A Birthday, A Recipe and Family for Biscocho Day!

This was a super busy weekend for being the last shopping weekend before Christmas. We also saw record rainfall here in Kern County. We broke the record last set in 1931!! Unbelievable! Unfortunately we aren't prepared for that much rain and right now we have a lot of flooding and fear of the Lake Isabella Dam bursting...so everyone is really very concerned. We hope the rain ceases soon even though the weather reporters predict it will last through Wednesday.

On Saturday my cousin David's family threw him a surprise birthday party. He was really surprised and we all had a really great time. We cousins all grew up together and it's not often we all get together, so it was so special to be able to see each other again.

Here's a picture of Cousin David and his family. David is the one with the ball cap on. His brother Steve is to the left of David, his sister Elpedia is beside him in yellow. His mom, Casi (my mom's sister) is in the long blue trench coat, then his other sister Mary Helen. Behind Mary Helen his brother Art (the oldest) and then the baby of the family, Hector. Isn't it wonderful that all his brothers and sisters were there to help him celebrate? I love you all so much!

The next day was my own dear mom's birthday. We had already planned to make Biscochos that day. Biscochos are a small, crispy cookie that we all grew up with. Our Tia Nico, my mom's sister would spend days and days before all holiday's making these cookies. She would then store them in empty coffee cans and no one left with empty hands, each family took home a coffee can filled with these delicious cookies. These probably aren't as wonderful as hers or maybe the memories of childhood can never match the present, but these are biscochos.

That's 20 cups of flour and 4 cups of sugar and 6 cups of shortening and 6 eggs plus lots of other spices and cooking ingredients. I'll share the recipe with everyone in a separate post tomorrow.

Since it was my mom's birthday we had a full house to help with the making of the Biscochos, so I'd like to share some pictures.

My job was to cream the shortening and the sugar. Last year my poor sister Lisa and I did it by hand. I forgot I had this beautiful pink Kitchen-Aid Mixer in the closet because my generous daughter April had given it to me for Mothers Day and I had never unpacked it! This mixer is the greatest! I just stood there watching everyone else work while the mixer did it all for me.

The harder job went to my sister Lisa and her youngest son Isaac (my Godson). Their job was to sift the dry ingredients and then blend the dry and wet ingredients by hand.

Here they are sifting. Isaac refused to wear an Apron! I think next year I'm going to get him a Bobby Flay manly apron!

Here Lisa and Isaac are blending dry and wet ingredients. My brother Fred is in the background, he was admiring my Kitchen-Aid Mixer.

Here Isaac is doing what we in spanish call "Amasando" (in English kneading). With 20 pounds of flour this is very labor intensive!

Isaac did a really good job, and before you knew it, it was time to start rolling out the dough! Everyone got a chance to come and roll out some dough and cut some cookies with a giant pizza cutter. They then placed them on the cookie sheets and my sister Lisa was in charge of baking them in the oven until they were that perfect golden brown. (A few batches were that perfect golden burnt color, but several members of our family love the burned ones, go figure!)

First up...Isaac under the watchful eyes of his Nana (grandmother).

 Then he and his mom made some together. See the little rolling pin? I scoffed at it when I saw it because it was such a tiny little one while the other one in the picture is mine. It turned out that everyone preferred the little one which belongs to my sister Lisa. Kudo's to you Sis!

 I didn't want to be left out, so of course I had to come and get in on the act. Don't we look like real cooks with Aprons and everything? Mine was a gift from my sister-in-law Connie and I love it! The one my sister is wearing was sewn by my mom, many, many years ago. She gave one to each of us girls for Christmas one year. The boys I believe received hand-made bathrobes that year.

Here I am again...I'm a Biscocho making machine!

 And since it's my blog...I'll post just one more picture of me :-D  As you can tell, I was pretty happy. This was a great day!

And here's my brother Fred again, popping in to check on how things are progressing. Don't worry Fred, the first batch will be ready soon!

Next up to make a batch of biscochos? Looks like it's my other brother Jaime and his daughters. The baby, Clarissa and the oldest Sarena.

Here's Jaime showing Clarissa and Lisa his technique. Jaime and his kids actually cook together quite a bit. Last year he and Clarissa made homemade scented soaps for everyone as Christmas presents. They were heavenly!

My sister Lisa and her nieces Clarissa and Sarena. I think Sarena's already sampling the first batch...she looks happy so they must be good!

Next up...my baby girl April had to make her batch too. Now April, that's a rolling pin...not a baton!

Ok, now she's down to business! Now she's got the hang of that rolling pin. She's a natural!

Biscocho making wasn't the only thing going on. We had lots of other activities happening. People would just float from one to the other.

We had some game playing going on in the living room, on the coffee table, under the Christmas Tree. That precious puppy Chorizo loved all the attention she was getting from everyone! I don't know who was winning this game of Sorry but here's Clarissa, April, my sister-in-law Connie (the gifter of the apron mentioned earlier) and my nephew, Clarissa's brother Gabriel.

The birthday girl, my mom also had some gifts to open! Here she is with my brother Jaime and Clarissa.

So what did you get mom? Let us see. Ohhhhh, how pretty, an Angel! Good job in picking this one out Jaime, Connie, Sarena, Gabriel and Clarissa!

There was also some visiting with Cousin David who had to come by to wish his Tia Tome (his Aunt Tome, my mom) Happy Birthday! Thanks for coming David! (His mom, pictured in the first picture on this post in the blue trench coat is my mom's sister.)

We also did a lot of picture taking so we could have the memory of this day forever! Here's my mom and her son's; my very handsome brothers, Fred and Jaime. Love you Bros!

My mom and her beautiful daughters :-D   My sister Lisa.and me!

My mom with her daughters and her sons.

My mom with some of her grandchildren. Missing were my brother Fred's children who came over later and my son who was AWOL for the day and my sister's son Sean who came over later and will be in a picture a little later in the post. Pictured from left to right, Gabriel, Isaac, April, Sarena, Clarissa and their Nana!

They insisted on taking a silly picture as well. . .they are kids after all :-D

My sister Lisa had purchased some miniature chocolate bottles filled with various liqueurs. I had one with Orange flavored Russian Vodka. Oh my gosh these are so good, but so rich you can only eat/drink one so no danger of getting drunk on these! If you compare the bottle to the little crystal twinkle light you can see how really miniature they are.

Here's Jaime and April both enjoying a chocolate liqueur. Don't worry, even though he's my baby brother and she's my baby girl, they're both way over 21!

My sister's son Sean was working but came by during his lunch hour to wish his Nana a Happy Birthday.

We ended the day by singing Happy Birthday to my mom and taking a group picture with her. We had to do this one is two shots. I'm in this one sitting in the chair.

And my sister Lisa is in this one sitting in the chair. I really need a tripod! Santa...if you're listening?

I can't imagine Christmas Day topping this day. What? Oh yeah, well yeah...true, there will be presents. But c'mon...this was the bestest day ever! Thank you all for making it so special!

Thank you Ale, Bebe, Little Fred and Adrianna for coming by later and spending time with Nana and for bringing that precious little Melissa to give her Nana a birthday hug before the day was over. I love you all so much!

Mosaic Monday - My Sister's Christmas Present

I've been waiting to show this one to everyone since before October. But of course I couldn't because it was going to be a Christmas present from my mom to my sister Lisa and I couldn't post about it until after Christmas. Trust me...it was soooooooooo hard to keep this secret in the bag!

You will want to make sure to take a look at my Sunday Favorites post from yesterday before or after you read this one if you haven't taken a look at it yet. You can just click here to go there.

I really don't think I need to say a whole lot about this present my sister received for Christmas. I think the pictures pretty much speak for themselves.

First this mosaic including my favorite picture of my sister and my mother and three small pictures of her present which I include below so you can click on them to get more detail.

Here's the whole thing. It measures about 5 feet long by 3 feet wide. I'm not sure what my sister is using it for yet, but it would look great on a coffee table or as a table runner.

This is a closeup of the middle portion. You can click on the photo to enlarge so you can see more details. Doesn't that look complicated? I'm sure it was.

Here's a closeup of where the roses meet. Aren't they pretty. I'm astounded that you can put this together just using a wire crochet hook and a super long piece of twine...basically.

Here's another closeup, this time of the right side of the piece.

Here's another closeup of the middle part where the roses meet up.

And some more detail of the end of the piece. I don't know what to call this because I don't know what my sister is going to use it for. It's kind of big to be called a doily and I know there's a term for it, but I can't quite remember right now.

And a close up of the rose, in case any of you want to try to recreate it. I know there are some of you out there that could probably do it just from the photograph, right? I know my mom could.

And that's my sister's Christmas present. Lucky her! I know my mom is working on something else right now...Hmmmm, I wonder who that one is for? Any guesses?

Head over to visit Mary at Little Red House who is hosting Mosaic Monday.

Tamale Tradition for Christmas

You start with this. Garlic, lots of Garlic!

Then you do this. A Garlic shake you ask? Well, sort of, but keep reading and you will see.


Something with a little more color gets blended in. What kind of shake is this?

Ok, so a huge rectangular pan with that red shake in it. Hmmmm, what could all this mean?



A random hand shredding meat? Looks like a little of beef and a little of pork.

Ohhhh, so that's what the red garlicky mixture is for. It's for the beef and pork to swim in and blend and gather the flavors of each other and the garlic. Great idea!

Another random hand with a spoon (my mother's beautiful hands). And another big bowl. This one looks like a big lump of some kind of dough (masa) and spoonfuls of some white, creamy stuff. Whipped cream? Nope...Manteca (Lard)

Ah Ha! Now the random hands have faces. My sister Lisa and my mom. Looks like we're adding salt to the mixture.

A pretty picture with my pretty Christmas Tree in the background and my pretty sister and mom in the foreground. Looks like Mom is adding some spiciness to the mixture, some red chili powder. Wonder where she's going with this mixture. Not brownies, that's for sure!

Ok, some more creamy white stuff. You don't see this cook using measuring cups and spoons. No sirree, this is all years and years of experience you see here.

Another pair of random hands mixing this all up. This seems to be a very hands on group of cooks!

So now we're taking the left over broth the meat was cooked in and adding it to the mix. Yikes!

And Lisa says, "I'm done". Mom holds up the arms of the champion helper.

But where am I? Well I was hoping being the official photographer would keep me from having to lend a hand, but alas...we all have to take our turn. Do I look happy to have my hands in this ooey, gooey mixture?

Back to the meat mixture on the stove. Mmmmm, ok, so now the flavors and the colors have blended. Could we be close to seeing what all this work is going to produce?

I tell you, I could just eat this whole thing with a spoon. Someone STOP ME!

Is this it? Is this the finished product? No...can't be. Why that's just a big bowl of dough (masa) and a bowl of black olives and some of the beef/pork red chili mixture. So what do we do with this now?

Little sister Lisa seems to be experienced in what to use these items for. Ok...so I see she has a corn husk in the left hand and she's smoothing some of the masa onto it with a spoon.

And Voila! The finished product. A red chili beef/pork/black olive T.A.M.A.L.E. That spells delicious Christmas food to me!

Lisa is GOOD! She's got quite the assembly line going. Good thing they have an official photographer :-)

All lined up and ready for a steamy bath.


There's an art to packing Tamales in the Tamale Pot. The Tamales don't get boiled or baked...they get steamed. I get steamed sometimes too, but that's a whole different story!

See that thing with the holes in it? That sits up on a little ledge formed into the pot which lets the tamales sit about 2 or 3 inches above the boiling water that gently steams them until they're cooked. Ingenious!

And this...this lovely, delicious, perfect item is what comes of all this work. The perfect Tamale.
The Christmas Tamale. Oh yes, other's may have their perfect Christmas Ham/Duck/Turkey/Pot Roast/Tuna Sandwich...whatever. But to our family there is nothing like the Christmas Tamale.

Was it worth it ladies? Ladies? LADIES!!! Ok, see...they aren't listening. They are way too busy just enjoying their tamales.

And the brains behind this operation? Yep, mom. She's been making tamales for Christmas as long as I can remember. And every year she says, "Next year we aren't making Tamales, it's too much work". And every year right after Thanksgiving Dinner she's asking, "So when are we getting together to make Tamales?"

Thank you mom. Long after Lisa has gone home and the official photographer has drifted off to go blog, you continue on. Packing the next batch of Tamales and the next and the next. Enough so that each of your kids and grand-kids has enough to eat at Christmas and enough to take home to enjoy throughout the rest of the holiday. We love you mom. Thank you for always having the strength and the love to make our Christmas Tamale dreams come true.

I hope you enjoyed this post. I know it was long, with lots of pictures but Tamale making is not for the feint of heart. It's a longgggggggg drawn out process. I'm linking up to Designs by Gollum for Foodie Friday.