tamalada

the labor day weekend was up and down. it was relaxing and rushed.



saturday dawn and i headed up north to krista's parents' house we planned on making tamales. earlier this summer when attending her sister's grad party, the subject of tamales came up because we'd been successful at making some some months earlier and her brother wanted to get together. we did.



despite my wanting to control the preparation, i settled back and let krista do it. it was tough, she'd tell you. but i did fine. all i did was mix the masa (and even that was minimal stuff). she did her way and you know what? they were delish.



dawn, krista, krista's brother and their mom spread the masa on the tamales and rolled them up. i just chilled out drinking mojitos. great stuff brad!



there was even a request from mary to have tejano music. we brought some over and that set the mood for it.

krista's becoming quite the tamale cook. she's always beena good cook/baker. this is something new to her, having done it a few times, but she's got the knack of it or for it.

we steamed about three dozen at a time, all placed at angles with the open end up, water filling the bottom of the big pan. it took a little over an hour for them to steam.

the test (with this different recipe) came when it was time to check if they were done. krista took one out and started to unroll it. the masa peeled off the hoja with no problem. the new recipe passed the test. we tasted the tamal and it was good.

the difference in the recipes was the masa and the way it was made, with this one having the crisco whipped instead of melting it and mixing it by hand into the masa mix. the consistency was different. it was pointed out that the masa looked (as it was spread onto the hoja) peanut buter. and i guess it was like peanut butter. it was so much so that i couldn't really get enough of it on my hand to make a little patty to cook on a pan to see if it had enough crisco. it made no difference.

it was a good experience once more. i deviated f rom my norm, out of my comfort zone and was pleased at the end.

what did i really learn? i guess things can be done differently than what i'm used to and still be good.