Tamale Dinner

We had a wonderful time with our church family today.  This was our annual parish tamale dinner.  Each year, on the Sunday before Lent begins, our parish hall is filled with community members sitting down for a tradition tamale dinner of beans, rice, and tamales.  Somehow sides of crackers, white bread, and ketchup are placed along with this, but I cannot imagine why other than filler!  The tamales are wonderfully made (no church pun intended!) by the church women (and a few men) to serve those of us who would not have a clue of how to make our own.  Tamales taste so much better when they are fresh.

Then there are the amazing desserts!!!  First we have the chose of a dessert to go with our dinner...yummy pies, cakes, and cookies.  Then there is the dessert auction...the best are saved for this event....lemon meringue and coconut cream pies, chocolate and fresh apple sauce cakes...and so much more!  Edward just could not resist bidding on a key lime pie and we won the bid!  But wait...we brought that pie for the auction!  So we gave the pie to some of our college friends to take home.  After all, who wants to take a pie home that they made?  It was a good pie but I would have much rather taken that lemon pie home...but I was not about to pay $120 for that pie!

In the end, we were able to make enough money to finally pay off our church building!  We are so excited as this has been our goal for the last couple of years.  Now we can focus on building a new parish hall and pave our dilapidated parking lot.

My own personal goal?  I am determined to have these traditional tamale makers let this newbie step in and learn the trade.  I have always wanted to learn how to make tamales.  Maybe if I just show up one day with the ingredients, she will teach me how to make these delicious treats!  If she does, you will be the first to hear about it!