mexirish...nz

Yesterday was a fairly special day in the Mexican calendar.  Means fek all on the irish calendar, but who cares about that? It was 3 Kings day.  I'm sure you remember the story.  We had posada a few days before christmas (" no room at the inn ") and we had christmas day (" baby jesus day ") and now we have the day when three wise men (" Well, what are you doing creeping around a cow shed at two o'clock in the morning? That doesn't sound very wise to me. ") come to visit to give gifts of gold, frenenstien and murr, which is a type of balm (" A balm, what are you giving him a balm for? It might bite him. It's a dangerous animal. Quick, throw it in the trough. ") Anyway.  Tradionally kids gets toys, and a big bread called a Rosca De Reyes (Kings Bread) is made. We tried to make one last year but it didn't come out too well.  It was hard, and fairly flavourless.  Being tech savy, we decided to consult The Google. There...

I'm not generally the sort of person to make wild & outragous over-exagerations, but I think that this entry may qualify as an exception.  The Coromandel region in New Zealand is probably the most beautiful place in the world.  But more on that later. We spent Christmas with our good friends Dom, Jen & Jordan.  We had a fairly traditional christmas - a nice roast dinner, movie and presents. Very pleasent evening was had, and we were all nicely full by the end of it.  Jen's mince pies were remarkably good :) The following morning, Jacqui and I went north.  It was our other good friend Dave's (60th!) birthday on the 27th, but since he lives in Auckland, we decided to head a day before so that we'd be freah enough to wish him many happy returns without collapsing in exhaustion.  As always the drive north is outstandingly beautiful, but long (9 fekking hours!). The views of the mountains along the desert road are breathtaking, even after seeing the...

Well, I experienced my first Mexican Posada on Saturday night.  I have to admit, I was a little trepidatious before it.  As you may know, I have little time for all thing religious.  It just gets under my skin, and makes me feel like my brain is being sucked out.  Don't get me wrong : I have a lot of respect for the kind of person who can, in the face of mountains of contradictory evidence, still insist on believeing the various tenents of any of the world's religions.  I mean : talking snakes? Jeeeeze... Anyway, I digress.  I was very nervous about people coming into my house to take part in what is, after all, a religious cermony. I really needn't have been.  As I might have guessed, most people where only really interested in the food, the drink, the dancing and the piñata.  Yes, there was the part where they ceremoniously re-enact the nativity.  But it was actually very pleasant. This is where some of the the people go outs...

We worked long into the night finishing the Piñatas and the tamales for the posada party. Our good friends Tom and Alfa came round, and helped us - then (finally - after getting a bit lost) Michaela arrived to lend a hand too.  The 5 of us worked hard - mixing the dough, making the mole & salsa roja, constructing the tamales and finally getting them cooked.  But even after everytone left, Jacqui and I stayed up, finishing the tamales and putting finishing touches to the Piñatas.  While waiting for the tamales to finish, I also made several batches of Fairy Cakes (or cup cakes - same thing I reckon).   Hard work, but absolutely worth it. Here's some photos of the preparation.  I'll do another post after this one with some images from the posada proper. The Piñata; complete. Isn't it beautiful? Tom getting his hands messy - making the tamale goo (thanks tom!)   Mole - delicious chocolate & chilli sauce.  Goes in the tamale...

This month we're preparing for posada, the Mexican pre-Christmas party. We've decided somewhat rashly to invite "The Entire Mexican Population Of New Zealand" to our house on saturday. We're expecting anywhere from 10 to 600 people... Anyway, A big part of this is the piñata , and jacqui is hard at work making two excellent examples of the art. Here's the progress so far: This is the first step - papier mache over a balloon. At least 4 layers : allow each layer to dry c ompletely before applying the next. Pop the ballon, and pull it out! Make some cones from card. We used this shiney stuff. Stick the cones onto the balloon base at these sorts of angels. It's hanging in our garage here... That's a far as she's got up to now. The next steps will be to decorate it with coloured paper: This is the coloured paper we'll use. We'll post some more when there's more to post!