Mexican Fiesta

Yesterday my Dad brought my Aunt Kimmie & Cousin K.K. up to see the house for their first time. We played at the pool for a bit, went down the slide 100 or so times, then commenced to our Mexican Fiesta!

We had Martha's Pineapple-Basil Margaritas

Basil brings depth to this lush and lightly sweet drink, which is chock-full of fruit.

Serves 6 to 8

4 cups crushed pineapple (one can will do)

1/3 cup fresh basil (we plan to start growing our own!)

1 tablespoon sugar

2 cups Limeade (Simply Limeade from Harris Teeter will do nicely)

1 cup silver tequila - preferably agave

1 tablespoon course salt

Ice cubes

Muddle basil with sugar in a large pitcher. Add pineapple, limeade, tequila and salt. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Fill pitcher with ice cubes.

Enjoy - We did!

We also had Hank's family's recipe for Chocolate Chip Pound Cake for dessert:

1 (18.25 oz) Yellow Cake Mix

1 (3.8 oz) Package of Chocolate Instant Pudding Mix

3/4 c Vegetable Oil

3/4 c Water

1/2 c Sugar

4 Large Eggs

1 (8 oz) Lite Sour Cream

1 (6 oz) Semisweet Chocolate Morsels

Sifted Powdered Sugar

Combine cake mix, pudding mix and sugar. Stir with wire whisk to remove lumps. Add oil and next three ingredients. Stir until smooth. Stir in morsels. Pour batter into greased bundt pan. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees. Flip onto platter and let cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

I hardly even like chocolate cake, but this is delicious! After packing some up for everyone to take home, this is all that was left. A definite hit!

P.S. Everyone was so thoughtful! We were gifted with some amazingly fun housewarming gifts!!

Speaking of thoughtfulness, my MOH May recently sent a package chocked-full of cuteness. Postcards and matches for the collections... Complete with an owl card that has googly eyes.

Thanks so much! Not just for the incredible thoughtfulness and gifts, but for being the kind of family and friends anyone would dream of having!