The House On Canary: Mexican Food and Chocolate

Friday night was my family birthday celebration. I am turning 26 tomorrow and am going to visit Chris this weekend, so we decided that Friday was a good night to celebrate with my family. There were 17 of us, including family from both my mom and dad's sides. My mom was amazing and made a Mexican feast fit for a king. She made green chile chicken enchilada casserole and a make your own taco bar. The food was beyond good, and I ate a ton. For dessert my mom made fried ice cream. The best part is that it's really not friend, but it tastes the same. Not only did it go with the Mexican food theme, but it's one of my new favorite desserts. She got the recipe from a work friend and it's probably a good thing I don't have it. My mom even decorated the house with Mexican themed decor. A few years ago we did a huge Mexican themed 50th birthday party for my dad, and we bought a ton of decorations. They've been used so many times since that we have gotten our monies worth and then some! It was really nice to see my family, I hadn't seen my dad's family since the holidays.

The spread. My mom did such a fabulous job.

*Unfortunately all the people pictures are on my mom's camera. I will post those tomorrow!

Early Saturday morning my dad left for our friend's winery in Southern Arizona to help with some construction, so my mom and I had planned a full morning. We started with a speed workout for our half marathon training program. That was a pretty interesting situation since we needed a track and it took us 3 schools to find one we could use. We ended up running at my mom's old high school! After that we went to a farmer's market that my mom has started going to. It was great b/c there were quite a few vendors, and they love giving samples. I didn't think I would buy anything, but I ended up with some focaccia bread, hummus, and a fat free organic muffin. Oh and we got breakfast burritos. I can't wait to start making it a weekly thing.

After the farmer's market, we decided to head over to the Glendale Chocolate Affaire. It's been going on for years, but I've never been and we decided this would be the year to go. It ended up being a lot of fun. There were probably 30 chocolate vendors, arts and craft vendors and non-chocolate food vendors. Some offered free samples, which we took advantage of, and we oohed and aahed a lot at all the different chocolate items. It's a good thing we had already eaten breakfast. My mom and I ended up sharing a nutella crepe, which reminded me so much of my days in Germany. We got to sample some wine and chocolate pairings which was really cool because the winery is based here in Arizona. I also bought some fudge made in Michigan to take back east for Chris. Overall, it was a really fun experience and I think I could stand to go again next year. Hopefully Chris and my dad will be able to join!