Pin-It Tuesday: Cinco de Mayo

I'm recapping my Cinco de Mayo cookout that I had this past weekend with a few friends. Finally I had great weather for a party at my house. In October for my birthday, it was 35 degrees and we couldn't sit close enough to the firepit. And for 4th of July, it was 105 and we were all melting.

Sunday was a beautiful, light-breezy 70 degree Wisconsin Spring day. My friend Tiffany brought over her bean bag games and we were ready to have some fun.

I, of course, followed a Mexican theme with the food and marinated chicken for Tequila lime kabobs. I apologize for the lack of photos of the food, but I was rushing around and didn't want to contaminate my phone. But here is the recipe.

I bought 5 lbs of frozen chicken breasts and chopped them into 1 - 2 inch cubes (for skewers). I then started guestimating my ingredients to marinade it. I never follow quantities for a marinade and just do what I think is right.

Tequila
Lime juice
Purple Onion pieces
Sprite
Cumin
Adobo Spice (from Penzey's)
Onion powder
Rice Wine Vinegar

After it marinated for close to 12 hours, I skewered up the chicken putting 4-5 pieces per kabob stick (skewers soaked in water for hours to prevent burning). Then I heated up some of the extra marinade to then brush over the kabobs on the grill.

I had about 20 kabobs to navigate on the grill and unfortunately a few were a little dry, but with only 2 kabobs left, there weren't many complaints.

We also made veggie kabobs that I sprinkled with a little Mural of Flavor (from Penzey's). Those were a huge hit.

But what was even a bigger hit was the cucumber salsa that I found on Facebook first and then Pinterest, which led me to this blog and the recipe. I made about 1.5 times the recipe and here are my alterations. I used dried parsley as I forgot to buy fresh, Greek yogurt in place of sour cream and diced chilis instead of a jalepeno. It was fun to make and it was gone fast at the party.

And then the fun part - cervezaritas (beer margaritas). I have had this recipe pinned on Pinterest for a long time and decided to have a little fun with it and make some different flavored cervezaritas.  Unfortunately the original website is now spam that my pin goes too, but the recipe is written right on the picture :)

I made Pear and Mango cervezaritas. The water and 7Up are replaced with a 12 oz can of Pear Nectar or Mango Nectar. I found these at the local Mexican grocery store in Waukesha called Panos. They had a lot of flavors but I just tried those two. I will definitely be making these more often. They are very refreshing and will be great for summer and so easy to make. I didn't even use the limeade for the second batch. 

Other treats at the party included, taco dip, cheesy black bean dip, spicy Mexican rice, guacamole and tortilla chips, Ruffle chips and french onion dip, fresh fruit, cheese and sausage, oreo gooey balls and brownies with ice cream!

Of course, because it is Wisconsin, we all overdosed on the sun and got a little burnt. But then we had a fire to help keep us warm into the night. I hear we are in for a wicked summer of mosquitoes and such so we have to enjoy it while we can!