Valentine’s Day Menu celebrates famous Mexican Couples

(Click on one image and they all will become large enough to see)
Who are these couples and why did I choose to celebrate them this Valentine’s Day?  This little selection represents a wide variety of love affairs.  According  to legend, the majestic Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl the volcanoes visible in their [...]

Rosca de Reyes (Three Kings Cake)

Latina magazine ran this recipe developed by our former pastry chef, Ed Bonuso that results in a perfect rosca de reyes but amply demonstrates why I do not bake bread! But for those of you who do….

Recipe: Rosca de Reyes (Three Kings’ Cake)
Summary: This coffee cake-like recipe is good any time of the year,

Ingredients

1/2 cup [...]

Three Kings’ Day Celebrations

My personal memories of the Christmas season are probably different from those of southern Mexicans, for we had many Americanized customs in the north.  We celebrated Christmas pretty much as we do now in New York and exchanged gifts on Christmas Day. We never celebrated Three King’s Day , January 6th, which is the gift-giving [...]

El Pedimento – New Year’s Eve in Mitla and Juquila, Oaxaca

El Pedimento – January 31st in Oaxaca
Curiously of all the items I’ve posted in the last year, this post has gotten the most hits .  I imagine that its popularity is rooted in magic or wishful thinking.  It would be wonderful if our wishes became our realities though there’s that famous line “More tears have [...]

Treasure of Mexican Convent Cookery dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe

Sweet Potato Casserole

Around this time every year people start calling to ask for my sweet potato casserole recipe.  It was actually not my original recipe but rather I learned to make it from my dear friend, Alex Baker, who had learned it from his friend Johnny.  But it’s mine now and I share it with you to [...]

The Thrill of Mariachi

It’s been 5 days now and I still feel the thrill of hearing those first notes of Las Mananitas, the Mexican birthday song, being played by 20 different groups of mariachi that had come together into a perfectly conducted and practiced mariachi orchestra to celebrate the feast day of Santa Cecilia, the patron Saint of musicians in Brooklyn on November 23 . It was extraordinarily moving, uplifting and filled my heart with so much joy I felt I would explode.

Altar for the Dead

Someone at the restaurant asked me last night how people react to the altars for the dead.  Mexicans see death as a natural part of the life cycle and choose to laugh at it rather than cry. That’s easier said than done but one can bridge the gap by celebrating the life of the person [...]

Friends of Oaxacan Folk Art Sale

Friends of Oaxacan Folk Art (FOFA) together with
the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York and the
Mexico Tourism Board
invite you—con gusto! —to a
HOLIDAY FOLK ART SALE
Benefiting the artesanos of Oaxaca, Mexico
Friday, Saturday and Sunday, November 13-15, 2009
in Park Slope, Brooklyn
Opening Night Celebration—Friday 6:30—9:30 pm $25 admission
Be among the first to shop! Enjoy Mexican refreshments.
Entry fee [...]

Oaxacan Tamales de Mole Amarillo

Since pre-Hispanic times, tamales have been the number one festive food. Everywhere in Mexico tamales are fiesta food — the equivalent of saying, “Let’s party!”

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