A Mexican Inspired May Dinner

May has been an unusually busy month: a good amount of work combined with a lot of travel; I just haven't been cooking that much. I was determined to get back in the swing of things by cooking dinner last Thursday, inspired a bit by Cinco de Mayo. My dad bought a case of mangoes (again), so I made mango micheladas, chicken tortilla soup and fish tacos with mango salsa. The catfish tacos were light and refreshing as usual, although like last time, the fish could have used a little more salt while marinading, although the mango salsa had plenty of flavor to compensate for the slightly underseasoned fish. Everyone was a fan of the tortilla soup, which I based on a Rachel Ray recipe. I omitted the zucchini because I didn't have any, and cheated a little by using rotisserie chicken and canned corn. It was still really good, lots of vegetables, flavor and spices. Reminiscent of my chicken chili with a lot of common ingredients, just a little lighter.

I have to say, I'm not a fan of mango micheladas. I made them last year and didn't like them, but I forgot that I didn't like them and made it again using the same thekitchn.com recipe. The combination of beer and pulpy mango is just weird. I've been the mood for home-made summer cocktails; earlier in the week I made maple bourbon meyer lemonade which was pretty awesome, based on this recipe from the smitten kitchen, one of my new favorite cooking blogs. Lots of great inspiration!