As a Native Houstonian, I look forward to celebrating Cinco de Mayo each and every year with friends and family! This year, our family hosted an al fresco celebration at home; complete with homemade pineapple Micheladas featuring Clamato® Tomato Cocktail, the official drink of Cinco de Mayo. See how we incorporated modern décor elements, personalized party details and a delicious appetizer pairing into our festive evening dining affair.
3 Cinco de Mayo Tablescape Tips- Setting the Stage
Whenever creating a tablescape for an event, I like to focus on a few key elements when putting together the design. I am sharing 3 simple tips for setting the stage for a perfect Cinco de Mayo event.
Bring in Color
Bring in the colors of Cinco de Mayo through your design choices. I fell in love with this vibrant floral print fabric, and used it as a jumping off point for the rest of our tablescape design. I pulled the teal coloring into our dinner plates, the reds, oranges and yellows into our fun maraca place cards and the greens into our centerpieces. For your Cinco de Mayo celebration, you can never have “too much” color; so go bold!
Layer the table settings by using a variety of colors and textures for the most visual interest. The base for our table settings began with a simple wooden square charger, offering a rustic element to the design. I added color with our bright teal dinner plates, and even more color and texture with these fun floral print appetizer plates, which paired nicely with the floral print table runner we sourced. Choose 2-3 different colors and textures when building your own design at home.
Adding personalization to your tablescape design brings added warmth and comfort for the guests attending. For our place cards, I spray painted wooden 8” maracas red, bright pink and yellow and then added personalized vinyl appliques of each guest’s name once they had completely dried. You could also use a calligraphy pen to create a similar effect. These fun place cards, added color to our table, personalization and doubled as a party favor!
Create the Perfect Welcome Drink- The Pineapple Michelada
Micheladas are an iconic cocktail in Mexico, and my slight twist to this classic with fresh pineapple and pineapple juice, is the perfect transition from Cinco de Mayo into the nearby summer months. The base of our pineapple Michelada is of course Clamato® Tomato Cocktail, the authentic tomato cocktail, adding the perfect blend of spices to our welcome drink.
This pineapple Michelada is the perfect cocktail to kick off warm summer months, mixing sweet with savory and spicy notes. Clamato adds more to this cocktail, just like Micheladas add more to your Cinco de Mayo celebration!
Pineapple Michelada
4 servings
Ingredients
· 12 oz Clamato® Tomato Cocktail, Original Flavor
· 24 oz Chilled Mexican Beer
· 2-3 Dashes of Hot sauce
· 12 oz Pineapple Juice
· Fresh Limes
· Fresh Pineapple Wedges for Garnish
· 4c Ice
· Mexican Salt Blend for Glass Rims
Directions
1. Mix the Clamato, Original Flavor, chilled Mexican beer, hot sauce and pineapple juice together.
2. Place the Mexican spice blend on a flat rimmed plate for garnishing the glassware. Rub a fresh lime around the rim of each glass; then, gently dip the glass edge into the spice blend. Fill with ice.
3. Pour your blended cocktail over the ice and serve. Garnish the glass with a fresh pineapple wedge rolled in the Mexican spice blend for added flavor.
Shrimp Guacamole Bites
Ingredients
· 1lb Fresh, Cleaned & Deveined Shrimp
· Queso Fresco Cheese
· 2 tsp Vegetable Oil
· 1 tsp Chili Powder
· ½ tsp Cumin
· ¼ tsp Paprika
· ¼ tsp Sea Salt
· 1c Fresh, Prepared Guacamole
· Round Tortilla Chips
· 2 Fresh Limes
· 1 bunch of Cilantro
Directions
1. Pre-heat outdoor grill or indoor grill pan to medium-high.
2. Mix together the chili powder, cumin, paprika and sea salt in a shallow bowl.
3. Lightly drizzle the prepared shrimp with vegetable oil (or olive oil), then gently dip into the spice mixture to coat.
4. Place the shrimp onto the grill and cook until opaque, being mindful not to overcook.
5. Add the freshly squeezed lime juice to the guacamole and then spread atop individual tortilla chips, one spoonful at a time.
6. Add the grilled shrimp to each chip, then garnish with crumbled queso fresco and chopped cilantro. Serve immediately.
**While you could prepare the grilled shrimp ahead of time, refrigerate and then serve at room temperature during the event, we do not recommend spreading the guacamole onto the chips until right before service as they could absorb too much moisture.
You can find all of the ingredients needed to create our pineapple Michelada, along with our shrimp guacamole bites, at your local Walmart retailer. We wish you and your loved ones a very happy Cinco de Mayo! Happy celebrating!!
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