I hope you all had a great Dia de Los Reyes (Three Kings or the Feast of the Epiphany). Our friends Lesley and Julio invited us over for an Epiphany dinner and I have to say that my amiga Lesley did an outstanding job with dinner and hosting.

Its funny because since starting our blog and cookbook journey my hubby and I are not invited to home dinners as often. Some friends have even confessed that they are intimidated to cook for me. Let me just say I am not a food critic. I love food, any and all food, especially food that is cooked for me. So bring on the invitations for 2012.

Lesley prepared caldo de res, a delicious Mexican beef and vegetable soup, which included chayote. Chayote is a type of squash that gave the soup a great mild flavor. She served the soup with warm corn tortillas, lime wedges, cilantro, and a salsa roja. I felt like I was sitting at mom’s kitchen table. It was the perfect comfort food for a chilly Colorado evening.

She also had some spicy tamales de puerco en chile colorado that Julio’s mother gave them from a tamaleria in Pharr, Texas located near McAllen and the Mexican border city of Reynosa. They were excelente! I hadn’t eaten tamales since our IMUSA tamale adventure and tamalada in El Paso in September (yes, shame on me), so I kinda devoured a couple.

She even had persimmons knowing that I love them so we just had to make persimmon margaritas.

For dessert we had my Rosca de Reyes, which turned out better than I had hoped. Although it was a tad over baked it was not noticed. I covered it in foil and reheated it in the oven, then drizzled some eggnog glaze all over it. Lesley and Julio also broke out a Venezuelan ponche crema, so I just had to add that to the glaze. The rosca turned out great and tasted like a cinnamon roll with a citrus twist. The citrus flavor in the dough and filling combined with the enduring holiday taste of the sweet eggnog glaze was the perfect dessert to end a wonderful Epiphany feast.

If all this wasn’t enough, Lesley also made Mexican hot chocolate with a splash of Kahlua, which complimented the rosca well.

Let’s recap the great drinks…We started off with some of my favorite Rioja Spanish wine before dinner, persimmon margaritas with dinner, the rosca had a Venezuelan kick, and finally a little Kahlua touch in our chocolate.

The kids even enjoyed a little bubbly with some non-alcoholic sparkling cider. It was a very cheerful evening to say the least as we all ate, drank, watched our children perform a “dance show”, and talked till midnight.

Thank you Lesley and Julio for hosting such a fabulous dinner and wanting to share the Dia de Los Reyes traditions with our children.

Salud! Here’s to 2012 and more dinner parties with family and friends.

And speaking of dinner parties – I will be hosting Dia de La Candelaria. Lesley’s daughter actually found the baby Jesus in her slice of bread, but I volunteered to host since they hosted Dia de Los Reyes. My plan is to open the invitation to a few other friends and make it a potluck style dinner.

I even invited some virtual friends to join us in on the potluck so stay tuned for some great recipes from some Latina blog amigas.

Will you be hosting or attending any festivities for Dia de La Candelaria?

Written by Yvette / Photos by Yvette