pre-party cinco de mayo style

I'm not exactly sure what Cinco de Mayo is all about (last year it was about me drinking WAY too many apple-tinis and "soiling" my sister and brother-in-law's neighbor's lawn on Seis de Mayo), but it's certainly a superb excuse to overdose on Mexican food. Plus, it happens to fall about 4 months after I get back from Mexico (where I eat Mexican food morning, noon, and night), which is right about the time when I'm craving it again.

Regarding the history of May 5th, Wikipedia says: It commemorates the victory of Mexican forces led by General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin over the French occupational forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. It also says that it is NOT Mexico's independence day. It also sounded like it is celebrated more in the US than Mexico (not sure about that one)...clearly everyone else wants an excuse to eat Mexican food too.

Miraculously, this year I forgot that this Saturday was Cinco de Mayo, and planned for tacos one night this week (actually, I mostly just felt like tacos tonight so I made them). Somewhere between deciding to make tacos tonight and actually making them, I remembered that Saturday was the national celebration of Mexican food and drink, and thought for a brief moment that I might not want to have tacos three nights before I most definitely will be eating Mexican food again. I re-assured myself that I love Mexican food enough to have it twice in one week, after all, I eat it every day for 10 straight days every year (although that's real Mexican food, not the fake stuff I make).

So I got home late (went to the gym first) and went straight to the kitchen for taco night preparations. I chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic (for beans) and lettuce; I got out beans, tortillas and the meat. All of which took about 10-15 minutes. Jeff got home and I threw the meat in one pan and onion, garlic and beans in another pan. In about 5 minutes the meat was done, I mashed the beans and dinner was ready! I definitely surprised myself on this one, we don't have taco night very often, but we definitely should. Dinner is ready in 20 minutes! That's crazy! Why isn't every night taco night? It's SO good, and SO fast! I know that my "tacos" are not even close to those tacos we get at the taco party every year in Mexico, wow, those are great, but still it's a delicious meal that is super quick and super easy. Plus, we have no good real Mexican places around us, so we can't even get delivery that easily.

Tonight's taco "pre-party" merely wet my appetite for Saturday's feast. I'm not sure what I'm going to make yet, but there will definitely be margaritas (NO apple-tinis). I think every year I should do a pre-party for Cinco de Mayo, just to get excited for the food I'm going to eat. Or, maybe I should just eat Mexican food more often and I won't have these silly epiphanies anymore.

I'd put a recipe in here, but really, who needs a recipe? Tacos are as easy as pie (actually much easier than pie, infinitely easier than pie). hmmm...what about a taco pie?! That would be great! But for the regular (non-pie) tacos, all you have to do is throw some meat in a pan, add some seasonings (I used cumin, chili powder, oregano and salt and pepper or you can just use those silly packets, if you must) and it's ready. Although, you really don't need me to tell you that...you just need me to remind you to make tacos often (actually, you probably don't even need me to tell you that, you just need me to entertain you for a few minutes while you're bored at work).

For the beans, I added garlic and onion and red pepper flakes and sauteed those together for a few minutes before adding black beans, about 1/4 cup of broth (depends on how dry you like them) and salt and pepper. After a few minutes I used my potato masher and mashed it all together. Delicioso.