Taking a coffee break, about halfway done with trimming the sets. Then it will be make the pinwheels and then that's it for sewing today.
For the afternoon, I'm going to make my first batch of vegan tamales today. Dear son and DDiL are full vegans, so no dairy and they are also no honey. As a former vegetarian, I was not against honey but there are many issues involved and it is their decision not mine.
For years I've been saying "this is the year I learn to make tamales" and there was a recipe posted here by a new member on tamales that uses broth and vegetable oil, no lard or crisco and I have both ingredients on hand. I did have to buy the masa and corn husks, but that's at my regular market less than 5 miles round trip. So first I tried it with turkey stock and turkey from Thanksgiving with verde sauce. It came out pretty darn good, I still have to work at the cooking time but they were entirely edible!
Yesterday I made a spicy mushroom mixture, just sauteed chopped fresh mushrooms, a strong onion, and some red chili paste with olive oil. Before I put it in the tamales I'll add a bit of fresh cilantro, I'll make about half that way those as traditional tamales. The other half I'm just going to throw in a can of corn niblets into the masa and make it as more of a cornbread side dish, still wrapped as tamales. One of the places I go to offers a dulce variety with raisins mixed into the masa like that, I only wish that some day I will achieve their perfect texture. Only way is to practice.
Next try will be "Toddmales" for my hubby who always wants more filling in his tamales. I'll be trying Banana Leaves instead of the corn husks so more like the Guatemalan version. Yes, I even have banana leaves at my local market, the specialty Asian market across the way from there, and at least 3 other places I know of within 5 miles of home. I'm envisioning something more like the stuffed sticky rice packages we have out here, Square patties with a layer of filling and then another patty on top.
Hope you all have a great day. For those that need a prod for progress -- get to it, you! For those of you that need a break -- oh poor dear, this might a good time to just sit down with a cup of something nice and a good book (tv show, music, etc). Remember we are supposed to be having fun. And it's all going to be fine, fine, fine. Whatever our concerns, it's going to be fine!