Tamales

Have you ever had fresh, homemade from scratch tamales? I'm talking about the kind where you make the mole sauce from 3 different kinds of peppers that you have to roast, soak and then grind in a blender. And you use fresh pork shoulder, and real masa with a secret ingredient that keeps it light and fluffy. I could tell you what the secret ingredient is but then I'd have to kill you.

We had friends over on New Year's day and made 7 dozen tamales. It takes all day and a whole team of workers, with everyone doing a different task. I was soaking corn husks all night before the party, then I was up at 6 am cooking then shredding the pork. It's lots of work, but oh, those tamales! Spicy with cumin and garlic and onions and peppers; and you wash them down with a good mexican beer-I prefer Negro Modelo. We had scottish shortbread cookies and Russian chocolates for dessert because that's what I had on hand-sounds weird but it was all tasy, rich in all the stuff your doctor would tell you to avoid. Sometimes you have to taste the "forbidden fruits" of life and just enjoy it-calories and cholesterol be damned!