For their contribution to the dinner table, Maeve and Luis Pesquera cooked up two dishes with flavors as big as their Texas-sized roots: prime rib and enchiladas.

“In Texas there's a cuisine called Tex-Mex, and it's a beautiful mesh of two different worlds,” says Maeve, DAOU’s Senior Vice President of Strategy & Business Development. “We feel it reflects a bit of our Mexican and Irish-American heritage and we like to infuse it into our family holiday meals.”

With Luis’ background as a professional chef and restaurateur, and Maeve’s extensive experience in wine and hospitality, the combination couldn’t be better.

“Roasted with the bone in and lots of beautiful marbling, prime rib is a great dish, particularly for our growing boys,” Luis says. He adds that they use the cheese enchiladas as a side and enjoy how the spiciness of the roasted peppers fuses with the creaminess of the cheese.

“Enchiladas are a fun dish because they’re very flexible,” Maeve says, explaining that corn tortillas are the primary ingredient that can be filled with any protein or vegetable that you like. Indeed, Luis’ restaurants were known for their Blackened Catfish Enchiladas, and he also says that it is a great way to use leftover turkey after Thanksgiving dinner.

Maeve and Luis also enjoy the tradition of making a full family experience out of preparing a holiday meal. “It’s great when we are all in there together rolling the enchiladas and making the sauce,” Luis says. “The more hands you have in there, the easier it is to do. There's always a lot of laughter, a lot of fun.”

Watch Maeve's Story:

Enchilada Sauce Instructions:

Cut peppers length wise to remove as many seeds as possible

For a couple of minutes toss and toast the seeded peppers with the olive oil in a large sauté pan to release the natural pepper oils and flavor.

Place the peppers in a bowl and cover with 2 inches of boiling hot water for approximately 20 minutes to hydrate.

Pour the 4 cups of crushed tomatoes into a food processor and blend until smooth. Pour tomatoes into a stock pot along with a 13oz can of tomato paste. Simmer for 20 minutes while stirring occasionally

Destem the peppers, remove any excess seeds, and reserve the chili water.

With 1 Tbsp butter sauté onions to translucent, then add minced garlic for approximately 3 minutes. Do not burn the garlic.

Place the onion mixture into the food processor along with the de-stemmed hydrated peppers, 1 TBSP kosher salt, and 1/2 tsp cumin. Blend to a smooth purée.

Add the pepper purée to the crushed tomatoes stock pot. Simmer for another 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the reserved pepper water little by little until the sauce is the desired consistency and salt to taste

Cheese Enchiladas Instructions:

Chop approximately 1 Tbsp of cilantro and set aside for garnish

Ladle some sauce into the baking dish and spread to cover the bottom of the dish

Heat oil in a shallow pan on low. If the oil is smoking it is too hot.

Quickly dip each tortilla into the oil and stack them on a paper towel lined plate

Lay tortillas onto clean counter and dab some of the excess oil with a paper towel. Fill each generously with the shredded cheese, roll and place them into the baking dish neatly in rows

Ladle more pepper enchilada sauce over the rolled tortillas, making certain to wet them all the way to the ends.

Sprinkle crumbled queso fresco over the enchiladas

Place into an oven preheated to 360º

Cook approximately 30-40 minutes, or until the cheese is melted inside the enchiladas

Sprinkle as desired with chopped cilantro