A Food of Love Thing: Guest Chef, New Tools, Pork Tamales

Notice the sign!?! This was a Christmas gift to our family from some of our dearest friends - everyone needs a friend like Diane...my life is different, richer, more fun because of our friendship. She and her family live in Texas, so we have missed her (and them!) every day that we have lived in small town Georgia!

Under the new sign, we enjoyed a real adventure that exemplified "a food of love thing." Under the direction of our second guest chef of the holidays - Oma - we made pork tamales. The process was supported by one of our new tools a FOOD PROCESSOR (that is a pumpkin pie filling in the picture, but you get the idea)! Equipped with our AWESOME food processor (a gift from Gran), we decided we were ready to tackle homemade tamales. We used a recipe from the Food Network Magazine December 2011 PORK TAMALES

This is the Ladybug stirring the masa before we assembled the tamales.

Yes, we even used real corn husks.

Everyone - Master Chef Mom, BBQ Pit Boss Dad, the Ladybug, Pots, Oma, and Opa - was involved in the assembly and, of course, the eating. After a loooooong time in the kitchen, the tamales were AMAZING, sorry I don't have a picture. My expanded waistline is proof enough that they were DELISH!!