I like tamale pie.
My husband loved it.
When I made it, say, a few times a year, we had seven kids running around the house.
I don’t think any of them were crazy about tamale pie; a couple probably refused to eat it. With seven you’re bound to have a few picky eaters.
So, when I made it, it was clearly for their dad.
I do not claim any originality in the stuff, no recipe that I created. Mine was a combination of recipes I tried, the right mix of ingredients that came together over the years. Ground beef, not a lot, onion, corn, cheese, black olives, a can of whole tomatoes which I would mash, and the corn meal topper, some of which I often just stirred into the meat mixture.
Whenever I fixed tamale pie, Wayne would say he could eat it once a week, that and Spanish rice. I guess I should have fixed it once a week.
Anyway, he liked my tamale pie. But he never raved over my recipe, my rendition of it, as he did over Martha Stewart’s when I made hers. Come on, it’s not really her own made-up recipe. She has people who do that. And I didn’t like it much because it had green olives instead of black and white cheese instead of yellow. To me, the stuff had no Mexicanness about it but took on some other flavor. And it did not taste very homemade, Martha. Tamale pie gone fancy. And what could be the reason for that?
Besides, why would he like hers better than mine? That was just dumb of him. I know, it's only tamale pie we're talking about here, not world peace. But the moment did establish policy in our home: No way was I going to make Martha's tamale pie every week. And I didn't.
5 comments:
i for one am glad you didn't make tamale pie every week. also am one who wished you never made tuna casserole. bleck.
that being said, i'd rather be able to cook like you than martha stewart any day.
I love tamale pie, too. Didn't make it often because it had too much stuff in it to please the kids. Now I don't make it 'cause, well, I just don't.
michelangelo,
tuna casserole was for your dad, too, and for because it was easy.
Who did you make shepherd's pie for? Regardless, please make some for me.
You know, shepherd's pie was easy. Brown the ground beef, dump in a few more ingredients, mostly from cans, and top it with the mashed potatoes you had left over from the night before. Or, if you had none left over, whip up some fake ones. Put the whole thing in the oven and, as we fancy chefs say, voilá! a hearty meal for your family. And doesn't it sound delicious?
So I made it for me.
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