I just ate homemade tamales for lunch! Not just homemade by someone else, I mean homemade by me and my family! I first came across this purely riveting tamale recipe on BonAppetit.com and it included a link to the most joy-filled video featuring Rick Martinez artfully creating the most beautiful and authentic tamales you’ve ever seen. I watched the video itself probably 9 times. I showed it to Sarah, then Dad, then the family at large at the dinner table, then to Madison, then watched it with Nick a number of times. My excitement over this tamale situation could not and would not be contained! I spent an entire week talking almost exclusively about this tamale recipe! I spent the following week visiting local Mexican markets, Central Market, Whole Foods, every specialty grocer in town to source dried chili peppers, rendered pork lard, whole seed spices, while texting the family updates: “Y’all — I just found the lard!!! Hallelujah!!” All of this excitement culminated with a family party to hand roll four dozen pork tamales!
Our homemade tamales!
The thing is — this story is not an outlier. It’s in no way out of the ordinary for my family to receive a phone call to discuss “the pros and cons of beef short ribs” or “your general feelings on sonic calling a chili dog a ‘coney’” or “Serving tacos at a party without rice and beans — tacky, right?” This has been a passion, an interest, an obsession since I was little bitty and was drawing Tex-Mex combo plates on Mom’s bulletin at church.
When my sisters and I were little Sarah would always want to play Barbies (so she could design their little homes) while Rachel would want to play Cops and Robbers (so she could play with her sweet set of walky talkies). I always wanted to play Restaurant, (very creative name) where I would seat Rachel and Sarah at our nicest and most exclusive table on the front porch. I would then offer a detailed re-telling of the specials of the day which almost always included some type of hot dog varietal, which they would rarely order. They were more likely to ask for things like Lobster Thermador or Tagliatelle. “Let me speak with the chef” I’d say and run inside to mom. Once they were finally done teasing me, they’d go ahead and order the special hot dog of the day and would kindly “ooh” and “ahh!” at the imaginary taste sensation!
In grade school every school project was food related for me. I was constantly creating family menus and writing down recipes. Miss Joy would make sure we only had Oscar Mayer hot dogs at VBS because any other hotdog brand is out of the question for me. Hell, my Uncle Vic STILL texts me to this day to talk about the perfect French fry, where to find it, how to make it, and why these things matter!
I tell you all this to say this: This spring I’m getting a brand new kitchen! A beautiful, new, ready-to-cook space complete with professional appliances, a 14 foot island, and a 60” fridge/freezer combo. It would be impossible for me to fully describe the level of excitement: like Disney-vacation-tomorrow, Dads-coming-home, First-day-of-Summer thrill.
I’m so excited I can hardly stand it! By the time it’s ready, I imagine I’ll be well past my tamale-phase, but I do think the first thing I’ll serve is Chili Dogs. 🙂 Chili dogs served on quartzite countertops—perfect!
