Tamales

Tamales

What You Need

5 or 6 lbs pork shoulder steaks

2 and 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic

3 jalapenos chopped

1/2 to 1 pint salsa or one can of rotel

1 and 1/2 cup margarine

4 cups broth (you will make this)

4 cups Tamale instant corn mix

1 or 2 packs corn husk

                                         Tamale Recipe: Makes approximately 80 tamales

 Rinse pork steaks and put them in a large stock pot and fill with water. Add the garlic at this point and you can also add some concentrated stock or bullion cubes (personal preference). 

This is going to give you two of the ingredients you will use.

Cook on medium to low heat until they fall apart. This takes a good amount of time so I split the entire process into two days. Feel free to go at your own pace.

When the pork steaks start falling apart when you stir them they are done. Remove from heat and let cool. When they are cool enough to handle separate the meat from the broth and set the broth aside. Now you are ready to clean and prepare your meat. I use three bowls for this process. One bowl has the the meat you just removed from the broth and you will use one bowl for the unwanted fat and bones etc. And last but not least the third bowl is for the cleaned meat. When you clean the meat you will want to do this with your hands because there can be small slivers of bone/small pieces of bone that you will not want to bite into later while you are enjoying a tasty tamale. During this process remove all fat and bone and anything undesirable to you and discard. After meat is to your satisfaction place back in the broth. Now you can either reheat or refrigerate at this point. If you continue on skip next part. If you have refrigerated your meat you will take it out the next day. When you get it out of the refrigerator there will be a layer of concentrated fat on the top. Skim that off and place in a bowl and set aside, you will use that later.




You are now ready to put the corn husk in water to soak. I use a turkey roasting pan because it is large but shallow, it works perfect for this and set them aside.




Separate all of your meat from the broth at this point. Set the broth aside in a medium size bowl
 NOTE: The broth should still be cool from the refrigerator or close to room temperature if you have continued on the same day.




Put all of the meat in a large skillet and add rotel or homemade salsa and cut up peppers. I do not add salt and pepper because I feel that there is enough seasoning already. Simmer for approximately an hour. At this point you will want your meat to be moist only. Remove from heat and set aside.




Now you are ready to mix the Masa
Combine:  4 cups Masa mix
4 cups cooled broth
 (if you have skimmed the fat previously this will be part of the 4 cups broth)
 1 1/2 cups of margarine (soft not warm)
Mix completely and set aside. The consistency should be like paste.
You can always refer to directions on the Masa bag, I have tweaked this recipe.
Get your steamer started on the heat.




You are now ready to start rolling your tamales.
Place all of your ingredients in a row for easy preparation.
Get a corn husk out of the water and place on work space (do not dry).
For large tamales...
Place a large tablespoon of Masa paste onto large husk down the center the long way.
Place a large teaspoon of meat down the center firmly into Masa mix.
Take one side of the husk and fold over to the other side of the husk and push down on the other side of the meat and Masa and pull back against it then roll forward and fold small end over to close that end off. Set aside and continue till you have enough to fill the steamer.




30 fit nicely into my large steamer. Place folded end down.
 These will steam for 30-45 minutes until done. Every stove is different so always check to make sure they are done. When the Masa is done it will have risen around the meat and spring back to the touch. If it does not spring back they are not done. Once they are done set them on a cooling rack and start the rest of your tamales to steam. Always make sure you have enough water in the steamer.

Because these are large tamales I freeze 6 per bag.






Congratulations you now have the best fast food ever!!!
Was this work? Yes. Worth it? Yes!!!



Enjoy

To Repair or To Replace?

To Repair or To Replace?

This is the question we all ask when something breaks down.

Let me first tell you about the things that we have that can and does break down.

EVERYTHING!

I do not think that we have anything that we own that has a warranty left on it!

That being said we live on a very tight budget. Now when something breaks down we do NOT have the means to REPLACE the item. We have to fix what is broken, large or small.

The luxury of paying cash or charging an emergency item is not an option for us. So when an item breaks down we start immediately diagnosing it. 

For example
Our dryer quit heating, it turned on but would not dry.
So my husband UNPLUGGED it....pulled it out and took the top back plate off.
It exposes the back of the controls you use to work the dryer.
Inside of that space is a piece of paper that the factory has supplied for this reason. It is a diagram of the parts and diagnoses! Pretty cool, huh? Yep it is just sitting there waiting to tell you how to fix it. So we read and saw what it was and went to an appliance repair shop and the part was all of $33.00 I kid you not!!! Put the part on and the back plate back on, plugged it up and ta da works like new!!!

I found a very good DIY book by Readers Digest that I think would be helpful. It would be handy to have it in your home library

Always have a tool kit in your house for these projects.

I hope this will help motivate you to at least try to repair some of your things that may break down. I hope you save lots of money and heartache.
Along with saving money you will feel empowered and knowledgeable.

Knowledge will keep us alive!

Enjoy

Meatloaf

Meatloaf

                                                                            What you need:

                                                                        8 inch casserole dish

                                                                                    Foil

2 lb Hamburger Meat total

1 1/2 for Meatloaf and 1/2 lb for patties

1/2 onion diced

Ketchup

1/2 sleeve Crackers

1 can Ro Tel or your own Canned Salsa

2 eggs

Heat oven at 350 degrees
Put your hamburger meat in a large bowl.
crack and add eggs, diced onions, crumble crackers with hands and add salsa or ro tel
stir with hands (gets a little messy) but worth it.
This should be able to form at this point (not hard form but a soft form) just so it is moist and holds together.
Now put it into your casserole dish in the middle and form so that it looks like a deflated football.
DO NOT pat down to fill all space in dish!!!
(refer to picture above)
Set in oven loosely covered with foil to prevent burning the top.
Cook for 45 minutes and take out and drain. Now add ketchup to the top and spread to make a layer of ketchup like frosting on a cake, put back in oven uncovered for approximately 30-45 minutes.
Every oven and climate is different so just keep an eye on it until done.

I prefer 80-20 but use what you have it will be fine, if you have a fattier mix just add a few more crackers to aid in getting less grease in the dish. If you use 90-10 use less crackers.

You can make this meatloaf with one pound of hamburger meat. Just add one egg.
I like a bit larger  meatloaf for leftovers to make sandwiches out of the next day.
I use about a pound and a half for mine and always take the other half pound to make patties for the picky eaters!
Make a few patties while your meatloaf is cooking. This way everyone is happy and it wasn't much trouble to please everyone.

Enjoy!!!