
Part of my Independent Summer (read: less work, more time, YAY!) has been loving getting re-connected with the kitchen, and entertaining. For our Independence Day fête, Issac, Annmarie, and Milo brought the main event – the cheeseburgers; Treva, Nick, and Astrid brought the best bean salad with garbanzos, black beans, cabbage, and fresh mint; and I made the rest. We drank ice cold (Mexican) beer, Sangria from Annmarie, and Tequila, of course. And Agua de Sandía for the kids.

Independence Day Menu
Benedictine and crudité
Red-Cabbage Coleslaw
Bean Salad with Fresh Mint
Grilled Corn on the Cob with Cilantro Lime Butter
Cheeseburgers
Mango-upside-down Cornmeal Cake
Benedictine (Cucumber Cream Cheese Dip)
A Kentucky dish, through and through. My Grandmother always made this for any family gathering. I never ate it as a kid because of the weird green color (courtesy of yummy green food dye). These days it is fresh and delicious. So easy and a big hit as our pre-dinner snack. Skip the food coloring and leave the peel on the cucumbers to add natural flecks of green.
- 3 small cucumbers, seeded and grated, peel on
- 2 8-oz. packages cream cheese, softened
- Smoked paprika to taste
- Salt* & pepper to taste (*I used The Meadow’s Alaea Volcanic Finishing Salt)
Mix all ingredients together until combined and delicious. Arrange in a dish with cucumber slices, cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours before serving to allow flavors to meld). Serve with fresh raw veggies (jicama, carrots, green peppers, cherry tomatoes) and your favorite cracker (bonus points if your favorite cracker is also from Kentucky).
Red-Cabbage Coleslaw
I have been making one variation or another of this coleslaw since my dad made it for Maxxi’s first birthday party. Simple, cheap, and delicious, and we always have yummy leftovers to munch on for the next few days.
slaw:
- ½ head red cabbage, sliced
- 3 carrots, peeled & grated
- 1 granny smith apple, cored & grated
- optional: grated or julienned beets or zucchini
- toasted chopped almonds
- chopped fresh cilantro
dressing:
- Juice of 1 lime
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- Salt* & pepper to taste (*I used The Meadow’s Maldon Crystal Sea Salt for the dressing, and the Alaea Volcanic for finishing the slaw)
- Drizzle of olive oil
- 1/3 cup good quality mayo (Louit Olive Oil mayo is way better and lighter tasting than Hellman’s/Best Foods)
Toss all veggies with the dressing and add salt/pepper to taste. Top with toasted almonds and fresh cilantro.
Grilled Corn with Cilantro Lime Butter
I was craving corn on the cob after Maria’s article in El Sayulero this week. I never cook whole corn, so I had to call up my dad for advice. He suggested I shuck it, boil it for a few minutes, then throw it on the grill to finish it off. The shucking was a bit of work (suddenly the $80 peso pack of ready-to-cook fresh corn at Costco doesn’t seem quite so overpriced), but the rest went alright. Except Mexican corn is of the very chewy variety, so I didn’t quite get the delicious American corn on the cob experience I was looking for. But the yummy butter made the chewy corn more than edible.
cilantro lime butter:
- grated zest of 2 limes
- 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 stick softened butter
Mix all ingredients together. Add other spices to taste (smoked paprika, chili powder, pepper). Roll in wax paper to form a log, refrigerate until time to serve with corn.
Mango-upside-down Cornmeal Cake
I had wanted to make fried chicken and cornbread, but that seemed like too much with burgers and a relatively small group, so I looked around for a corn-bread inspired dessert and found Alton Brown’s recipe for Pineapple Upside Down Cornmeal Cake. Having a bowl of fresh mangoes from Kerry & Ian’s tree, I had to swap out the canned pineapple for fresh mangoes (duh). This is the 3rd mango-upside-down cake I have made in the past 2 weeks, and I think this one got it right. The cornmeal cake was amazing – like cornbread but sweeter and cake-ier, and the mangoes and brown sugar were divine.
I followed Alton’s recipe with a few substitutions…
- Mangoes instead of canned pineapple
- added 2 tbsp dry buttermilk powder to dry ingredients
- added 2 tsp baking soda (because my cakes never rise here in Mexico, but this one did!)
- reduced the butter to ~3 oz.
- reduced the brown sugar to ~3/4 cup (probably could reduce more)
- forgot to add the canola oil to the cake batter, so only stirred about 1 tbsp into the batter after it was in the pan. I did f-up my beautiful mango arrangement doing this (thus, I wasn’t inclined to photograph the finished product), but I didn’t miss the canola oil in the recipe, so next time I will only add 1 tbsp instead of the 1/2 cup.
I was also thinking about Strawberry Shortcake, so I served the cake with fresh sliced strawberries and whipped cream. The whipping cream at the local tienda was expired, so I sprung for the pre-gassed version, which we all had quite a lot of fun with.
The kids had a blast, we had a blast. Who needs fireworks, anyway? Independence rules, and I’m pretty sure it tastes like this. F-yeah.

QM