Hello! I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend and stayed warmer than I did. I think the cold has taken permanent residence in my bones – my toes actually went numb in the upper deck of Yankee Stadium on Friday night. I was sporting a sweatshirt over my winter coat – classic, I know. The experience was worth the near frostbite, of course.
Most of my weekend, however, was centered around another bride-to-be, my cousin. My mother threw a beautiful bridal shower with a tasteful Mexican theme. With my mom in charge of the food, everything was fresh, light, and packed with flavor.
We started with hors d’oeuvres – veg, chips, salsa verde, mango salsa, and guacamole:
Obviously, I dominated on vegetables + guac.
For entreés, we were offered two sides – a tangy corn salad:
And a delicious carrot salad, which began as a recipe my mom discovered in the math textbook for her fourth grade class. Healthy food in an elementary school – progress! The recipe is at the end of the post.
There were also mini corn muffins, made according to a classic recipe from my childhood. These are the first baked good I can ever remember assisting with.
And corn muffins would be useless at lunch without chili (which is always impossibly unphotogenic):
Vegetarian and beef chilis were both available, but I deemed the veggie option most worthy of photographing (and eating, obviously).
For dessert, we had platters beyond platters of cookies:
Including my mom’s famous bourbon balls, mini vegan cupcakes (yay!), linzer tortes, peanut butter-chocolate thumbprints, gingersnaps, and bite-size chocolate caramel cupcakes. Certainly no lack of variety!
It’s always wonderful to attend a party and to enjoy all the food on offer, to know it was all made from scratch, and to see fresh ingredients in every dish. Of course, I’d expect nothing less from a gathering of my mom’s doing.
And in her honor, the math-inspired carrot dish:
mom’s carrot salad (serves 12 as a side)
- 3 pounds carrots, peeled and grated
- 2 c jicama, peeled and diced
- 1/2 c cilantro, chopped
- 1/4 c roasted and salted sunflower seeds
- juice of 1.5 oranges
- juice of 1.5 lemons
- 1/2 c evoo
- 2 T honey
- 1 t whole grain Dijon mustard
- 1 t salt
- 1/2 t fresh ground black pepper
Toss together carrots and jicama. Whisk together orange juice through pepper; toss with vegetables. Stir in cilantro and sunflower seeds just before serving.
How did you spend your weekend?
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What an impressive Mexican spread! I love the carrot recipe–how cute that they published it in a math textbook? So quaint. I’m glad your family enjoyed the day!
Wow everything is certainly bursting with color and looks amazing!
My weekend was spent mostly studying, a little bit of going out and having fun :)
love that carrot recipe, i dont think i have ever tried jicama, i should look out for it at the store, and make this delicious recipe of yours! and love the mexican spread!
this weekend was really fun for me, one of the best weekends in a while! despite the sucky winter-like weather here in NY, but i had a great time saturday in Soho shopping with Maya, and today was so so rainy and cold so i jsut relaxed at home, and went to fairway this morning which was loads of fun, love fairway haha, i could stay in there for hours ;) but it was nice and cozy this afternoon.
lots of love
xx
Eliza
Mexican is one of my favorite cuisines ever :)
I ran my first 5K! That was fun this weekend!
Oh, goodness. Your mom rocks.
woowww i wish my mom could cook like that! i’d love some of those cookie recipes!
I am definitely jealous that you were in Yankee Stadium Friday night!! ;) (Not so much the frozen toes, though.)
<3 <3
I love the corn muffins and all the cookies! Delicious!
Maggie
How cool to see jicama featured in a kids’ math textbook!
this mexican buffet looks great. thank you for sharing the carrot recipee. it sounds yummy!
have a great start to the week
hi! regarding your comment on my blog, thanks! I’m glad to be back to reviewing, tasting and experimenting with food and drink. I love all of your mexican creations – and thanks for sharing recipes! this weekend: I took my dog on several walks at a near by park to take in all of the gorgeous fall scenery. it was marvelous. I also watched some scary movies, and had coffee with some friends. looks like you had a delicious weekend too :) have a lovely day ;)