Hot Tamales!

It has become a Christmas tradition in the the Southwestern United States for Mexican-Americans to make home-made tamales.

With entire families getting together, it is not uncommon for a group to make 50 pounds of tamales....or more.

I've heard that everyone has their own TOP SECRET recipe for the masa, and everyone is sure theirs is the best.

The tamales are made to eat AND share.

Click HERE for an article about the Christmas Tamale Tradition.

We've decided that Ben is allergic to Mexican food, which has been extremely inconvenient since I LOVE it and we have lived in the southwest for most of our married lives. Everytime he eats it, he gets very sick. We have no idea why, but it just doesn't agree with him, nomatter WHAT he tries to avoid.

Homemade tamales are the exception....he CAN eat those.

And trust me, we DO. We LOVE them. They're like potato chips for us: we can't eat just one!

A white truck pulled up to our house yesterday afternoon. We soon realized it was one of our farm-worker friends, Manuel, and his wife...both from Agua Prieta (which is just over the border in Sonora). Ben walked up to the driverside window and after a few minutes of chit-chat was handed a HUGE freezer bag of fresh homemade tamales. They were SO fresh, infact, that the bag was still hot and sweaty since they had not had enough time to cool off.

Manuel's wife sat smiling in the passenger seat. She already knows that we think her recipe makes the very best-tasting tamales.

Ben commented that I had secretly wished to learn the "craft". I never thought I had a chance, though. "Who would ever share their secret recipe and technique with lil ol' gringo-me?"

To my surprise she nodded and smiled, confirming she would teach me.

I'm not exactly sure how this is going to work out, since I don't speak much Spanish and she doesn't speak much English.

By the way: These pictures were taken in the canyon near the farm. More stories of THAT place to come soon!