Hot Tamale!

With the holidays quickly approaching, I thought what could be better than talking about tamales; a traditional Hispanic food made with corn dough, filled with an assortment of meats, cheeses, and chilies and then wrapped in a corn husk.

According to My Hot Tamale!, tamales can be traced back as early as 5000 BC. They served as a nutritious and portable food for Aztec, Mayan, and Incan warriors.

Tamales are a very popular food item during Christmas as a part of Mexican tradition. According to MexGrocer.com on “Noche Buena” or Christmas Eve, families gather together and eat a feast of dishes including tamales, rice, chiles rellenos, menudo or roast pig or turkey. Their feasts also including hot fruit of cider punches.


Every year at my parent’s house in Scottsdale, my family is lucky enough to receive a huge batch of tamales from our family friend. My mom’s friend is Mexican-American and always cooks several tamales to last through the holiday season and they are so delicious!

Tamales have become extremely popular as a food item for Christmas; you can even pre-order them online and have them shipped to you. San Antonio’s Delicious Tamales offers nationwide shipping. Established in 1980, they are the largest tamale manufacturer in San Antonio and just kicked off their tamale-season yesterday. If you would like to purchase tamales before the holidays, call 1-800-TAMALE-1 or visit their website.

If you would rather make your own fresh tamales, there are several simple recipes to follow…but first you need to collect all of the proper equipment and ingredients.

Before making your tamales, you need specific equipment. Here is a list of equipment you need to make the perfect, tasty tamale.

You will need:
1 large capacity steamer
Measuring cups
Tongs
Measuring spoons
Draining spoon
Spreader

…It's pretty easy. Most of you will have these items in your household already.

The ingredients for tamales are also straight forward.

All basic tamales include:
Corn Oil
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Ground Cumin
Cumin Seeds
Chili Powder/Chilies
Baking Powder
Broth
Paprika
Corn Masa
(such as MaSeCa)
Real Corn Husks


Locally, Fry’s Food Store located at 555 E. Grant Rd, has all the ingredients you need to make a delicious tamale including corn masa and corn husks. They even have an instructional video playing to show you how to make tamales.

The tamales must also include whatever filling you prefer, such as pork, chicken, ground beef, chorizo, cheese, or green chillies. Below, I have listed links for recipes to make these different types of tamales.

Beef Tamale
Chorizo Tamale
Pork Tamale
Green Chilies and Cheese Tamale
Chicken Tamale
Green Corn Tamale

A step-by-step process on how to make Corn Masa.




Remember, It’s not a Christmas without tamales!!

Performing Miracles

About a week and a half ago my class visited St. Andrews Clinic in Nogales, Arizona. This was truly an eye-opening experience for me and my class as well.

Our purpose for visiting this clinic was to go around and talk to families, children, volunteers, nurses and doctors about their experiences and contributions to St. Andrews and why the clinic was so beneficial not just to the patients, but to them personally.

According to their website, most clinic days there are two orthopedic surgeons and several orthopedic residents and students, five pediatricians, two neurologists, one pediatric cardiologist, about six to eight medical students, one ophthalmology therapist, one equipment technician to fit wheelchairs, walkers, crutches and other aids and finally about one-hundred volunteers to keep everything running neatly.

Every clinic, St. Andrews performs miracles on and for children. According to the website, each year about thirty-six children receive free orthopedic surgeries, fifteen participate in cleft palate surgeries and three take part in other surgeries at Shriners, U of A Medical Center, Tucson Medical Center, St. Joseph’s Hospital of Carondelet Health Network, and certain hospitals located in Mexico.


I met some incredible people and learned some incredible stories while at St. Andrews. One person that especially made an impact on me was a little boy by the name of Luis. He came to St. Andrews with his mom and I met him in the “waiting room” where the children were sculpting play-dough, coloring in books and drawing art on paper.

Volunteer Linda Pantoja, 68, told me and my partner that Luis had cleft palate surgery about two years and he was at the clinic for a check-up. After watching him and the other children around him who had cleft palate surgery, I realized how beneficial St. Andrews can be for the children and families.

Click below to watch Luis interacting with a volunteer.


It was amazing to see how great these children looked and I realized that the doctors and volunteers at St. Andrews have completely changed the lives of those around them. St. Andrews truly conducts miracles for these families.

It was definitely hard to remain unbiased while at the clinic, especially watching little Luis. One of the volunteers was helping him play with the play-dough and I could see his face immediately illuminate.

St. Andrews clinic is only held once a month, but the volunteers conduct a large amount of work in just a few short hours. Every person at the clinic helps out…you will never see one person standing around. If they are not working with the children, they are cooking food or translating, making appointments, or handing out clothing.

It is truly a sight to see…and take part in if you get the chance

White Dove in the Desert

Located virtually in the middle of the desert on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation, lies a great white building. As your driving on 1-19 towards Nogales you can see the “White Dove of the Desert” sticking out like a sore thumb.

This spectacular sight is Mission San Xavier del Bac, Arizona’s oldest European structure that continues to remain untouched.


The Mission is located on 1950 W. San Xavier Road and is almost a small city itself. You can find the church and next to it a self-guided museum as well as a gift shop. Next door is the San Xavier Mission School and the San Xavier Plaza which includes gift shops and a café.

I took a trip to the Mission about a week ago and did not know what to expect. Not being a religious person, I was a bit skeptical; but I will tell you, I definitely surprised myself.

As I entered, I felt the aura of the church almost immediately. The first thing that caught my eye was the intricate detail of the murals and paintings all over the walls. I could not believe this landscaping was from the 1700’s. There are also several statues of St. Francis and illuminated candles throughout the inside.


While I was there, about 20 people were inside the church. I could tell about half of them were tourists and the other half were regulars who came to pray daily. About 200,000 people visit the Mission yearly.

There is a lot of history behind Mission San Xavier del Bac dating back to the late 1600’s. In 1700, Father Eusebio Francisco Kino designated the site of the Mission, which is located about two miles north of where it is today. He named the mission in honor of the patron St. Francis Xavier.

When you are in the church you will see statues of St. Francis Xavier everywhere. The most notable statue is a replica body of the patron covered by a blanket. On top of the blanket are pictures and letters, even hospital identification wrist bands, in memory of loved ones. People place these items on St. Francis in hope their prayers and wishes will come true.


According to the church, several people have had their prayers granted. If you click here, you can make a prayer to Saint Francis. Once you submit it, the prayer will be placed on the Saint.

It does not matter if you are a religious person or not; you must visit this National Historic Landmark whether you want to observe the Spanish Colonial architecture, light a candle or leave a prayer for St. Francis.

Click here to see my soundslide of the Mission.

In the Spirit of Halloween...

Every year it is tradition for me to go to a pumpkin patch and pick out a pumpkin to carve for Halloween. On Sunday I went to a local pumpkin patch, Brian and Kelly's Happy Holidays, located on Broadway Avenue between Rosemont and Swan to pick out the perfect pumpkin…but I also found some other goodies!

In a previous blog, I posted about chile ristras: beautiful hanging reefs made of dried chiles that are a popular decorative item in Mexican tradition.

The chiles here come from Hatch, New Mexico – the “Chile Capital of the World”.

Hatch is a little over an hour away from Mexico. People in Hatch take their chiles quit seriously. When growing the popular chiles, the land is prepared and planted around spring time. In this picture time line, you can see the growth cycle of a chile.


Hatch always has chile festivals and contests and on Sept. 5 and 6, 2009, they will have their big Hatch Valley Chile Festival.

I find chile ristras to be a very interesting aspect of Mexican culture, as well as the process and cycle chiles go through in order to be used.

Chile ristras come in all shapes and sizes, from small reefs to long strands.


Prices for the chile ristras at the pumpkin patch range from $10.00 to $40.00 for the small peppers and large peppers.

Although pumpkin patches are a staple of American culture, it was easy to see the Hispanic influence all around this pumpkin patch. Red chile ristras were hanging everywhere; the colors are so vibrant and loud, it is worth going even if you’ve already carved your pumpkins!


Chile Pepper Facts:
1.A fresh medium-sized green child pod contains the amount of Vitamin C from 6
oranges
2.Trying to lose weight? Hot chile peppers burn calories by activation a
thermodynamic burn in the body. This speeds up the metabolism.
3.Feeling sick? Chile peppers are in teas and lozenges for treatment of a sore
throat.
4.Oleorsin, the color that comes from the red chile pepper pods, is in items like
lipstick to processed meat.
5.There are 26 known species of chile pepper.



Check out this article, with pictures and video, on Hatch, New Mexico.

The world’s BIGGEST chile ristra?



Want to cook with chiles? Learn how to make Chile Rellenos...

El Tiradito: More legends, Part Dos

Last week I went on an adventure to find a true part of historic Tucson. Located in the Barrio Viejo, is a very sacred place in which some will tell you has special powers. Some will even tell you it produces miracles.


This place is called El Tiradito, or, The Castaway, or The Fallen One.

In my blog last week, I described one of the most popular legends behind this Tucson landmark. This week, my investigating took me a bit farther.

What I find to be most interesting about this Wishing Shrine is that not many people know about it. It is typically local Tucsonans who have lived here most of their lives who come to pray at this shrine daily. There are even some locals who fought back in 1971 to keep El Tiradito alive.

Carol Cribbet-Bell, president of La Pilita Association, gave me some wonderful information on El Tiradito.

She told me that in 1971, the City of Tucson was planning to build a new expressway called The Butterfield Express. If it were to be built, it would cut through major historic neighborhoods in Tucson including Armory Park, El Hoyo and Barrio Viejo.


It was assumed that nothing could be done to save El Tiradito, but somehow local residents, La Placita Committee and Los Tucsonenses worked hard to stop the federal funding and save the shrine. Cribbet-Bell said El Tiradito is truly a place of miracles, and this being the most wonderful miracle of all: saving El Tiradito.

As I have mentioned before, there are several legends regarding the creation of El Tiradito. Last week, I talked about Juan Oliveras. He fell in love with his mother-in-law and soon after was killed by his father-in-law after discovering the affair. This legend is by far the most accepted story according to Cribbet-Bell.

However, I found another legend that people tell when describing El Tiradito. According to La Pilita Association and their brochure on El Tiradito (and it is a bit bloody):


“The wedding of a young Mexican couple was about to begin in the home of the bride’s mother near the banks of the Rio Santa Cruz. Suddenly, a rejected suitor of the bride appeared, uninvited, drunk, crazed with jealousy and brandishing a knife. With an evil laugh he announced that there would be no wedding. Then he grabbed the bride.

The groom leapt to her defense and a violent and angry struggle was finally broken up by the guests, just as a neighbor arrived to carry the blood-stained body of the town’s only priest who was to have performed the ceremony.

On the dusty street nearby, where the priest had died of his stab wounds, the old people began burning candles, a practice that has been carried on these many years.”

Not your typical shrine…

In Tucson’s Barrio Viejo, you will find El Tiradito, located at 420 S. Main Ave. between Cushing and Simpson.

I have heard so much about this unusual shrine that I wanted to see it myself. After some driving around downtown Tucson, I finally found what I was looking for. The shrine is tucked away from the street, adding to its sacredness.

There is an old black brick wall where the shrine is, evidence of the remains of a house. There are tall votive candles, pictures, small objects and flowers at the shrine. Some of the votive candles are still burning. Supposedly it is the only shrine in American dedicated to a sinner.

What is the story of El Tiradito? There are several versions of the story, but the one I most frequently hear goes like this:

Juan Oliveras was a Mexcian shepherd in the 1800’s who fell in love with his mother-in-law. His father-in-law discovered the two were having an affair and after some struggle, killed Oliveras. In the eyes of the church, Oliveras was a sinner and could not be buried on consecrated ground at the local Roman Catholic Church’s cemetery.

As legend goes, he is supposedly buried under the front porch of his house, hence the old brick wall. He is believed to still be buried there under the candles and wax. After time, many women came and prayed for his soul. To this day, people still come and pray. They bring candles and flowers; anything they can find to contribute to the shrine.

It is said if you bring a tall votive candle and pray, your prayer will come true if the candle burns through the next morning.

Even if you are not religious, it is worth your time to check out El Tiradito…and maybe even light the candles that have been blown out.





If you want to make your own votive candle to take to the shrine, check out this video:

Salsa Music, Part Dos

Señor Q y Su Nuevo Son started out as a quartet two years ago, playing at Cushing Street Bar and Restaurant.

Most people would say they play salsa music, but they would disagree with you…slightly.

Señor Q’s style of music is a version of salsa called “son”.

According to guitarist and music director, Manny Brito, “’Son’ is the root of salsa; it comes from the old generations of the thirties and forties”.

Señor Q started their group on the basis of friendship. The 8-man-band knew each other well before they started playing together and eventually decided they were good enough to make music. I have been following them for a few days now, learning about the roots of their music, all while listening to their own style of salsa.

I attended the Tucson Sunday Salsa Social again this past Sunday and instead of focusing on the dancing, I took in the music. In an earlier interview, Manny gave me some insight into salsa dancing. As a person who plays music for the salsa dancers, he explained to me why it is so hard to get people involved in salsa dancing and salsa music as a whole.

“The general public doesn’t know the difference between son and salsa,” he said. “It is hard to get people to come to events because of that intimidation factor with dance.”

Oh that intimidation factor…I know all about that! A couple blogs ago I mentioned how I was pulled out onto the dance floor to learn the basics of salsa. I was completely mortified until I actually began feeling the music and moving my body with the beat.


On Sunday I was watching Señor Q set up their instruments and next to them, salsa dance instructor, Gerardo Armendariz, was giving people salsa lessons. At first, I noticed how stiff the dancers were. I could tell some people felt extremely uncomfortable with the movement of their body. However, after about 20 minutes and a few plays of salsa music, everyone (and I mean everyone) began to feel the beat. By the end of the lesson, everyone people were twisting and twirling, and even dipping.

Like Manny said about newcomers, “Once you introduce them and once they do it, they become repeat offenders.”

I can personally tell you the beat of salsa music is very hard to ignore.

Check out a bit of Senor Q's performace...