December Menu

Cocktail
Romeritos Snowball w/Naranja y Grapefruit – Orange and Douglas Fir sorbet with vodka, grapefruit and lime juice

Dinner
• Fresh-made Tortilla Chips with Pomegranate Guacamole
• 3-Cheese Chile con Queso with Roasted Chiles and Spices
• Mussels Chipotle with Crusty Bollilos
• Variety of Vegetarian and Meat Tamales
• Persimmon and Chayote Salad on Butter Lettuce with Cotija Cheese, Pecans, and Grapefruit Cilantro Dressing
• Refried Pulled Pork Rib Meat with Chile Colorado on Albert’s Spanish Rice
• Chiles in Nogada – Poblano chiles stuffed with turkey picadillo (raisins, dried apricot, pine nuts, apples, potato and chard) and topped with walnut sauce

Desert
Flan de Rompope (Eggnog)
Coconut-stuffed Limes

Wine pairing option by Jojo Sweiven, host of Fast and Cheap Wine Tastings. Musical guest is vocalist Christine Rosander. See Christine sing here and here.

Popiachis poppin' us out with their mix of 80s pop and mariachi.

Thanks to Suki Valens for creating the amazing Day of the Dead altar!

Jeff checks out the altar.

Crab pozole.

Chefs Amy Hofecker and Albert Pacheco.

Jojo paired a Santa Ynez port and Bonny Doon muscat with dessert.

See more pics at Michael Andrews Photography.

November Menu

Cocktail
Ponche Comadres
spicy rum punch made with sage and fall fruits, dusted by a cardamom rim

Starter
Roasted Pumpkin Tacos

First Course
Crab Pozole with Blue Hominy and Shrimp Broth

Second Course
Grilled Nopales and Vegetable Salad with Tangy Watercress

Main Course
Beef Short Ribs With Arbol Chiles, White Beans, Mushrooms and Beer served with Corn and Zucchini Pudding

Veggie option: Wild Mushroom and Chard Tortilla Lasagna

Dessert
Cinnamon Creme Fraiche Cake with Fall Fruit

Our musical guest is Los Popiachis. Check them out here and here.

Ingredients
4 ripe bananas, sliced in 1 inch chunks
1 1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
You can also add a teaspoon of cardamom or ginger or both to make the flavor more exotique.

2 cups whole milk
1 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup white sugar
4 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- In a baking dish, combine bananas, honey, butter, sugar, and spices.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes, taking them out once or twice to give a good stir. Cook until the bananas are bubbling and have caramelized.
- Let bananas cool.
- Whisk together 3/4 cups honey and 2 tablespoons sugar with milk.
- Bring to a boil over medium heat, letting the milk heat up slowly.
- Reduce heat and simmer for 15-30 minutes, stirring regularly.
- The mixture should thicken and turn a caramel color.
- There are two things to watch for: don’t let the mixture boil over and don’t take it off too soon. It took me a while to get it to become caramel-like, but it does happen!
- Remove caramel from heat and whisk in 1 cup of milk.
- In another bowl, whisk eggs and salt.
- Take 1/4 of the caramel mixture and add to eggs to temper them – so they don’t scramble.
- Then pour the egg mixture slowly back into the pan of caramel and cook for five minutes to thicken.
- In a blender, blend remaining cup of milk and bananas.
- If you’d like chunky banana ice cream, set 1/4 of the caramelized banana mixture aside.
- Add caramel mixture to blender until everything is smooth.
- Stir in vanilla.
- Chill this mixture for at least four hours. To speed up the process you can pour mixture into a bowl and set it inside another bowl filled with ice and water – an ice bath.
- Once mixture is chilled, put it in an ice cream maker – use as directed.
- Usually after about 20-30 minutes, the ice cream will be well aerated and the consistency of soft-serve.
- Pour ice cream into air-tight container.
- If you want chunky monkey, this is the time to add the remaining caramelized bananas into the ice cream mixture.
- Freeze.
- This is great to make the day before you plan to serve.
- Delicious served with caramel sauce and coconut cake.

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients
8 large grapefruit
2 pints strawberries
6 large basil leaves
1/2 cup ginger simple syrup (recipe below)
sugar
1/2 cup mint, coarsely chopped
1 jalapeño
water
8 shots of gin
16 tablespoons club soda

- Juice 7 grapefruit into pitcher.
- Core strawberries and blend in blender with basil and 1/2 cup water.
- Add strawberry-basil juice to grapefruit.
- Add ginger simple syrup.
- Add water. This part is always different for me, depending on how concentrated my juice is. Usually it’s somewhere between 4-8 cups of water. I just add slowly and keep tasting to make sure it’s not too watery. If you do end up getting too watery, just squeeze another grapefruit or two into the mixture.
- Add sugar. Again, this varies depending on how sweet you like your juice. The ginger simple syrup will have added some sweetness. And, remember, you’ll be creating a muddle with even more sugar.
- Chill juice in refrigerator. You can make juice up to a day ahead.

When making mojitos:
- Segment remaining grapefruit, making sure to keep out the pith.
- In a bowl, muddle grapefruit segments, mint and 16 tablespoons sugar.
- Fill a shaker with ice.
- Add two shots gin or silver rum (I like gin better).
- Scoop 2/8 of the muddle mixture into the shaker.
- Add 2 cups of the grapefruit-strawberry juice.
- Shake.
- Pour into a glass, filling it just over 3/4 full.
- Top off with club soda.
- Float a slice of jalapeño on top, being careful to remove seeds and pith. If you want it hotter, go ahead and leave seeds in, but it can overpower the drink. Just a small slice adds a hint of heat.

Ginger Simple Syrup
Ingredients
2 oz ginger, sliced
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup water

Combine ginger, sugar and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Let simmer for 30 to 40 minutes until the concoction becomes syrupy and infused with ginger. Remove from heat. You can pull out the slices of ginger (I usually just leave them in) and then refrigerate until needed. Simple syrup usually lasts at least two weeks.

Thanks, Josh!!