Kind of a wash of a day
Ok, maybe yesterday wasn't entirely a wash, but a lot went wrong.
My plan- meet up with primal_pastry for a craft consult (and doghnuts!), execute the requested activity (personalizing a hip flask)- success- and then start in on making tomales. tamales.
Hm. So- what went wrong. The first hunk of meat acquired turned green overnight. No. Sorry- bad. Delay to return bad meat, try again. Did not like second attempt, as it smelled just as rank, just not green. Consolation pork not likely to behave in the fall-aparty way I want for this application. Try second grocery, they have no pork butt.
Regroup, have late lunch. Go with K. to Penzey's and the new Meat Market down the block from Penzey's. The place is hopping and overrun with helpful sales people. Pork butt acquired.
Home. Start tamale-making. No longer 2pm, 4pm, but we soldier on. K makes 100 lbs of masa and sets it aside. Meat is seasoned and set to simmer- all is well. Plans put in to have a later dinner- no problem. I shuck corn and swear to K that there should be enough from 5 ears. Then we wait the hour+ for the meat before prepping the meat for the next bit: more spice, onion, garlic. Knife requires sacrifice from K's finger. Still attached, but massive blood thing. I finish the filling, discover masa has dessicated in the intervening time and needs major fixing. WTF, say I? It's mostly useable. Start assembly with M's help. Oh. These fresh leaves--- well, they're not really quite large enough. Not by a long shot. Awkward! It's getting late and we're all tired hungry, and some of us with hand wounds. Pizza order is threatened, but this time... no, this time I do not want to be thwarted entirely. I surrendered when the salmon turned out to taste like cat food last month, but dammit- no!
50 lbs of the remaining masa is stuck in the freezer. There's still a fair bit of pork. Burritos, dammit. I can make those before a pizza would arrive. Plus, there's this fresh corn.
Next time: meat will be prepped the day before. Masa: we will use 1/3 the suggested amount and made within half an hour of construction. If I have a failure in acquiring the meat I want to use, I will either give up the notion of making tamales or be willing to use a substitute. I will purchase my corn husks so I can be sure they'll be a useable size... or try to find mutantly large ears. I will trust the knife incident was not an actual factor.
In the meantime, I will look for pork butt more often for cooking. Tasty!... when not green.
In other news: I'm planning on expanding my work decorating hip flasks. I'll be getting 3 in the mail this week. I may have made my best mini dragon (one that's on an Altoids tin, not a flat pencil case size or tea tin) yet: gold and red on a sky background.
Negative movie suggestion: Ninja Assassin. After dinner was finally eaten, K and I decided to kick back and watch a movie we expected to be a bit lame. No... lame doesn't remotely cover it. And I swear I saw JMS's name on it, too- what's up with that? The sort of movie that a 3 year old would have been ashamed to call their writing. Also? Have some blood. No, really. The only good thing I can say about the movie was that I didn't pay full price at the theater, just Netflix.
I guess I'm not surprised I'm so tired today.
My plan- meet up with primal_pastry for a craft consult (and doghnuts!), execute the requested activity (personalizing a hip flask)- success- and then start in on making tomales. tamales.
Hm. So- what went wrong. The first hunk of meat acquired turned green overnight. No. Sorry- bad. Delay to return bad meat, try again. Did not like second attempt, as it smelled just as rank, just not green. Consolation pork not likely to behave in the fall-aparty way I want for this application. Try second grocery, they have no pork butt.
Regroup, have late lunch. Go with K. to Penzey's and the new Meat Market down the block from Penzey's. The place is hopping and overrun with helpful sales people. Pork butt acquired.
Home. Start tamale-making. No longer 2pm, 4pm, but we soldier on. K makes 100 lbs of masa and sets it aside. Meat is seasoned and set to simmer- all is well. Plans put in to have a later dinner- no problem. I shuck corn and swear to K that there should be enough from 5 ears. Then we wait the hour+ for the meat before prepping the meat for the next bit: more spice, onion, garlic. Knife requires sacrifice from K's finger. Still attached, but massive blood thing. I finish the filling, discover masa has dessicated in the intervening time and needs major fixing. WTF, say I? It's mostly useable. Start assembly with M's help. Oh. These fresh leaves--- well, they're not really quite large enough. Not by a long shot. Awkward! It's getting late and we're all tired hungry, and some of us with hand wounds. Pizza order is threatened, but this time... no, this time I do not want to be thwarted entirely. I surrendered when the salmon turned out to taste like cat food last month, but dammit- no!
50 lbs of the remaining masa is stuck in the freezer. There's still a fair bit of pork. Burritos, dammit. I can make those before a pizza would arrive. Plus, there's this fresh corn.
Next time: meat will be prepped the day before. Masa: we will use 1/3 the suggested amount and made within half an hour of construction. If I have a failure in acquiring the meat I want to use, I will either give up the notion of making tamales or be willing to use a substitute. I will purchase my corn husks so I can be sure they'll be a useable size... or try to find mutantly large ears. I will trust the knife incident was not an actual factor.
In the meantime, I will look for pork butt more often for cooking. Tasty!... when not green.
In other news: I'm planning on expanding my work decorating hip flasks. I'll be getting 3 in the mail this week. I may have made my best mini dragon (one that's on an Altoids tin, not a flat pencil case size or tea tin) yet: gold and red on a sky background.
Negative movie suggestion: Ninja Assassin. After dinner was finally eaten, K and I decided to kick back and watch a movie we expected to be a bit lame. No... lame doesn't remotely cover it. And I swear I saw JMS's name on it, too- what's up with that? The sort of movie that a 3 year old would have been ashamed to call their writing. Also? Have some blood. No, really. The only good thing I can say about the movie was that I didn't pay full price at the theater, just Netflix.
I guess I'm not surprised I'm so tired today.