Cinco de Mayo lands inside its window today. The bar around the corner has a forty-dollar margarita pitcher special and a thirty-dollar wait. We are cooking at home.
The plan: tacos al pastor (pork shoulder rubbed and broiled, ten dollars at our store), homemade refried beans (canned pintos, two dollars), white rice (under a dollar), pico de gallo (tomato, onion, cilantro, lime; under five dollars), tortillas (corn, three dollars for a stack), and a margarita pitcher (tequila, fresh lime, agave, ten dollars total if you already have the tequila).
The full Cinco de Mayo hub on the site has the recipe links. The Big Apron's mole recipe is in there too if you want to swing for project mode. The hub also rolls into the Cinco de Mayo Top X lists for tacos, mole, and the margarita variations.
The whole trick on a budget is the pivot from premium-cut protein to the dish where the seasoning is the work. Pork shoulder is six dollars a pound and earns its money once it has spent thirty minutes in a marinade. The margarita pitcher is the second pivot: skip the bar, buy one nice bottle, drink three of those.
Eight people, three hours, under thirty dollars on the food. The bar still gets the wait list.