Hot (green chili chicken) Tamales!

It's that time of the year where I decide to turn into a little Mexican woman and spend a wintery afternoon throwing a Tamalada fiesta for myself. I spend hours humming christmas tunes while making 100 tamales for absolutely no good reason other than my own sick need to gorge myself in Mexican food at even the slightest opportunity.

In case you are wondering.... a Tamalada Fiesta is a tamale party that Mexican families traditionally throw around Christmas time. The whole family comes together and spends hours.... sometimes even days in the kitchen preparing hundreds of tamales to feast on.

Well, once a year around Christmas time I party on down to tamale town, too.... alone.....in the cool "watch me make 100 tamales in 6 hours with only my own two hands, bitch!" kind of way.

Ah, tamales. Just leave me alone with some sour cream and I will seriously be happy until New Years.

Green Chili Chicken Tamales (ay ay!)

Ingredients:

Filling-
About 25 dried corn husks
1 pound tomatillios, husked & rinsed
2 cups chicken broth
4 serrano peppers, stemmed & chopped
5 large garlic cloves
olive oil
4-5 cups shredded chicken (I just buy 2 rotisserie chickens from the market to save time)
1 cup fresh cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste

Masa (dough)-
1 1/3 cups lard or solid vegetable shortening
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
4 cups freshly ground masa dough for tamales
2 cups chicken broth

You will need something to tie the tamales together.... I use kitchen twine because I think it looks cute.

This makes about 25 tamales..... I would AT LEAST double the recipe. This is a once a year kinda thing.

*** I have made the dough from scratch before and it was great.... but you know how I feel about making dough... I'd much rather take the shortcut. If you have a Vallarta (Mexican market) in town..... they have homemade, ready to go masa dough! It is fresh and delicious and will save you lots of time!


Method:
Soak corn husks in water for about 2 hours to make them soft.

For the filling: 

Place husks in large pot or large bowl; add water to cover. Place heavy plate on husks to keep submerged. Let stand until husks soften, turning occasionally, at least 3 hours and up to 1 day.

Preheat broiler. Line heavy baking sheet with foil. Arrange tomatillos on prepared sheet. Broil until tomatillos blacken in spots, turning once, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer tomatillos and any juices on sheet to processor and cool. Add chiles and garlic to processor and blend until smooth puree forms. Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add tomatillo puree and boil 5 minutes, stirring often. Add broth. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until sauce coats spoon thickly and is reduced to 1 cup, stirring occasionally, about 40 minutes. Season with salt. Mix in chicken and cilantro. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

For the dough-

Using electric mixer, beat lard (with salt and baking powder, if using) in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in fresh masa or masa harina mixture in 4 additions. Reduce speed to low and gradually beat in 1 1/2 cups broth, forming tender dough. If dough seems firm, beat in enough broth, 2 tablespoons at a time, to soften.

Fill bottom of pot with steamer insert with enough water (about 2 inches) to reach bottom of insert. Line bottom of insert with some softened corn husks.

Set up a work station:

Open 2 large husks on work surface. Spread 1/4 cup dough in 4-inch square in center of each, leaving 2- to 3-inch plain border at narrow end of husk. Spoon heaping tablespoon filling in strip down center of each dough square. Fold long sides of husk and dough over filling to cover. Fold up narrow end of husk. Tie folded portion to secure, leaving wide end of tamale open. 

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Stand tamales in steamer basket. Repeat with more husks, dough, and filling until all filling has been used. If necessary to keep tamales upright in steamer, insert pieces of crumpled foil between them if needed to keep them upright. 

this is a very steamy picture....

Bring water in pot to boil. Cover pot and steam tamales until dough is firm to touch and separates easily from husk, adding more water to pot as necessary, about 45 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Cool 1 hour. Cover and chill. Before serving, re-steam tamales until hot, about 35 minutes.)

*recipe adapted from Epicurious.com

Old Fashioned Apple Pie and Some Mushy Gushy Stuff.

Favorite Things:
Raindrops on roses
Whiskers on kittens
Lucy
Cocktail dresses
Weddings (and all kinds of ooey gooey love stuff)
Dessert
Rain

Things that are NOT my favorite:
Getting blood drawn (I had to do that today, so afterwards I ate pie to cancel it out. ugh)
Creepy crawly things
Above all: Making pie crust from scratch

I am so good at rambling and less good at getting to my point.

This past weekend was full of my favorite things.
My friend Jenna asked me to bake 12 pies for her and her charming fiancé's (now husband) wedding.
I was obviously over the moon because love and things that contain sugar are up there on my all time favorite things list. (yes, I have one of those)

So, my entire Friday was spent in the kitchen baking pies... giving me an excuse to have a glass of wine at 3pm which is always appreciated.

10 hours
4 Maple Pecan.
4 Pumpkin.
4 Old Fashion Apple.
(annnnddd......1 Apple Crisp for Emily, which she didn't even eat)

MMM.

I don't think there are many things better than walking into your kitchen and seeing 12  delicious pies nicely displayed on your breakfast table.

There are also not many things better than weddings.
Ah. Love them. And this one was so lovely. I'm pretty sure I cried for the entirety of the ceremony. It was so romantic and sweet and it made me even 13654892745 times more excited to marry my own soul mate (you are wonderful, btw.)

There are, however, better moments than realizing that you are your best friend are twirling each other across the dance floor during the father daughter dance. I died of embarrassment and Emily just resorted back to tears...... oopsie.

Old Fashioned Apple Pie (the one on the right)

Ingredients:

3 pounds of apples (I used pink lady)

1 cup sugar

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 egg beaten

2 pie crusts**

Turbinado sugar to sprinkle on top

** Please see above where I list things that are NOT my favorite...... I HATE making pie crust. I think it is messy and annoying and quite honestly only turns out really good about 50% of the time. I've been to culinary school and I've taken baking classes and I've baked probably somewhere close to one million pies in my life time and I will never change my mind about this. Frozen pie crust tastes just as good and always turns out nice and flakey.

Method:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line the bottom rack with foil to prevent a burnt apple juice and sugar disaster... if you don't line your oven with foil, have fun cleaning for hours afterwards..... I may or may not have learned this from experience. 

Peel and slice apples 1/8 inch thick. Add sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon juice. Mix and let sit for 10- 15 minutes until sugar is dissolved.

Scrape apples and all juices into a prepared pie crust. Cut unsalted butter into small cubes and dot on top of apples. Roll out second pie crust and place on top of the pie. Pinch edges together and trim off excess dough if necessary. Using a pastry brush, brush the top crust with beaten egg** and then sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Cut three small slits in the top of the crust so that the steam can escape.  

Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Turn the oven down to 365 degrees and bake for 50 minutes more. Crust should be golden and juice should be bubbling out. Let cool for at least 2 hours before serving. 

**Do not drench the crust in egg or it will get way too dark or even burn. Use just enough for a very light coasting so that the crust will get nice and golden. 

such a lovely dessert table.....

.....and such a stunning bride! 

Congratulations Jake and Jenna Puffer!!!

Butternut Squash Soup and a Laundry List of Triumphs...errr...Excuses.....

Yes, that's right. I have reached a whole new low as a "blogger." (I am having to use quotations now because I hardly think I even deserve the title.)
I am pushing two months on my absence this time and the sad part is that it doesn't even feel as though it's been two weeks. Catering, holiday parties, our engagement party, holiday dinners, family dinners, birthday dinners.... holy hell it's been a busy few months.

Dear Holidays: You are wayyyy too needy, you bitchy little time whores.

Ok. So Let's do a quick review of that awesome/pathetic list above.

Catering.
Yup. I catered my first party... or as Richard says "My 23rd party" because apparently honesty is a sign of weakness.
My boss asked me to cater her book release party for 100 guests and it was a huge success.
I got asked for my business card several times, so now I am planning on making some.

A serious cheese spread.

Crostini with buratta and shaved black truffles.

Toast with goat cheese and fig jam with shallots and port.

Heirloom tomato bruschetta.

Melon wrapped in prosciutto. 

Our Engagement Party.

We decided to wait until the busiest time of the year to announce our engagement to our family and friends. Genius. Not only was I cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 15 guests two days later, but I ended up booking a commercial and shooting for 14 hours before our party. I am super woman.... who has a really super fiancé and best friend who helped me pull this one off.

DomainLA Wine Shoppe was the PERFECT place to host our party. 

We could not have been happier. 

Thanksgiving Dinner. 

The single most important meal of the entire year looked a little like this:

1 insane menu (yes, with 2 turkeys) 15 family members and close friends, probably 18 bottles of wine and 1 amazing holiday.... it could not have been more perfect and it was so wonderful to have everyone in town!

Ok.... the moment you have all been waiting for-----

I am actually going to post a recipe. 

Yes, I do remember how.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients:

2 pounds of butternut squash, cubed***

2 cups of chopped yellow onion

5 whole cloves of garlic

4 cups of chicken stock

Olive oil

Dash of cinnamon and nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

***Note: Peeling butternut squash makes your hands peel and get super dry. Wear gloves..... or buy it already cubed like I do. Lazy.

Kitchen Utensiles:

Immersion Blender (A regular blender will do just fine.)

Method:

Place cubed butternut squash in a glass baking dish lined with parchment paper or foil. Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper and bake at 375 degrees for about an hour until very tender. Halfway through baking, add the whole cloves of garlic to the squash so that they roast as well. 

In a large pot, add about a table of olive oil and sauté the onions until they are golden brown. 

Add the roasted butternut squash and garlic and continue to brown for a few minutes. 

Add the chicken stock and bring to a simmer. 

Season with cinnamon and nutmeg (optional)

Once the soup has come to a simmer you can blend until smooth. I always use my immersion blender because it is SO easy, but if you don't have one, you can pour batches into a regular blender and blend until smooth that way. I just always make a HUGE mess that way.

Add salt and pepper to taste.