Last week I had a wonderful trip to Puerto Vallarta. We surprised my dad for his birthday there and he was quite surprised. While we were there we were able to eat and enjoy some great meals and great scenery.

For my dad’s birthday celebration, we ate under a palapa on the beach. The table looked elegant but used simple decorations like the fruit centerpiece.

The food was specially prepared by the chef who served us a wonderful trio of tostadas with chicken, cerviche and mango. Our main course was steak with shrimp with absolutely delicious sauces.

The food and drinks that we had on our trip were always tasty and they always had a wonderful presentation. The large drink is called a Coco Loco and it is served in a coconut. Here is a great recipe for a Coco Loco:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 fresh coconut
• 1 cup ice
• 1 fluid ounce white tequila
• 1 fluid ounce melon liqueur
• 1 fluid ounce coconut rum
• 1 fluid ounce pineapple juice
• 1 fluid ounce sugar syrup
• 1/2 fresh lime

DIRECTIONS

Make a tumbler out of the coconut by carefully slicing about 2 inches off the top of the coconut, keeping the coconut milk inside. Place the ice, tequila, melon liqueur, rum, pineapple juice, and sugar syrup into the cavity of the coconut. Squeeze the lime half over the mixture and drop the lime into the drink; stir.

There were so many beautiful things to see there but it was also a reminder of how you can be simple with your ideas:

Add a flower to a drink, use fruit to make a drink more festive and keep centerpieces simple by using fruit and flower petals.