Tamale Party

The island was turned into a production area. Grandma and Tio Steve had been preparing the carnes (meats), and masa (dough) for days. As in most Christmas traditions here in San Antonio we only venture into making tamales at Christmas time. It is a very laborous and long process and as my sister says, "I know a good little place where we can just buy them!

We got there at the tail end of the process and helped just a little.

We thought Tio Steve's friends were going to help. As Grandma said his friends will all be there helping. So we showed up a little bit later. Everyone started showing up later and later. As it is very one loves to eat home made tamales, but few want to put in the time to help.

Lee kid wrangled by having the kids eat snacks.

Here we are waiting impatiently for the tamales to finally be cooked. It is a long slow process and they should be properly vapor steamed.

Here is Tio Steve checking again. Grandma got after us for opening the lid too many times! What can we say there is nothing like home made tamales!

The fruits of our labor.

We don't serve a lot of side dishes with tamales. The tamales are drizzled with chili gravy and are to be savored for their well combined spices, their just amount of carne to masa ratio, and their overall flavor. It made for a great evening.