For the past week I’ve gone market shopping, both at the Sunday Tlacolula market and at the smaller, though equally satisfying Teotitlan del Valle market where I live. It’s easier now that I have LaTuga — a market trip can be spontaneous.
As the invitation list for my New Year’s Eve house warming birthday party dessert open house grew to over thirty, I realized I might not have enough pastries and wine. So, I made multiple trips to Amado’s tienda to stock up on red wine and mezcal.
At the market I bought flowers, queso fresco, sweet bread, goat cheese, and the ingredients to make tomato ginger chutney. I usually do this in the North Carolina summer when there is a two week window for ripe tomatoes. Here in Oaxaca, they are ripe year round. The chutney is great warmed and poured on top of the goat cheese, then spread on bread slices.
I made the fruit salad recipe I shared with you last week, but added mandarin oranges and poached, spiced crab apples. Eloisa baked me three giant Chocoflan cakes, and on impulse I bought a big homemade, layered jello extravaganza at the village market. It was a dessert buffet.
Yesterday morning, I decided on the spur of the moment to make a New York style cheesecake when I saw Amado had two pounds of Philadelphia cream cheese in his case along with Alpura brand sour cream and a tube of Maria’s cookies. My friend Ani gave me a gift of butter earlier, and I picked up a few extra eggs. Instead of liquid vanilla, I used fresh squeezed lemon juice (called lima here) and zest. I augmented the cream cheese with mashed and pureed queso fresco. When it didn’t look like I would have enough cookie crumbs for the crust, I added some of the sweet bread to the Maria crumbs. Adaptation is an important element for living in Mexico.
Lupe came to help me get the house ready and we prepared the cheesecake together. Her son Daniel hung the papel picado flags and the piñata filled with candies for the children to dismantle with a stick at the end of the party. Our village is party central. On December 30, I was at Janet and Jan’s home for her birthday celebration. The flowers were abundant and the food delicious.
I was too busy greeting, serving and schmoozing to take photos of my birthday accoutrements and friends. The cheesecake disappeared before I could stage a photo shoot. Maybe those who did take photos will share them! After everyone left, the rockets, firecrackers and band played on into the night to welcome the procession of the baby Jesus to Las Cuevitas. Even my ear plugs didn’t help. We will join that celebration later today.
Meanwhile, I am wishing you a very satisfying, joyous, content, and healthful new year. May peace and fulfillment be yours for 2014.
Norma’s Pie de Queso — Mexican Style Cheesecake Recipe —
Disfruta! Enjoy!
The Crust:
- 1 package Maria cookies
- 1 slice of sweet bread or any sweet roll
- 4 T. sugar
- 4 T. melted butter
In a food processor, add the cookies and sweet roll, process until fine crumbs. Add sugar. Pulse until completely mixed. Add melted butter. Combine until butter is mixed throughout. Pour out into a parchment paper lined 8-10″ springform pan. Press crumbs firmly on bottom and up sides of pan about 1/4-1/2 inch. Set aside.
The Filling:
- 2 lbs. Philadelphia cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/2 lb. queso fresco (Oaxaca crumble cheese)
- 1 C. sugar
- 5 eggs
- juice of 1/2 large lemon
- 1 T. lemon zest
- 1 C. sour cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large mixing bowl with electric beaters on high speed, blend the cheeses until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar and mix until white and smooth. Add eggs one at a time until completely mixed. Add lemon. Beat for about 30 seconds. Add sour cream and blend in on low speed until just stirred in. Stir in lemon zest.
Pour into a buttered springform pan (line with parchment to make clean-up easier). Put into preheated 350 degree oven. Bake for 45-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center. Turn oven off. Leave cake in oven to cool for 30 minutes or more before removing.
The Topping:
- 1/2 C. sour cream
- 3 T. sugar
- 2 T. lemon juice
- 1/2 t. lemon zest
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Stir all ingredients together. Pour over top of cooled cheesecake and spread evenly over top with spoon or spatula. Put into hot oven. Bake for 5-7 minutes. Watch that topping does not brown or burn. Remove and cool.
Strawberry Fruit Topping (optional)
- 1/2 c. mashed berries
- 3 T. sugar
- 1/4 c. Cointreau (or Controy here in Mexico)
In a stainless steel pan, mix together the berries, sugar and liqueur. Cook over high heat for 2 minutes until berries are mascerated, juice begins to form and the sugar is melted. Remove and cool for about 2 minutes. Pour over the sour cream topping of the cheesecake.
If you cut a circle in the center and then make the slices from this circle, the cake will yield 16-20 servings. The remaining center circle can then be cut in 4-6 wedges.
And another sunset from the terraza to celebrate life’s infinite beauty.
All Night Party Called Las Cuevitas
Seven years ago I wrote one of my first blog posts called Sunset at Las Cuevitas. Las Cuevitas is an annual Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico tradition that draws the entire pueblo to the caves up in the grassy, nopal cactus dotted hills beyond the village. Festivities start on the night of December 31 and continue through November 3.
Sunset at Las Cuevitas 2014
This is a rocky, sacred pre-Hispanic ritual site now holds a small chapel. Three three niches form altars where offerings are made and prayers are whispered. Families come to sleep in the open air or under tarps held high by poles or pitch tents. Others come for the day and stay well into the night, bringing chairs, blankets and picnic baskets. Vendors sell all types of snacks and food lest you come or get hungry: sugar wafers, just made French fries drizzled with chili salsa, tamales, even donuts.
As the sun begins to set, the warm afternoon turns to chill. Women wrap themselves in wool shawls or put on sweaters and bundle up their children. Men wear jackets and baseball caps. The line to enter the grotto snakes down the dusty path lined with sellers of hand-embroidered tortilla covers, copper bracelets for good health, and quesadillas made on wood-fired comals.
The mood is festive. At five in the afternoon an outdoor mass begins at the grotto. Then the band plays. We sit on the hillside and watch pre-teen boys strike matches to light sparklers and fire balls, while others construct rock houses and make roofs of twigs and dried grass. Everyone is eating something.
Today the new president begins his three-year term, a voluntary and elected position. The newly initiated volunteer police force that starts their one-year service term today are present to keep the peace, more symbol than necessity.
On the hillsides, campfires burn, rockets shoot skyward, balloons and papel picado separate earth from sky.
As we approach the grotto to add our candles, prayers, and offerings, I see that we are in the perfect spot for the upcoming fireworks display, a perfect ending to my perfect day in southern Mexico. The celebration will continue through the night, all day and night on January 2, and end on January 3. Good things come in three’s here.
NOW FOR THE FIREWORKS
I was so close, I had to stay out of the raining hot cinders. The cracking sounds were deafening. It was an amazing spectacle to see a man dancing, holding a cow above his head spewing circles of light. TheN two men followed holding female figures high as the fireworks circled and the crowd was mesmerized. The band played on.
Next? That brings us up to Day of the Three Kings, January 6, when we will find the markets filled with round holiday breads infused with candied fruits and several little plastic baby Jesus figures. The bread is called rosca de reyes, and Mexican children will receive their Christmas gifts on this day. Whoever gets the baby Jesus is obligated to host a tamale party on February 2, Dia de la Candelaria, the last event associated with Christmas.
May the party continue!
MORE SUNSETS ANYONE?
There were fewer than ten extranjeros (foreigners) in the crowd. Most of us who were there are connected to local families and live on their land or rent from them. Las Cuevitas is probably the closest thing I can think of to July 4th as a family day of picnicking, partying, and enjoying life.
And, don’t you agree, Omar’s smile is like a brilliant sunset!
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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Photography, Travel & Tourism
Tagged celebrations, culture, festivals, las cuevitas, Mexico, Oaxaca, Teotitlan del Valle