Got Tamale?

Hurrah! Today, my friends, the Terrys held a tamale making party. There was quite a crowd when I arrived late. Bugger! Though I recieved their invite I had immediately lost it - electronically! Yes - I am now clever enough to misplace things in 2 different mediums.

'Little Terry' was heading up the tamale making when I arrived

All were already busy getting the masa meal on to the corn husks. Some used dinner knives, but many used a new implement of destruction! Genuine, 'Texas Rolling Pins'. I actually saw the things and assumed at first that the Terrys found a new use for spackling tools. Nope, they were just using the latest development in the long history of tamale making.

Using a handy dandy "Texas Rolling Pin" to spread the corn masa

There were so many of us there were 3 work stations
Big Terry was the lead tamale maker. She also set the theme for the party by buying and designing the 'Got Tamale?' aprons we wore. She designed the logo on her computer, then the patches on our aprons. All the Terrys guests got one of the cool & official cook's aprons. I told her I can't wait to steal her ideas for some future hen party.

Big Terry spreading masa and modeling her apron creation

Soon enough there were piles and piles of masa spread corn husks covering all available surfaces - it was time for some stuffing! Pre-party, the Terrys prepared tray after tray of pork in a lucious green 'verde' sauce. The next step was spooning the pork and sauce onto the husks and folding them. Big Terry gave us all a demo of the method. I learned to roll tamales by a different method at a Nancy & Rick tamale party last January. So it was remedial tamale training for me to get used to not rolling and securing the tamales using a strip of husk to tie the tamales shut. Happily I got over that and was soon stuffin', foldin' and pilin' with the best of them.

Loading the green verde pork onto the tamales

The tamales piled up pretty quickly
Before long there were humongous piles of Texas roll 'em and hold 'em tamales, all ready for the next step. Terry put HUGE steamer pots on the stove. She put pennies in the bottom of the steamers so she could hear the pennies bopping around and know there was still water in the steamer bottoms - another clever idea for me to remember. The pork tamales needed to steam for up to two hours.

Loading tamales into the steamers

OH NO! A Problem - sort of... we were out of the green chile verde pork meat but we still had loads of masa spackled corn husks. What to do? I think it was little Terry's idea, or someone's to make dessert tamales. Soon, Little Terry was thawing large bags of frozen blueberries and Big T was making a nice cinnamon and quesso cheese mix for mixing the berries in.

Back to work, stuffing the yummy
blueberry mix into the masa spread corn husks

Lots of hands make light loads - or some such - soon the blueberry/queso dessert tamales were complete.

We all realized that if we waited for all the tamales we made to get steamed, we were going to be camping out at the Terry's home until the wee hours. So! It was time to bag up pork and desert tamales for everyone to take home. We could all take our tamales home and steam them for ourselves. Shucks! I had to get home before dark to lock my hens in their run so the local wild raccoons wouldn't also have a tasty treat to look forward to.

Bagging up the tamales at the end of the day
Before I knew it I was on my way home with a tamales my precious bag o' tamales. That was such a nice way to spend the day-after-thanksgiving. Really, from the shared stories of the participants, it was easy to tell we all really needed something fun to get our minds of the economy and onto more pleasant things like spending time with new and old buddies.

P.S. Just tried my first chili verde pork and blueberry queso tamales: YUM! Honestly, they are savory and succulent. Tamales are well on their way to being one of my favorite foods.

Hen Party!

Still life of Ps - Pomegranates, Persimmons and Peppers

A decision was made some months ago, by those other-than-myself, that a hen party was long overdue. Further, it was decided one such hen party needed to take place - at my house. *gulp*

Wasn't quite ready for it but was glad to host, as nothing gets some spring cleaning done in November like the threat - uh... the expectation, of company.

T'was a v. short Hen Party as most of the time it was just myself and Barbara. Barb, drove up Friday afternoon. The arrival of other hens happened late Saturday afternoon.

Robbie showed up as the bearer of yummy chocolate Chip cookies as well as amazing Berkeley bread of the sort that just doesn't happen in Sacramento.


Robbie, bearer of Berkeley Breads

Barbara and Ingrid

Very-nearly-almost Conjoined twins, Robbie and Nancy

Full quorum of Hens

Uh... uninvited hen who showed up anyway
I think everyone enjoyed themselves. As per usual we spent a great deal of time either preparing or eating foods, and of course catching up on each other's lives. There was only one unplanned bit of entertainment.


Seen from the living room -
The Entertainment arrived gobbling bird seed
Normally at Hen Parties we take walks and/or tour the local area, but as the time was short and the local rather ho-hum, only the most stalwart Hens took a hike.

Ingrid, Robbie and Nancy, about to set forth on a Hen Hike

Late Saturday night, was the trickiest bit of the Hen Party - all six of us sleeping at my house. Yet, somehow we managed it - one each in the two bedrooms, 1 in the spare room on an air mattress, and 2 of us in the living room, one on a cot, one in a sleeping bag on the floor and amazingly enough, a couch to spare! Maybe another time I'll try for seven overnight guests.

Sunday morning we all rose, rested and ready for breakfast. I'd talked Barbara into bringing goose eggs from her flock and she managed a couple of them.


The Goose eggs alongside one of my hen's comparatively eensie eggs

The goose egg yolks are ENORMOUS compared to the 2 chicken egg yolks

Robin works on her breakfast creation

Sunday morning each hen made her own
eggy extravaganza for baking
So it was a lovely hen party. Barbara stayed to visit a couple of extra days. That first night I took a MAJOR tumble in my back yard, having tangled my foot in the loose netting that separates the grass from the cement patio. Barb decided instead of a gate, there must be a gate between the two areas. So, after a trip to Orchard Supply, there was some serious construction going on.

The final job was complete - using a folded tomato cage for a door and presto! A quite serviceable gate so I don't take any unnecessary trip while heading out to feed the hens.

Pleased with the final fencing which is invisible, save for the tomato cage gateway.

So for the record... why were we not invited to your 'so-called' Hen Party?

A Little Fall Birding

Know what makes me cranky? The bird that got away. Case in point, a beautiful bird, that flew all the way to California from the high arctic where Narwhales blow bubbles under the ice. That bird is an Ivory Gull, that flew into Pismo Beach just last weekend.

Not to whine, but I should have leapt into my car, picked up birder buddy Don and zoomed down to Pismo Beach. We could have seen that high arctic gull that only once before has ever entered California.

But Nooooo - like a jerk, I skipped the opportunity, thinking I would drive down to see the bird on Thursday, Veteran's Day. No dice - the beautiful Ivory Gull skipped off to heaven only knows where, Wednesday. The horror!

Beautiful gull, seen here thumbing its nose bill attardy birders, such as me, who did not see it
So, as a birdie boobie prize, yesterday Don and I picked up buddy Teressa and we all headed to Fort Mason in San Francisco. Fort Mason is a pretty spot on the bay, right across from Alcatraz. There were loads of other birders when we got there, who just like us, were looking for a less rare vagrant, a Black-throated Blue Warber, an Eastern species.

A Black-throated Blue Warbler - another no-show for the week
No dice. Skunked by the Black-throated Blue, last seen yesterday, Wednesday afternoon. Still, we all had fun looking at the more cooperative, and easier to see birdies. And I enjoyed photographing the more cooperative birds that bopped cheerily around the trees and shrubs. There were Varied Thrush, several Pygmy Nuthatches and a Northern "Yellow-shafted" Flicker that may have been a bit lost. I managed a few shots of some Pygmy Nuthatches and even shots of the teeny little Brown Creepers that worked at 'de-bugging' the bark of a vine strewn tree.

Brown Creeper, living up to its name - being brown, and creeping
Looking a lot like a bit of Bark
Around midday we drove north to Petaluma in search of Pacific Golden Plovers. I've seen them before but they were still a 'lifer for me, because the place I saw the lovely little Plover below was the Isle of Hawaii - therefore those birdies didn't count as North American seen birdies.

My Pacific Golden Plover that didn't count, yet was still rather a beauty
We saw several beautiful, golden hued Pacific Golden Plovers at Schollenberger Park. I didn't take any photos there, but we saw Mute Swans, Blue-winged teal, Mallards, Black-bellied Plover, and other species as well. Nice stop, and the Golden Plovers did bring my total for lifers in 2010 up to 18 birds.

Up one lifer for 'moi', we headed south to visit Don's daugher Rose, at her work place, a veterinarian clinic. I can't believe I was so taken by the critters at the clinic - adorable lizards, loads of exotic birds and so help me, FERRETS! I didn't think to take Rose's picture. Rose promptly brought out a beautiful ferret for me to play with. HEAVEN! I would love a trio of ferrets for pets, but the timing at this point of my life sucks so no ferrets for me. Still it was fun getting to hold a particularly cuddly one.

So we all out for a nice lunch with Rose & her fiance Nate (really sweet guy, Rose knows how to pick 'em). I chatted with Rose who is chock full of pet helpful knowledge and we talked 'critters' all through lunch. It was nice getting in a visit, hadn't seen Rose in ages.

Following lunch, Don, Teressa and I headed back to Fort Mason for another shot at the Black-throated Blue Warbler, but it was no where to be seen. A Townsend's Warbler took pity on me and bounced around in the sunlight, allowing to take some so-so shots of it.


Townsend's Warbler

The Townsends hitting a more classic pose
BONSAI!
Sooo that was that for the day! On the drive back to Don's place, before I took off for home, I spotted the only Barn Owl I've seen this year. It sailed by over my car on the freeway. I took that as a good omen for my drive home and it was.