Life is my litterbox ... Grab the SCOOP!

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Mom's been cooking ...

Ugh ... I don't think that I can physically stand another spicy thing. Mom has spent the last twenty-four hours making stuff for Christmas Eve dinner. Last night, she made Texas Eggrolls to store in the freezer. Mom copied the recipe from an appetizer that they have at the Roadhouse Grill.

Texas Eggrolls are very easy to make and feature one of my favorite things: cream cheese. Mom uses spring roll wrappers to roll up slices of cream cheese mixed with chopped jalapeños. She rolls them tightly, fries them in peanut oil, and serves them with a melted jalapeño jelly sauce. Yum. I like cream cheese that's all melty from being fried. Well, to be honest, I like anything with cream cheese. Don't all cats like cream cheese? Or is it just those of us with "Maus" in our names?

Fudgie wouldn't leave her alone because she was working at the diningroom table and he was hungry. She tried to get him to taste a jalapeño, but he wasn't interested.

Mom made more than seventy-five pieces in a little under an hour, so we'll be able to have a taste of the finished product on Sunday night.

Then, she and Grandma got ambitious and made TAMALES. They're not the authentic Mexican kind ... They're more of the "gringo" kind. Tamales with poetic license.

She and Grandma worked their way through nearly ten pounds of masa preparada, plus enchilada sauce, shredded beef roast, and corn husks. Everything's all steamy in the kitchen because Mom wants them cooked before she freezes them. There are over 100 tamales in the kitchen awaiting bagging and tagging so that they can be microwaved on Christmas Eve.

In this neighborhood, the local ethnic food store sells more than a ton of masa preparada each season. Mom and Grandma even made some sweet tamales with cranberries, raisins, coconut, walnuts, pineapple, and honey. The remainder of that mixture went into some breakfast muffins; the remainder of the enchilada sauce from the savory tamales made an enchilada dinner for tonight.

The best part? I got some!!! I like my shredded beef roast and I had a taste of the tamale, too. Who says that cats can't be multicultural? But a little taste is all that I need, 'cuz I'm not really fond of spicy. Fudgie, on the other hand, enjoys spicy food. He wanted seconds!

4 comments:

Jake and Bathsheba said...

Isn't it great to help out in the kitchen? I like to be right by Mom just in case anything just happens to fall from the counter. I'm great at clean up. I don't like spicy too much either, but you can always sample things before they add the spice.

~Jake

Toffee K. Ripple Fuzzypants & Feline American Angels said...

I totally agree ... It's good to be the feline vacuum cleaner for all things "food" that might fall in my direction, but I prefer it when she hands it directly to me. From her fingertips to my lips!
DMM

Renee Nefe said...

Lilly is a good vacuume in the kitchen too...although she tends to think that I'm much more clumbsy than I really am...or is she trying to trip me so more food falls? I don't know. Lilly is of course a wolfie and their intelegence level isn't as high as a cat.
I love spicy foods and this post made me very hungry. I'll have to try making those eggrolls. I have a recipe for Lumpia from my Philippineo friend...not very spicy but yummy too.

The Fluffy Tribe said...

Our Mom is drooling ~Merlin, sHadow, KO KO