"CincoDeMayo" news and stories

Nothing says Cinco de Mayo like a margarita and bowl full of fresh guacamole. But with pre-made everything all over the place these days, the thought of creating guacamole by hand might be a little daunting. Who wants to do all that work when you can just buy the stuff? Well, don't believe the hype. This recipe was easy, painless and oh-so-incredibly delicious -- and destroyed the store-bought competition.

A step-by-step in photos and recipe after the jump.

Beer cocktails are especially refreshing during warm weather months. They boast a lower alcohol content than mixed drinks with hard alcohol, and with so many great summer beers available, creating unique concoctions for the season is a breeze.

If you're not up to the heft and tequila of a margarita tomorrow (viva Cinco de Mayo!), consider the Michelada, which has been gaining some traction as a spicy summer alternative to the Bloody Mary. Order it at a bar or mix one up at home but give blah pre-packaged products like Budweiser Chelada a pass; make it yourself and spice it to taste.

Shandys (which generally consist of half pale ale or lager and half lemonade, ginger ale or lemon-lime soda) are a refreshing low alcohol substitute if you're looking to enjoy the sun without immediate inebriation. Using quality ingredients like homemade lemonade and a pale ale with natural citrus notes can produce amazing results.

Ty Fugimura, owner of The Small Bar in Chicago, believes his bar's unique list of six beer cocktails is a major draw. As the Windy City warms up, Fugimura knows "sidewalk sitters want something a little bit lighter," so Small Bar offers a "Beergarita," a twist on the classic tequila drink. In addition to adding white ale, they top it off with Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale and Lindeman's fruity Framboise. Sounds pretty great to us. Got a beer cocktail recipe up your sleeve? Let us know. We're thirsty.

In celebration of Cinco de Mayo, I thought it would be fitting to make a piñata cake. Mostly I just wanted to see if I could. I hadn't yet made a cake that required major structural support and thought this would be a nice way to ease into it.

My little burro had to have something to hold up his midsection or he would collapse under his own weight. I started by cutting a dowel into even sections for his legs. I then cut a basic body shape out of two pieces of cardboard. One to attach the feet to and one to place the body on which would be put together later. I thought it would be easier to work with this way without worrying that the legs would crumple while I was carving the body and head.

I notched out some small holes for the legs and then glued them in for stability. I cut the body out of a 8" round cake using the base piece as a guide. Next, I cut a cake baked in a loaf pan in half and began carving the shape of the head and nose. For the ears, I decided it would be easier to carve it out of one piece with a sloping base that served as the forehead instead of trying to attach (and stabilize) two separate ears. This worked out really well and once there was a thin layer of icing between the sections, it was surprisingly steady without any extra support.

With Cinco de Mayo right around the corner, my brain is buzzing with thoughts of Mexican food -- burritos, tamales, chorizo. But at some point, thoughts switch to faux Mexican dishes, the US concoctions that are more fusion than ethnic. This then leads me to my first forays into recipe creation. I've been cooking and baking since I was a little kid, but it wasn't until I hit puberty and got sick of those too-simple Old El Paso taco mixes that I discovered that recipes are nice, but not necessary.

My mother handed the kitchen over to me, and told me to make my own tacos, since I wasn't happy with the dry, plain mix. In a flurry, I was pulling out old spices that were covered with dust, sniffing, shrugging, and throwing them in. I scoured the fridge for anything that might work and added that. In a blink, I had a meal that was better than any powder or simple sauce. It was just as easy, there was no extra mess, and the result was so very worth it.

Check out the "recipe" after the jump, and let me know what your first unique creation was.

With Cinco de Mayo coming up after the weekend, Chicago-area Mexican-Americans reminisce with traditional foods:

• Vegetable-stuffed peppers
  
• Ranchero sauce
• Mango and jicama salsa
• Mexican meatball soup
• Salsa Soup
• Tortillas at home
• Seafood 'cocktail' to start the meal
• Grilled cheese with beans
• Chorizo in an easy noodle dish
• Spicy stew with hominy

Also, for preparation in the kitchen:

• Equipping a kitchen with the right tools
• Mexican beer tasting: Forget the lime, go for flavor
• Achieving taco greatness starts in your kitchen
• Mexican cooking classes
• #2 By the numbers
• Mexican chef offers free cooking pointers
• By the numbers

There's also a Mexican Food Quiz, a list of some essential Mexican ingredients, and Mexican Cookbooks.

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