Our Lady of Guadalupe

December is a fun month because it is filled with so many feast days. With the weather turning cold outside it makes sense to take advantage and make lots of food. The weathermen were all predicting snow followed by ice for Friday night. I hadn't made it to the store on Thursday, my usual market day so I went mid day on Friday. It was so crazy crowded for the middle of the day and I couldn't figure out why... a Hanukkah rush? Well I decided later it must have been panic cause by the weather forecasting. I am quite convinced that the winter storm reporting is a conspiracy between the grocery and hardware stores that advertize on the news channels. In any event we had plenty of supplies and in the end there was no snow and no ice.
Since I try to keep Advent by not decorating for Christmas I rationalize my purchase of poinsettias as decorations for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Now that they are in the copper cache pots the mantle is finally complete!
I was going to make enchiladas to celebrate, but has a craving for tacos instead. For me taco night is one of the best comfort foods. I have memories of my dad frying the corn tortillas to make the taco shells. He was a perpetually frugal man so this was one of his ways to save money. Plus Mr. W and I like the warm shells.
I put this vintage poinsettia table cloth out for OLoG to keep the flower theme going. Among the cooking shows Mr W. tivos is America's Test itchen which did a segment on frenchy carmel custard so that gave me a craving for flan. The cook book that I use for flan has an alternative for orange flavored flan which I thought would be nice to try since oranges are in season now. I did use a few of the tips from ATK, like filling the baking dish with water when it is in the oven so as to avoid spills. The flan turned out better than the last time I made it but it I still can't get all the carmel to come out.
We finished the night by reading The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie DePaolo. He is one of my favorite illustrators and since he was raised Catholic he does lots of books on the subject.