The Tamale Tradition

Every year my mom and her 3 sisters get together and make tamales. I think it is very important for us to be able to pass on this tradition to our children. This year D and I decided this was a great year to learn how to make tamales from my mom.


The below pics were taken on November 30th, we made 20 dozen that night. And were there for only about 4 hours.

Don't mind my bandana, it's a requirement when making tamales. :)
I helped my mom with the masa--
she added the ingredients, while I mixed it all together.

It's harder than it looks...
We couldn't get a hang of putting the masa on the corn husks.

We were taking too long on getting them done,
thank goodness Mom was there or we would've been there all night!

D found what he was best at--flavoring the pork and deer
and filling the husks with the meat.

All done!

My neck & back were aching from mixing that masa. :)

D, Me & my Mom

Then, we made more on December 8th. We made ~50 dozen that night. It was a long day this time around, we were there for about 8 hours!

D doing what he does best!

Me & my dad--he decided he was going to help this time!

Even though I look really uncomfortable in this pic,
I finally got the hang of filling the husks with masa!

We made a mess!

We had been there all night and began to hallucinate a little bit. ;)

I've gotta say our tamales are the best I've ever had! Usually my mom & her sister's tamales are really great, but ours were spiced perfectly (thanks to D!). We gave a few dozen to D's parents and to some of his co-workers. And we still have a few dozen in our freezer. ;)

The most fun of this whole experience was getting to reminisce with my mom about the past and hearing her stories about making tamales with her mom.

We love you Mom! Thanks for the lesson! We look forward to doing it again next year. XOXOXO