Gentle Friends, since I've been off the grid so to speak for the last two weeks I thought I'd fill in some of our Holiday with a few snaperoos.....
_______________
Let's start off the Friday before Christmas... we headed downtown to see The Nutcracker...
... I had gotten our tickets months ago, and since it was the 75th Anniversary year I knew they would be selling out the prime nights fast!!
Our SF City Hall was all aglow for the season...
... the Ballet shares the space in the Opera House...
...with its lovely ceiling and the lobby all decorated...
... there was a shop with all sorts of fun stuff ...
... I made sure we had better seats than last year...
... this is the trailer they released so you can get a taste of how really lovely this performance was...
____________________
Then starting on Sunday I began my tamales adventure. I've already posted a snap of the carnitas/pork cooking.... then on Monday, I made the chili sauce...
... you have to clean the dried chilies... pop the stems off and clean out the seeds and veins
....and then cook them down a bit... then you take them and grind them for a while in the processor...
.... you take the processed chilies and strain out any bits that didn't pulverize so that...
... you end up with a smooth delicious chili sauce to add to your cooked meat.
___________________
So, Monday evening I took the dried corn husks and pour some hot water over them to sit in overnight...they have to be weighed down so they stay covered with the water... you can see two pounds of sausage I turned into Pinwheels for Christmas morning and some bacon I turned into some hors-d'oeuvre before Christmas Dinner...
________________
Then Tuesday morning I started in making the masa... I whipped my lard for about 15 minutes to get it nice and fluffy
... then added the tamale flour, pork stock I had saved, some of the chili sauce and then just let this beat scraping down the bowl every now and then for about 20+ minutes.... when I thought it had gotten to the right consistency I did the test...
... the test was to take a little bit and drop into cold water to see if it floated, and first time out I hit it and my little blob floated!!
... then it was on to making the tamales. I made a 100 or so and it took a little more than an hour to do. I also steamed them Christmas eve to have one less thing to do Christmas Day. Tamales reheat well!!
________________
I made a key Lime Pound Cake for the Baby Jesus' Birthday cake this year.
... we ended up doing a buffet type of dinner for everyone that came over... Rico made Spanish Rice, beans and some guacamole and chips. We also had a green salad to round things out. It was a very different Christmas Dinner than I've ever had or made, but we all enjoyed it and it was a real learning experience!!
....... and here's the cake all cut up after dinner we served with really delicious pink champagne a friend brought over. It's from Korbel and is only available at the winery, it was a superb ending to our tasty meal!!
________________
That's about it for today sports fans thanks for stopping by do stop again!!
Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!
edgar
