Entertaining with Sarah: Mexican Fiesta!

There is one instance in which I love a good party: when I'm throwing it and doing the cooking.

By itself, that statement sounds both rather obvious and self-absorbed, but I promise it's not.  There is the obvious reason that when you throw a party, only the people you like are there.  But the main reason that I love throwing a party, especially a good dinner party, is that it's not about me - it's about my food and the presentation of it!

Meet Ollie.

Ollie in her element.

My grandma Ollie was my mom's mom and is responsible for at least 75% of my personality quirks. She was a caterer and well-known for her "Ollie cakes."  I grew up with small wedding cakes for birthday cakes - one year, I had a three tier cake, each layer a different flavor.

Seven year old Sarah with her Troll birthday cake.  

I spent every afternoon after school with my Grandma Ollie and Poppa Robert.  I grew up snacking on roses that were left over from cake decorations, peanut butter balls, nutty fingers, mints and cake holes covered in icing straight from the piping bag.  I learned all about cooking and baking: simple tricks, presentation and trying new techniques and recipes.  Much like Ollie, my kitchen is my sanctuary, there is nothing more therapeutic than destroying a kitchen.  Ollie loved to experiment and so do I, which is probably why I'm a better cook than baker.  I learned a lot from her in the 12 years I had with her and still miss her greatly.  To this day, I still follow the "try it once" rule she lived by.  Ollie loved people and she showed her love best by cooking and baking.  I'm not always so good with social functions, but I do love to show my love for people by cooking.

Mexican Night - How it Came About

I decided a few weeks ago that it would be fun to have people over and to do a Mexican night.  We had Thanksgiving at our apartment, but hadn't done any other entertaining since then.  Since we have all of these awesome wedding gifts and I love to entertain/cook, I am on a one-woman mission to use every single cool wedding gift we have! We invited Aaron's sister Abbey and her boyfriend, Christian, to have dinner with us.  Then Aaron's mom asked if we wanted to do dinner with them that night to celebrate her birthday since the next Friday would be Valentine's Day.  We invited them over, as well, and the Mexican Fiesta night was on!

Why Mexican?

I love Mexican food. I especially love having taco night.  Tacos are easy to make and are a fun party food.  It's also a good meal to make as easy or as difficult as you would like.

The Menu

If I have learned anything in entertaining/moving/managing projects, it's that you always start with a game plan.  People make fun of me for this, but organization keeps me from losing my mind.  So I planned out my menu and then I planned what parts I was going to make when.

Mexican Night Menu  

Drinks

Sangria (cause I love it and Mexican night isn't complete without sangria)

Appetizers

Velveeta & Rotel

Fresh Salsa

Chips

Tacos

Breaded Lime Tilapia

Ground Beef with Homemade Taco Seasoning

Taco Fixings

Cheese

Lettuce

Sour Cream

Tomato

Guacamole (Aaron ended up eating it all, so it didn't happen)

Sides

Homemade Refried Beans

Mexican Rice

The Game Plan

So, I married an awesome man that helps me clean.  I could go on for days about how awesome it is, but I will just say that he makes cleaning so much easier because we cut the time in half.  First, we had to clean the apartment, which we really hadn't done a deep clean on since Christmas.  We did the living room/dining room areas on Monday, the kitchen on Tuesday, the bathrooms on Wednesday and the bedrooms on Thursday.  

We did Mexican Night on a Friday night.  This means I had to have everything ready by 7:00 Friday night.  That is next to impossible when you work full time.  So here was my plan of attack:

• Thursday Night
• Grated the cheese (I had a block of cheese we needed to use AND I got to use my handy cheese grater)
• Chopped the tomatoes
• Chopped the lettuce (I did iceberg lettuce, washed it then chopped it)
• Chopped the onion (I have to use a mini-chopper because I cry...a lot)
• Minced the garlic
• Rinsed the dry beans and covered them in water for their overnight soak

•  Friday Afternoon (Home at 4)
• Put the beans on to boil (had to boil for 2 hours)
• Made the sangria so it could sit for a few hours
• Mixed together taco seasoning since we had run out
• Pulled out the pans
• Cubed the velveeta, mixed in rotel and put it in the baby crockpot to let is simmer/start melting.
• Pulled out the ingredients, set up the dredging stations for the tilapia
• Marinated the tilapia in lime juice
• Friday Night (about 6)
• Made the rest of it!

Recipe Critiques

While I love to cook, there are some things that are better left to the manufacturers for economical purposes (read: Ain't nobody got time for dat).  I used Fresh Salsa from Harris Teeter, Spanish Style 90-second Uncle Ben's Rice, and Velveeta and Rotel for the queso.  I did make Homemade Refried Beans, my own Taco Seasoning, the tilapia and the Sangria. The recipes I used are linked to the menu above.  Here are my comments on them:

• Homemade Refried Beans: I would recommend using lard or really good fat.  I used oil and the beans dried out some.  I did use almost all of the cooking juice.  They had a good flavor, but the texture needed some work.
• Taco Seasoning: It has good flavor, but it still needs an extra...something? I hope to figure it out because I own all the ingredients from the recipe!

All the ingredients...minus the celery seed, it attacked me when I took down the chili powder.

Finished taco seasoning!

• Tilapia: I marinated the fish in lime juice for about 2 hours, then I used the recipe above for dredging purposes.  I used it simply because I have panko and it was easy to use.  This turned out really good! 
• Sangria: I have been using this recipe for about 2 years and it is always a win. 

Wedding Gifts Used

I think I'm going to start adding this category any time we have dinner parties/I blog a new recipe.  Aaron swears we won't use half of what we got and I'm on a mission to prove him wrong!

• Serving dishes (7)
• Cheese grater
• Lil dipper/baby crock pot
• 2 Calphalon pans