Cinco de Mayo

As Tim put it to our friends who came up for a little Cinco-de-Mayo fiesta, "we're offering the rhyming food combo of margaritas and fajitas.”
The reason Mexicans celebrate Cinco de Mayo is that in 1862, 4,000 Mexican soldiers, armed with machetes and a stampeding herd of cattle, surprisingly destroyed the French army of 8,000 who were trying to take over Mexico for Napoleon III.
I am not of Mexican descent, but I do have a fondness for Mexican food, so in recent years we have used the 5th of May as a good excuse to make margaritas and eat chips and salsa.

I believe I had my first-ever margarita on our honeymoon, which happened to be not on Cozumel, but on Cape Cod. Harwich has an authentic, and terrific, Mexican restaurant called Ay! Caramba which we hit every time we to go to the Cape. Tim and I make pretty good and powerful margaritas at home following the recipe from Ina Garten in her second book. I have found the key is a little extra lime juice than what is called for.

Salud!

"Real Margaritas" from The Barefoot Contessa Parties

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
2Tbps freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup Triple Sec
1 cup White Tequila (cheap tequila makes the best margaritas according to Ina)
3 cups ice

salt for rim if desired

Add lime juice, lemon juice, Triple Sec and ice in a blender and puree. Add tequila and process a few seconds more. Serves 6