Saturday, June 21, 2008 - Tamales for A Large Family

When we arrived Friday evening back at Alma's house, we were greated by a crowd. Guillermo's 2nd sister Mirna and her 4 teenage and young adult children had arrived from Olancho to see us. Guillermo has 4 sisters and 3 brothers (He is the youngest of 8) - all with children ranging from age 4 to 25. So when even a few of them get together it is a wild group. On Saturday morning I got out of the way, while the women prepared the ingredients for tamales. Later I helped wrap the yellow and red colored corn meal in the long banana leaves, adding stewed pork with potatoes and olives, capers, raisens, peas and chickpeas for a fun surprise. The beauty of tamales in addition to their great taste (and Guillermo's sister Alma makes some of the best) is that you make enough to last 2 or 3 days and so the challenge of feeding a large crowd for several days is solved.