My Big Fat Mexican Sunday!

Last Sunday was pretty crazy intense day!

First, I stayed up until past 3 am on Saturday baking not one, but FOUR flans because I was "catering" my friend's reception for her doctoral lecture and recital. She wanted to feed a full orchestra plus some friends, so she ordered tons of mini-sandwiches and I prepared the rest.

She is Mexican and her project was on Mexican orchestral music, so I made the flans (using a recipe in Spanish that I found online -- the author is Puerto Rican, though... oh well...) and a TON of fresh salsa (pico-de-gallo style) and guacamole.

The recital was not until Sunday evening, but it turns out that I my friends and colleagues (faculty and students) at U#2 had their last performance of a Mexican play that afternoon and I didn't want to miss it for anything.

So... I spent all morning preparing food like a maniac: in addition to the salsa (which I like to prepare cutting everything by hand), I also had tons of fresh fruit to wash and cut up (to be fair, my husband helped with that!). Then I had to put everything into containers, coolers and bags, not forgetting tablecloths, serving bowls, spoons, etc. and pack it all into my car.

Then I drove 76 miles to see the play (and had to call a friend on the way for directions to the theater since I didn't have time to look it up beforehand!) and back to U#1 where I not only had to set up the reception, but also (before doing that) pick up the sandwiches and buy soda & ice. It was worth it, though because the play was hilarious! (I don't want to share more details so you can't locate me! ;-)

Sigh...

(meanwhile my husband and sons were skiing/ snowboarding, which cost 75 bucks for our youngest because we didn't want to have him be bored with me all day [and seeing a play mildly inappropriate for a kid] or stay with anyone else... I guess it was a fair price to pay and he enjoyed it too)

Thankfully everything went well on my big fat Mexican Sunday, except for one little "hiccup:" I began to unload all the food at the wrong place and had to unload and take it to another part of campus which wasted over 20 minutes and caused me to miss the whole lecture, but not the orchestral pieces. 

Everyone LOVED the guacamole, which I prepared by simply cutting the 12 avocados my friend had bought and mixing them with my homemade salsa -- only adding more lime.

Here are some more photos for your viewing pleasure!