The Healing Power of Texas Tamales

On November 26, 2014 By DGThomaIn Family, Food, Humor/Light Hearted, WritingLeave a comment

Thanksgiving 2007 is now a wonderful memory. However, at the time my daughter was struggling with life a bit, something she rarely does. As a single mom she was attending law school and had moved many miles and hours away from her support system. Law school is grueling at best but for just that moment in time, I think she was trying to stay afloat and hanging on by a thread.

She was home for Thanksgiving and the kitchen was alive with the sound of laughter, spoons scraping pans and stories of past escapades. My children had taken over my kitchen and I was standing outside the door, loving the scene in front of me.

Kat had asked for tamales to round out our normal Thanksgiving fare and we had not been able to find any. Although tamales are a staple over the holidays in much of Texas, we had waited too late to order them.

My son, Rich proclaimed we would just make our own tamales. In our family, we tend to think we can tackle anything, even though none of us had ever attempted to make homemade tamales. So after a trip to the grocery store we were ready to get started. The plan was to get things ready the night before Thanksgiving and then assemble them on Thanksgiving Day. Making tamales is a lot of work! While we didn’t follow a recipe for making the tamales, we did look up how long they should be cooked.

Up at 6:00 AM on Thanksgiving morning, we set up an assembly line. Richie made all the fillings and was in charge of preparing the husks and spreading them with masa. The rest of us assisted with the actual assembly. We made traditional pork tamales for the kids and black bean for me.

We had a wonderful time stirring, mixing, rolling and wrapping tamales, but most of all, we laughed and talked and made unforgettable memories. All because a sister wanted tamales and a brother was determined she would have them. We haven’t had a Thanksgiving without tamales since that year.

We skipped the Black Friday sales and opted for family time all weekend. That is a tradition, I hope we can continue always and forever.

Memories of A Middle Child

On November 19, 2014 By DGThomaIn Family, Food, Writing4 Comments

Growing up in a family of 5 children is lovely and maddening. As family position goes, I am right in the middle. To my older sister and brother, I was the baby. To my two younger sisters, I was one of the big kids. Honestly I was probably more the baby since we three older siblings were so close in age. My oldest sister was born on July 6^th, 18 months later in January my brother was born. Queue forward to July 6^th 18 months after my brother was born; I was born. Yes I was born on my sister’s third birthday. How I love to remind her, I am wonderful gift!

Whichever I am, one of the oldest or the baby, I was very shy and terribly dependent on my mother when I was young. So when my grandparents invited me to spend a week with them in Rush Springs, OK, no one thought I would go. Especially not my mother, who assured me no one, would be able to come pick me up before the next weekend.

But I did go and I had the time of my young life. For just one week, I went from being the middle child with four siblings to becoming an only child. For one entire week, I had my grandparents completely to myself and was allowed to wander around the farm on my own. I named each chicken and watched them pecking the ground for hours. I climbed the apple tree and I talked to my grandparents. I felt like a princess.

My two favorite memories of the week were the weekly trip to the grocery store and my grandmother making lemon pudding.

The grocery store was unlike any grocery store you would find today. It was a small locally owned store crowded with shelves of canned goods, dry goods and fresh produce. But my most vivid memory was the “drawing”. We had been wandering the narrow aisles, mostly window shopping, but a few things made their way into the cart.

Suddenly, it got quiet in the store and Mr. Teal, the grocery store owner called out, “Who wants a ticket. One dollar for a chance at this week’s basket of groceries.” A current of excitement moved through the crowd. Understanding my grandparents were extremely conservative with their money, I was shocked when my grandfather was one of the first people to pay a dollar for a ticket.

What a wondrous thing it was. It was my first experience with the pure joy of chance and anticipation. For only a dollar, there was a chance to take all those groceries home for free. Mr. Teal drew numbers from a cup and called a few numbers. I watched my grandfather’s face. With the complete faith of youth, I waited for him to go collect the groceries. Of course our number wasn’t drawn and we left without the groceries.

Even though I was disappointed when we didn’t win, I remember vividly, how I felt waiting with my grandparents for the “drawing.” It still makes me smile.

My other favorite memory was of my grandmother making a lemon pudding in the large country kitchen. She stirred fresh milk into a sugary mixture in a pot on the stove-top. She was making a pudding and I asked if she was making a banana pudding. My mother often made wonderful banana pudding with vanilla wafers. She said she was making a lemon pudding and we were going to put lemon cookies on top! Then she explained she always put sugar cookies on vanilla pudding and lemon cookies on lemon pudding! I have no idea why that was so remarkable to me but I always thought it was extremely creative!

There were so many good memories from than that week but these two memories transport me back to my grandparents farm and a wonderful week with two of my favorite people.

Good Friends and Fresh Vegetables

On November 12, 2014 By DGThomaIn Food, Friends, Writing2 Comments

I participate in our local Farm to Work, a program of the Sustainable Food Center in Austin, TX. As defined on their website, Farm to Work is an employee wellness and Farm Direct marketing program that delivers farm-fresh, locally grown produce right to employees at partner worksites.

Every two weeks on Monday, we receive an email reminding us it’s time to order our produce. Last week, my email was delivered, but my reminder notification didn’t display. At 7:00 PM I was leaving the office for the day and remembered it was the week I needed to place my order.

Frantically searching I found my email and immediately realized I was too late. The stated deadline to order was 5:00 PM.

Not willing to give up quite so easily, I replied to the email with a message asking if it was too late to order and included the explanation of how I missed the deadline. I’m sure the order email is only monitored for payments and orders, so I received no response.

On Wednesday when the produce was delivered to our office building, I was feeling sad to have missed my vegetable delivery. My sweet friend Nena stopped by my office. She often has to remind me it’s time to pick up the order, so she asked me if I had picked up my vegetables. Of course I had to share the whole story of how and why I missed the deadline.

Smiling she said, “I’ll share. I have extra.” Responding that it was okay, I explained I was going out-of-town and it was probably better that I hadn’t placed my order.

“No”, she explained, “I really have extras. I was the last one to pick up and they gave me extra produce. I told them I would share.” Feeling blessed, I said, “Okay, I’ll take a bell pepper and maybe one zucchini.”

She sat her bag of vegetables on my desk and pulled out a zucchini and a pepper. But then asked, “Do you like potatoes?” When I replied yes, potatoes were added to my pile of veggies. At this point the pile was getting large enough to require a bag to carry it. As I searched for a bag, she added peaches, okra and a butternut squash.

I have to clarify. When Nena said she got extra veggies, she actually picked up a few extra pieces of produce but not more of everything.

At this point, I have as many vegetables as she does if not more. Honestly, it was like the biblical story of thee fishes and the loaves multiplying.

Although she did pick up a few extra vegetables, in truth she is really a dear friend who decided to share her vegetables with an absent-minded, forgetful friend who forgot to order timely. Good friends and vegetables what a lovely way to brighten a day.

Pinot’s Palette – Painting and so much more!

On November 5, 2014 By DGThomaIn Family, Food, Humor/Light Hearted, WritingLeave a comment

I’ve wanted to try one of those instructor led classes where you paint a picture in a couple of hours that is advertised as something “you aren’t embarrassed to hang on your wall”. I just haven’t made the effort to find out more information.

Thankfully, it wasn’t left up to me to follow through. My granddaughter, Jillian recently surprised me with registration to a class at Pinot’s Palette . She registered us for a class to paint a picture called “Rain Kisses”. I was completely on board for the class but I assured her, my picture wouldn’t look anything like the example in the email.

All I had to do was make flight arrangements and pack a bag. It was lovely that she made the effort to plan a weekend together for just the two of us. Jillian picked me up at the airport and after a wonderful lunch, we headed to the store to pick up snacks for our class. Our beverage of choice was sparkling water. They do offer a stocked bar, but we are too young for alcohol. Okay, at least Jillian is too young. We made it to the class and were immediately greeted by lively music and a smiling hostess/artist. We were directed to our seats where our names had been written in chalk by our canvases. Our paints were already out and a canvas sat on an easel waiting for our creativity to complete it. Jillian and I discussed grabbing our snacks early on, but I suggested we wait until half-time. Jillian indulgently explained it’s a painting class, there is no half-time.

The instructor was wonderful and did a great job guiding us through the process. Our first step was to paint the entire canvas gray. I believe I excelled at this point.

We laughed and joked and had an amazing time. There were two young ladies sitting beside us discussing the female figure and how one of her legs was raised as she kissed her guy under the umbrella. One of them said, who was it that started that leg thing? Wasn’t it in Princess Diaries? I smiled and said, “Actually, I believe it was Doris Day.” The girl smiled tolerantly and said, “Well yes, but we were talking about the 90’s.” I’m thinking she had never heard of Doris Day. Jillian on the other hand smiled and nodded her agreement. I should add that her favorite animation at around the age of three was Betty Boop!

The instructors are actual artists. They lead you through the process step by step and while it isn’t without a bit of effort and maybe some skill, it was much easier than I anticipated.

Since we were going to be out late, (after 10:00 PM) I suggested to Jillian we go for breakfast instead of a late dinner. We chose the Village Inn for our late night breakfast of omelets, waffles, chocolate chip pancakes and hash browns. It was delicious and we had leftovers for breakfast the next morning.

As we ate and discussed our mutual pictures, I pointed out that Jillian had painted a much better “booty” for her guy than I had. Laughing at/with me, she informed me I was a “hoot!”

Friday was spent running errands and getting ready for a garage sale on Saturday. After purchasing a new shelving unit we spent several hours working on putting it together. Normally I’m pretty good at assembling modular furniture but this shelf was becoming quite a challenge. Maybe I was tired but I put the top piece on backwards and had to start over about halfway through the assembly. Finally I was ready to put the doors on only to discover the bottom was backwards, so maybe the sides were the actual problem, but we took it back apart and started over again. By now our hands were sore from the screwdriver and we couldn’t get the small screws to the doors to turn. Giving up temporarily we went to bed leaving the shelf to be tackled another day.

Early Saturday morning we went to my daughter’s to start the garage sale. It was a beautiful day for a sale and while we didn’t have a landslide of customers, we had a wonderful morning together and a freshly organized and cleaned garage! We also met some lovely people.

Saturday night was shelving unit round two. After a nice dinner with my son-in-law and daughter, Jillian and I went shopping for an electric screwdriver. What we came away with was a nice soft handled manual version with various sized ends. It is absolutely amazing what a night’s rest, good food and the right tool can accomplish. Jillian and Nana 1, shelving unit 0! It went together like peanut butter and jelly.

The weekend flew by and Sunday morning arrived way too soon. I am amazed at how much Jillian has grown up and what a caring responsible young lady she has become. I was encouraged that she is still my sweet little girl. She drove me to the airport in her sleep shirt and fuzzy Minnie Mouse sleep pants with the sound of Boston’s Greatest Hits playing in the background.