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The Obligatory Holiday Post
Dec. 24th, 2011 04:15 pmSteadily checking things off my last minute holiday checklist. All my presents are bought, wrapped, and ready to go, with the exception of my dad (not a problem, we have an agreement). There are last minute emergency cookies sitting in the fridge, waiting to be baked in the morning before we leave. I've written a note to my aunt and uncle wishing them a Merry Christmas. My Yuletide fic is...well, let's just say it will be done by the time stories go live and leave it at that, okay? (Honestly, I enjoyed writing this fic and I think my recipient will like it, but oh my fucking god PLOT ATE MY BRAIN.)
We've also enacted the annual ritual of tamale-making, with the addition this year of me taking copious notes. My grandma is a very sprightly 84, but she has some problems with her feet and spine that make it painful for her to be on her feet very long, and since tamales are kind of labor-intensive, the past few years she's been handing more and more of the responsibility over to me, my dad, and my aunt, and next year she said she just wants to sit back and let us do everything by ourselves with no supervision. Which is fine, but the family tamale recipe is, uh...well, it's a handed-down-from-my-great-great-grandmother kind of recipe, which means it's big on the history and the nostalgic memories and the unquestionability, and not so big on things like temperatures or cooking times or descriptions that make any sense to a person who hasn't already made it. And I'm actually lucky, because it at least has measurements - my great-grandmother just cooked it by intuition, and my grandma worked out all the measurements when she got the recipe from her by watching and writing down every time she added something. But now I have my own recipe for it written down, and I know what the masa is supposed to look like and how long to cook the pork and which chile peppers to use, and I guess next year I'll make tamales. What a thing.
My internet access is going to be a bit spotty until after Christmas is over because I'll be staying over at my mom's, but I hope you are having a happy holiday if you are doing holiday-type things, and a nice weekend off if you aren't!
We've also enacted the annual ritual of tamale-making, with the addition this year of me taking copious notes. My grandma is a very sprightly 84, but she has some problems with her feet and spine that make it painful for her to be on her feet very long, and since tamales are kind of labor-intensive, the past few years she's been handing more and more of the responsibility over to me, my dad, and my aunt, and next year she said she just wants to sit back and let us do everything by ourselves with no supervision. Which is fine, but the family tamale recipe is, uh...well, it's a handed-down-from-my-great-great-grandmother kind of recipe, which means it's big on the history and the nostalgic memories and the unquestionability, and not so big on things like temperatures or cooking times or descriptions that make any sense to a person who hasn't already made it. And I'm actually lucky, because it at least has measurements - my great-grandmother just cooked it by intuition, and my grandma worked out all the measurements when she got the recipe from her by watching and writing down every time she added something. But now I have my own recipe for it written down, and I know what the masa is supposed to look like and how long to cook the pork and which chile peppers to use, and I guess next year I'll make tamales. What a thing.
My internet access is going to be a bit spotty until after Christmas is over because I'll be staying over at my mom's, but I hope you are having a happy holiday if you are doing holiday-type things, and a nice weekend off if you aren't!