Preparing For New Year's: Tamales

Above, warming up Erlinda's tamales in the crock pot. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

There's one family tradition that I won't let go, and that's having tamales for New Year's Eve.

New Year's will be here before we know it and I made a note in my phone's calendar to order a two dozen tamales from Erlnda's Tamale Shop in Gallup.

I ordered 2 dozen last year and they were very good.

Back in L.A., my family used to order several dozen tamales from Ramona's in Gardena for their New Year's Eve parties. These were their restaurant tamales. There would be long lines of people waiting to buy tamales just before New Year's Eve.