Christmas Cooking Traditions

Fudge, candies, cookies, sweets.... all excellent baking traditions for Christmas, but none of them part of my family's tradition.

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The tradition in my family is to start a new tradition every year (none of which stick around for the next year). This year, I intend to start tamale making as our new Christmas tradition!

I stinkin' love tamales, but they're stinkin' expensive and I rarely find ones that are the perfect ratio of masa to meat. I've made them, successfully, a few times and think I'm about ready to give 'em another go.

They are a lot of work, but that's become a relative term, now. When you attempt to make all of your own bread, pasta, bagels, ravioli, sausage, and grow a lot of your own produce, suddenly the few hours spent making several dozen tamales doesn't seem like such a big deal, and the reward is oh so worth it.

So this week, instead of the typical powdered sugar and butter, I'll be elbow-deep in masa harina, lard, chiles and pork roasts.

What about you? What are your Christmas cooking traditions?