Our theme for this year’s Christmas Eve feast was an oldie but a goodie: Mexican! We love Mexican food in my family, and this year’s meal certainly didn’t disappoint despite us being thrown off our game a little (a nine month old baby and a whole lotta snow will do that to you.) I actually missed out on some of the cooking (gasp) thanks to the snowpocalypse. Robert didn’t want to drive on the icy roads so we ended up stuffing our gifts into our backpacks and hiking through the snow to catch a bus to my parents’ house. Considering how slippery and bumpy our bus ride was, I think Robert made the right call even if it did mean me showing up late for cooking duty. It definitely added a little bit of adventure to our Christmas Eve! Here is our dinner menu:

Chips with Guacamole and Homemade Salsa
Spicy Carrot and JalapeƱo Pickles
Pollo en Mole
Red Chili Pork Tamales
Sweet Potato Tamales
Hominy and Squash Stew
Anasazi Beans
Mexican Rice
Shrimp, Tomato and Olive Cocktail
Green Salad

The two highlights of the meal were the tamales (duh) and the pollo en mole (my sister spent several days making the mole from scratch!) The tamales actually gave us a bit of a scare. This was our first time using fresh masa rather than dried masa, and the fresh masa resulted in a much thinner dough than we were used to. It was almost too watery to work with. Fortunately, the tamales firmed up perfectly during cooking, and I think they were tastier than the tamales we have made in the past (fresh masa must be the key!) Although there weren’t really any lowlights, my spicy carrots and jalapeƱos were deemed too spicy for guests and were therefore relegated to the kitchen where only the bravest souls (like me) would have to venture in to taste them. For drinks, we served several varieties of Malbec and Cranberry and Vanilla Bean Mimosas which have nothing to do with Mexican food but were quite festive nonetheless. Merry Christmas everyone !

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