tamales and pizza!

We made tamales to celebrate the New Year. I think this is the most labor intensive food I've ever made because we made almost every part ourselves (the chile sauce, broths, fillings, masa). On New Year's Day we invited a few families over and feasted on the tamales as well as beans, rice, guacamole, crema, salsa, and dessert. We did roasted peppers and cheese, vegetable medley (?), and chicken (since we are the only non-meat eaters, and for me--I wanted to gain the experience).

Peppers, etc. boiling to make the sauce


Spreading the masa, rolling the tamales


Party people! These are some of the kids who came--the dress-up box was a hit (Sam's in the background, sucking his thumb).


We did not eat pizza with our tamales, but I made pizza for New Year's Eve and I believe we've found our favorite dough recipe yet. It is super simple, delicious, easy to make, and versatile. Check it:
6.5 c. flour
3 c. water
1.5 T yeast
1.5 T course salt (like kosher, though we might start putting a little less salt than this).

Stir together dry ingredients, mix in water with a spoon. Let sit for 2 to 5 hours (top should be flat when risen, dough will be really sticky). On floured surface shape dough into pizza crust. You won't get a perfectly circular shape b/c you can't roll it out with a rolling pin. I didn't mind that at all.

What's great about this dough is it can also be used to make dutch oven breads (the artisan, no knead kind Eva posted about a while back), boules or baguettes, or whatever other bready thing you want. It can also be kept in the fridge for a week or so and it gets sour as the days pass. So we made the full amount of dough, made 3 pizzas, then a few days later made a boule. Highly recommend it.