On Tue, 10 Dec 2013 12:45:24 -0500, jmcquown >
wrote:

> On 12/10/2013 12:21 PM, sf wrote:
> > Christmas has traditional tamales... my ex-niece in law would cook a
> > whole turkey in mole sauce and serve tamales made with a variety of
> > fillings, but she told me corn (the corn permeated the masa and it was
> > kind of sweet) was traditional for Christmas - at least in her family.
>
> When I still lived in west TN I finally ventured into a Mexican market.
> (I hate going into those places because no one speaks English and I
> don't speak Spanish. I asked if they had tamales. They sold me some
> frozen tamales... okay, I hadn't yet worked up to making them from
> scratch.) Well, they were corn tamales... the corn wasn't in the masa,
> it was the filling with some sort of cheese (queso blanco? oaxaca?).
> But the tamales were sickly sweet. Absolutely not what I was looking for!
>
> I gather the small Mexican market on St. Helena makes fresh tamales (as
> best as I can understand them) but you have to get there at the right
> time of day.

That's so true. When they have fresh tamales and they are delicious,
everyone buys them and they run out fast. We accompanied our kids to
cut down Christmas trees with their families and the farm they go to
sells homemade tamales... the man said he brought 800 that day and I
bet they were sold out by noon. People tailgate these days when they
cut their trees! Who knew? I was glad I ordered an extra half dozen
so I would have some to bring home.

--
Food is an important part of a balanced diet.