Sometimes you have a “secret sauce” because it’s dangerous to let others know about it.

Remember Felix’s famous queso? All the restaurants are gone, but in Houston, El Patio on Westheimer is making it from the master recipe. My aunt hauls it frozen across the Lone Star State as Christmas gifts. There have been some grievances filed from unauthorized sampling of these batches. No one wants to go to the freezer and find their queso supply depleted!

People: You have to label and hide precious foodstuffs. Mark it “liver” if you have to.

Auntie sent some home with me to share for my mother’s birthday and that was the basis for our Abundance of Sauces meal.

The queso would get warm chips.

My husband suggested chicken with mole sauce so I served that alongside a colorful bed of green lettuce with shredded purple cabbage.

My aunt had also taken me to a fancy Ace Hardware in Houston because she was looking for 3SonsFoods sauce out of Katy. She sent a jar of Diablo Verde Creamy Cilantro Sauce home with us. A portion of proceeds from sales are donated to the International Rhino Foundation to ensure that all five species of rhinos will continue to thrive. This Go Texan product was so good, it should have been reserved for a separate meal, because we already had so much flavor going on.

My mother also brought a skillet of sauce she made with onions and peppers. A restaurant meal inspired her to make her own. That would have been a main draw over fish, shrimp or chicken, but we used it as a dip for the tortillas.

This was just the first meal in Mom’s jubilee birthday week, so we have to pace ourselves.

          Darragh Doiron is an area foodie who suggests celebrating everything you can, wherever you can. Share how you do that at darraghcastillo@icloud.com