Tamales!

We made tamales solo for the first time. About a month ago my friend Vicki taught us how to make them. They were so delicious that I decided to make them to take to a family get together tomorrow.

Up until now, I have been completely intimidated by shopping for, touching, and preparing meat. But having seen it done once by the master cook herself, Vicki, I decided I could give it a go. So on Thursday I actually felt confident shopping for the meat and I brought it home feeling proud of myself. Usually Dave buys and prepares all the meat we eat at our house (except hamburger or processed meats of course)

So Yesterday I was ready to cook it all by myself. I wanted to do it without any help. I touched raw chicken!! It wasn't chicken breasts either, it was a whole chicken! I also touched raw pork roast. I opened the package and I was thrown for a loop when I realized that this roast had a bone in it! I decided that I could do it and I cut the meat away from the bone just as I had seen Dave do before.

After it was all cooked and ready to be shredded, I realized that Vicki must have spared me some of the chicken carcase joys when we did it the last time. I didn't remember seeing the vertebrae and all the cartilage before. I think she must have done all that last time. What a good friend :)

Well tamales are a 2 day process so this morning we did the wrapping and they are still cooking. Here are some of the pictures of the process.

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