Tamale Day.

Its been a great vacation!

So great that I did not waste time posting on this neglected little blog....

I am going back to before Christmas to post some of the things we've have been doing. 

At my parents house this year, we decided to make tamales instead of buy them. 

Everyone got in on it. 

 We used premade masa - "dough". We didn't like the texture so we used home made masa on the last few dozen.

When the masa is the correct consistency, we had the spread station. 

You take the back of the spoon and spread a thin, even layer on the "smooth" side of the corn husk (its hard to tell which is the smooth side). If you do it on the wrong side, it makes it difficult to pull off when eating. These are the ones we used.

 

Before doing that, you have to soak them in cool water. The pot is in there filled with water to help keep them from floating to the top. You have to pat dry them when they are done. 

 

The "spreaders" ...

pass it on to the "rollers" who roll and bend the tail back.

These have a tie around the middle to indicate that they are spicy!

 When they are all done, we put them in the roaster. 

There is a small saucer in the middle so that you can stack like a pyramid. This way, water does not get inside.

We made about 8 dozen that day. What I didn't include was all the work that goes into making the filling. We had chicken and pork. The process involved boiling and shredding 8 pounds of meat! From start to finish took about 6 hours. 

I learned a lot and hope to practice again soon!

Thanks Mom!