in San Francisco with a ton of beer and chips and salsa (and ironically a reservation at a New American cuisine restaurant in the Italian part of town Saturay night for us!), is not going to go uncelebrated in some way in our house. The kids are really excited to suck down those Jarritos, and hopefully we'll have some great weather. Not to mention the Italian flag and the Mexican flag have THE SAME COLORS! So I can totally wear those flowers out on Saturday night and be relevant in North Beach or the Mission!

Oh, also, don't forget about this guy. Cake is ALWAYS a good decoration!

ideas for cinco de mayo: sangrita, served two ways!

I am married to a hottie from Jalisco, a total Tapatío. He likes to have a little fuertecito every now and then. And when the days are warm, he likes to mix it up with his homemade sangrita.

I convinced mi merry marido to share his secret recipe with me, and we made a delicious spicy batch. If you like to drink a Bloody Mary, you might like this. If you're looking for a refreshing way to beat the heat, you might love this. You can either sip it with your tequila, or mix it in your beer. It can be varying levels of spicy, depending on the batch of jalapeños you get, or if you replace the vinegar with, say, chili water, as David did recently. This sangrita has a nice orange tone up front, backed by tomato, with a nice, spicy kicker.

INGREDIENTS (makes a nice sized pitcher, and a little sangrita goes a long way):

8 oz. tomato or vegetable juice

8 oz. orange juice

3-4 jalepeños

2-3 tbsp. white vinegar

juice of one lime, more or less

tequila

beer

 The ingredients. The basic recipe is one part o.j. + one part tomato juice plus one-half part a combination

of three puréed roasted jalapeños topped off with vinegar. Add a squeeze or three of lime.

Use your comal, or a cast iron skillet, to blacken all sides of the jalapeños.

 When all sides charred, take off of heat and set under a bowl to

steam out of their skins. Takes about ten minutes.

Peel and purée. Our blender is almost twenty years old, so we don't get

much of a puree until later when there are more liquids in the blender.

 This is three roasted, peeled and "puréed" jalapeños in a half cup measuring cup.

Top this off with the vinegar to make a full half cup. Again, what is shown here
is not puréed, due to our inefficient blender, but your jalapeños should be well
puréed at this point!

Put the orange and tomato juices, the jalapeño/vinegar mix, and a squeeze or two of lime juice into the blender, and REALLY purée. Pop that back in the refrigerator to chill.

When you're ready to drink, here's what you do. First, beer.

 Assembly your bar: Tecate tall boy(s), limes, shot glass, pint glass, sea or rock salt, pitcher of sangrita.

Wet rim of glass with lime and salt the rim. Fill a shot glass with sangrita.

 Fill bottom quarter of pint glass with beer. Add entire shot of sangrita. Finish filling glass with beer.

 Garnish with a lime wedge (or maybe a pickled jalapeño).  Drink it up while it's nice and cold!

And now the tequila version. Real simple.

 Procure bottle of tequila and pitcher of sangrita.

 Pour a nice hefty shot of each.

Sip away! Remember, sip sangrita first, then tequila. And repeat!

I'm working up several Cinco de Mayo ideas this week. Check back and click here to see them all. Salud!