Cinco de Maio

Colossians 2:16-17

 "Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, 

or with regard to a religious festival, 

a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 

These are a shadow of the things that were to come; 

the reality, however, is found in Christ."

This is an absolutely gorgeous day for cinco de maio. Blue sky, light breeze, and spring is in the air. Annie and Tiah and Corey are putting on a cinco de miao dinner tonight, and I told them that I would bring an orange flan. I have a fabulous recipe for this, but now I have to figure out where I wrote it.

Heidi showed up this morning with the kids and told me that she told Christian he could stay home today. A sick 11 year old is always a challenge. He's got a terrible cough, which he's had for at least two weeks. Emily also has the cough.

All day long I looked for the book I'd written the flan recipe in, but to no avail. And I couldn't find any recipe on the Internet that sounded like mine. So finally I decided to come up with something of my own. I wrote that recipe down about 25 years ago. So I packed the kids in the car and we went to the store and got eggs, half and half, and an orange.

Orange Flan

5 egg yolks
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp almond extract
3 cups half and half
some orange zest

1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbls water

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Get a 1 1/2 quart tart dish and a metal baking pan that the dish will fit into.
Put the milk and orange zest into a pan and place over medium low heat.
Put the egg yolks, eggs, 3/4 cup sugar, and the almond extract into a large bowl and whip thoroughly.

Put 1/2 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons water into a sauce pan and heat up slowly. Don't stir with a spoon, but you can gently swirl the pan as needed. Keep a keen eye on this sugar. You want it to turn brown, but to not burn. There is a fine degree of difference between the two. As soon as the sugar turns a medium brown, pour into the dish and carefully swirl it around to coat the bottom and sides of the dish. This will become hard very fast.

While wisking, pour the hot milk mixture into the egg and sugar mixture. Stir to blend thoroughly. Then pour this mixture into another bowl through a strainer. And finally, set the dish into the pan you're going to use for the water bath, and pour the mixture into the dish. Place the dish and pan into the oven, then carefully add hot water up to at least halfway up the sides. Bake for about 45 to 55 minutes. I forgot to time it, so I can only approximate.

Chill thoroughly. Then turn out onto a plate by putting the plate on top and quickly flipping it over.

Everyone loved this flan.  It really did turn out well.

At the Cinco de Maio party the girls had made lots of food, but to my great dismay I started to come down with the kids cold and I couldn't taste anything.  This was Mexican food for goodness sake.  But for the most part it was all tasteless to me.  So I had two strawberry margaritas and a slice of flan.  Annie said that I was welcome to come over tomorrow and had some of the left-overs if my sense of taste came back.

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, 

but most of them pick themselves up 

and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." 

Winston Churchill