Blair witch tamales.

In what I consider to be another rite of passage in my Texas residency, I made my first batch of tamales today at Lela’s inspired tamale-making shindig, wherein she provided the corn husks, masa, and steamer, and each attendee brought a different filling. My folded corn husks ended up resembling nothing so much as the effigies from The Blair Witch Project, but they turned out tasty enough. My contribution was of the dessert tamale persuasion: chocolate chips and pecans (the Texas state nut!) dusted with cinnamon and cayenne (in an attempt to replicate the flavors of Mexican chocolate). Next time I would up the spice factor and maybe use a less sweet, more complex chocolate (Scharffen Berger would have been incredible) but all in all, not bad. It was kind of like Tollhouse pie, in tamale form—a bite or two went a long way. I even got my own batch of sweet masa to work with, which tasted like cookie dough.

After the tamales were assembled, everyone took home some of each type of tamale for future enjoyment. In my case, Lela was even so kind as to volunteer to steam my tamales (since they are evidently not microwave-friendly, and tragically I did actually ask if they were) and bring them to me at work, on account of I lack a steamer. I look forward to trying the other varieties. Among the delicious refreshments we enjoyed at this fiesta were rice with lime and cilantro, beans, Mexican wedding cookies, and Mexican hot chocolate.

What I learned: it is very difficult to do irrevocable damage to a tamale, no matter how dubious your technique; when in doubt, grab another corn husk to wrap around any cosmetic or structural mishaps and pretend they never happened.

Lela’s neighborhood reminds me a bit of San Francisco, in that it’s full of funky, brightly colored houses whose floors have been converted into individual units. Lots of character. It was a welcome contrast to the soulless beige and noise-besotted biosphere in which I currently dwell and a valuable reminder that there are plenty of more inviting (or at least more interesting) living situations lurking out there when my lease is up in July.

One of the best things I saw all day was a big cactus with Christmas ornaments stuck atop its leaves (fronds?). I lament that Shutter Island was not with me at the time and I was therefore unable to photo-document it.

If this post is riddled with typos or just generally lackluster prose, I would like to officially blame my attendance at a librarian party last night because—whether a well-known fact or not—librarians (at least in Boise and apparently in Austin, too) are ferociously hard partiers.

I’m still recovering.