What Happened to Saturday?

Oh, dear...
What happened to Saturday? I'll tell you what happened to Saturday. Busy I was, that's what.

Got up with the idea that we would indeed make those tamales. And I have a vague idea of the proportions in my head...we'd bought the meat and leaves on Friday night at Gonzales Market...and the masa. Big mistake. I bought masa para tamales. Aready mixed up with inferior ingredients.

My grandmother would be rolling over in her grave if she knew.  I knew I should have done the right thing, and bought my own manteca and plain masa, and prepared it myself but thought I might be getting too elderly to finish a detailed job. Shame   on me. Next time I will know. 

I also bought the wrong meat; I bought pork already cut into thin steaks thinking that it would cook faster. (Of course, in the first place that is wrong; my grandmother would have used raw pork as always. But I am a child of caution in the 21st century.) I did not deal with the knowledge which I do know that the machine boners of today leave lots of tiny chips of bone in the meat which won't be detected until the teeth themselves bite into the tamal after it's cooked. Thus they were flawed from the beginning.

Then, I couldnt find my recipe. It is hiding away with my BCP and  Bible no doubt. Who 'd have thought it isnt in my hand-made cookbook on the page that I drew in ink, step by step, how to make the tamales, with illustrations.  It just isnt there. All is falling away, it is. So I faked it with the proportions of chile (I use anchos/pasillas like my grandmother did) to manteca to garlic to the quantity of meat. Did not fake well.

We made them up and they were okay. Kind of. I had a pleasant time working with Ben, who is a congenial sort as all three of my boys were. If I dont watch out I am going to get used to company and will be spoiled when I am alone again as I have been for two and a half years before this time.

The tamales cooked up pretty well in the aluminum (!) roaster I bought at the Goodwill, but they are an inferior product. Sorry, Mama Grande and Aunt by marriage Sarita, who did the actual teaching of me long ago. I'll do better next time. I'll do it all right next time, do it all from scratch. I will.