Eating Dinner With My Family

I wanted to clean up a bit and I had been wanting papusas, and since papusas are one of those dishes that are perfect for leftovers, it was perfect timing.  Yes you need a "specality" ingredient.  I put that in quotes because it is available at my local supermarket, but I still consider it a specality ingredient since it is not a staple in most homes.  It keeps and isn't expensive so you shouldn't worry about adding it to your pantry.  (besides it makes more than just papusas;)  I based the papusa off a food and wine recipe, but everything else was just lying around the kitchen waiting to go bad ;).  Pantry Papusas 2 Cup masa harina (see Note) 1 3/4 Cup very warm tap water Kosher salt vegetable oil for frying 1 c finely shredded jack and a bit of cheddar. 5 cloves of roasted garlic minced  In a medium bowl, using your hands, mix the masa harina with the water and 1/2 teaspoon salt until a soft dough forms. Cover the bowl with plastic wr...

These were really awesome!  Everyone declared them a favorite.  They resemble our favorite appetizer at a restaurant in DeLand that we love.  They were a bit of work, but not terribly so.  There are lots of little steps.  I cooked the onion and poblano mixture at the same time as the beans and that kept the time down.  Next time there are people over, this is what we are making.  They are also vegetarian!  They not only taste amazing they look pretty good too.  The poblanos had a bit of heat but not too much and the simple mashed beans were really good.  We almost made more of them when we had finished what we had.  We had some extra beans and peppers, and we all could have eaten more, but we refrained.  This is an appetizer for 4 or main for 2-3 depending on appetites. I also only used 5 poblanos and there was plenty.  Perhaps they were on the large side.  This is looking good for the recipe of the week. Masa Grid...

I got this recipe from Mexican Made Easy .  I love kale , but have only a limited number of recipes for it.  I got some beautiful kale in my Front Porch Pickings basket, (oh and zucchini too) and a search of my to try file found this recipe.  I thought 4 leaves of kale seemed like too little, and my leaves weren't all huge, so I did add a bit more, however, that made for a bit extra of the filling when all the dough was filled.  The ratio seemed pretty spot on.  Making the tamales took a couple of tries to get them to work well.  I would recommend that you put your tablespoons (I used 3) about 2/3 of the way up from the pointy end, spread them with a spatula first the width of the husk and then down the length.  My first two needed some rearranging since they weren't wide enough to wrap around the filling.  I had a little kale leftover, so I cooked it in a little olive oil and vegetable broth until it was nice and soft and used it as a kind of a ...