Here Today, Gone Tamale...

I've been in a cooking mood lately. Yes, me. Don't laugh too hard... it does happen every once in awhile. When I do get around to cooking more than hot dogs with mac and cheese, I want to have something to show for my effort. So when I ran across Amanda's recipe for tamales on her blog, Coping with Frugality, I knew what I wanted to do.

I've made tamales before...many, many moons ago. 6 years ago to be exact, while we were still living in San Diego. My good friend and neighbor Iliana very patiently showed me how. They were delicious. They were intimidating. They took all day. They were the kind of meal that you spent all day slaving over, only to have your family devour in 5 minutes then look at you wondering what was for dessert.

But in Georgia, good Mexican food is difficult to come by. Despite protests to the contrary, ground beef rolled up in a tortilla with tomato sauce on top is not an enchilada. Iliana taught me to make Chile Colorado as the filling for tamales. In the 6 years since moving, I've made it countless times, but we always end up eating it as a main dish on it's own (it's yummy!) We've never made it that extra step. That is, until today.

I gathered the kiddos. Plainly put: if they wanted to eat, they were going to help me cook. And help they did. We tore apart the kitchen and used practically every pot in the house. But we made a great assembly line. We mixed, stuffed and rolled nearly 4 dozen tamales plus made rice and beans. We had a great time. Was it a lot of work? Yes. Was it worth it? Oh yes!



The best part? After we had finished eating, there wasn't one peep about dessert... Everyone is too busy napping on the couch.