Celebrating Cinco de Mayo

Most of you who know me will attest to the fact that I love holidays... anybody's. When a month goes by without a holiday in it I will make one up just to celebrate. Yesterday my husband and I celebrated Cinco de Mayo and like most people I thought it was a Mexican Independence Day much like our Fourth of July. I was wrong... their Independence Day is in September. The holiday is a celebration of defeat stemming from the 1862 Battle at Puebla, where 4,000 Mexican men defeated an imperialist French regime that tried to take over. The US was unable to help them with the supply of arms, because as you know (I didn't), we were battling our our Civil War. So one can say that it is a day to commemorate the beating of insurmountable odds. Most people in the states celebrate with Coronas, Margarita's, and Mexican food. Being it was a work night, we celebrated with food and music mostly. In order to make my Mexican feast I actually waked a 1/2 mile to the grocery store for cilantro and jalapeno  crushed tomatoes, every thing else I had on hand. I started by making the cilantro lime dressing for the arugula and tomato salad that was resurrected from a previous meal. I breaded some nice center cut pork chops to which I added a little chili powder and cumin to the seasoned crumbs. Then I made Mexican rice by frying Texmati rice in oil until slightly brown, adding a chopped pepper, onion, and garlic for about a minute and added my jalapeno tomatoes, chicken broth and a pinch of oregano, for a slow simmer on the stove. A spicy peach sauce was made with Mott's peach sauce snack cups, a little white vinegar, cayenne and white pepper, and a touch of cinnamon. While I made the appetizer (chipolte-cheese and cilantro quesadillas), I put on Los Lobos and heard their version of Bertha for the first time. Who knew it was a Grateful Dead song? ... well my husband did and was proud to tell me. The only other suitable music in our repertoire was Los Lonely Boys, and they rocked us right up until dinnertime. Once my chops were fried exactly 4 minutes on each side (perfect) we took our meal to the TV room for a Jeopardy sparring. It was then that it hit me that I hadn't a clue about what this holiday really meant... so I looked it up. Next year I will know better.