Tamales!

Back in January, we were invited by our friends to come celebrate the Three Wise men.  In Mexico they celebrate the Three Wise men on January 6th.  One of the traditions is a special bread that has a little figure of baby Jesus inside.  The person that has the baby Jesus in their piece has to make tamales by February 2nd for everyone.  Lily's piece had the baby Jesus in it so we had to provide tamales.  I mentioned this to another friend, also from Mexico, and she volunteered to help me make tamales.  It was an ALL DAY PROCESS!  It was well worth the end result!  They were delicious! 

 I cooked the meet all night so it would be ready by 9am when my friend Eugenia came.  Then the real fun began! 

 Aleida also came over and helped us!  It was her first time making tamales as well!

 My life saver!  Eugenia is so kind and so talented!  She also made us some amazing Mexican rice to go with our tamales for dinner!

 Eugenia let me use the tortilla press to cheat a little!  I think we would have been there a lot longer if she hadn't had me cheat! 

 After we made 16 dozen tamales, we were ready to steam them!  It takes two hours from the time the water starts to boil to steam the tamales. 

 Since we had so many, we needed an industrial sized pot to steam them in.  So we set up a camp stove in the garage and let them cook on that.  

 After a hard days work, we enjoyed some delicious tamales!  The next day we took them to Valeria's birthday party to share with all the people that were at the Three Wise men celebration.  It was a great experience!  Thank you Eugenia for helping me make these!