For many years, the Abina family, from the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas has gathered at my mother-in-law’s home on Haas Drive in mid-to-late December for the annual tradition of making tamales. This year is no exception; and in the last few years, my sister-in-law (Jennifer) has taken the tradition beyond the family and offered tamales for sale to friends and co-workers, which often requires the help of other family members, including yours truly.

For those who have never had the experience of being on a tamale assembly line, it is hard to appreciate the labor intensive process of making these delicious wraps. We usually make several different varieties, including pork, chicken, cheese, and cheese and jalapeno.

The term assembly line is no exaggeration. Based on the number of steps in creating a tamale, it should take no less than five people on “the line” to 1) spread the masa onto the corn husks (preferably two people); 2) add the primary filling; 3) spoon-in the sauce; and 4) wrap the tamales and stack them in a pot. This doesn’t include the preparation process of mixing the masa and sauce, preparing the fillings - both of which are usually done prior to the family gathering - and the last step of steam-cooking the tamales.

The masa is corn based and can be made from scratch, purchased in an instant mix or bought in a pre-mixed dough. In the fifteen years I’ve been involved, we have always bought it pre-mixed, but then added our own ingredients based on Grandma Armeda’s recipe.

I’ve mixed it by hand more than once; and I mean literally by hand, working the concoction of up to 20 lbs. at a time from the consistency of frozen ice cream into something that is between cookie dough and cake batter. Trust me, it’s no easy task.

The entire process of making tamales just for the family is usually spread over 2-4 days with the most labor intensive – and family intensive – part that can take the better part of an entire waking day. The family usually starts gathering to make the tamales in the mid-afternoon and, if we’re lucky, may get a sample by 10:00 p.m. This year we made approximately 75 dozen, which required 100 lbs. of masa.

The recipe we use for our tamales is one that has been handed down from Grandma Armeda (Abina) - and probably generations before - to her son Eddie Abina. Grandma Armeda operated a restaurant across the street from the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, California for many years until a business dispute caused her to relinquish her interest in the late 1970’s. She then opened the La Paisana restaurant in Sunnyvale (CA), which closed in 1997 when she moved to Kansas City, Missouri and operated a small restaurant in the Armourdale neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas from 1997 to 2002. It is in these restaurants that she served the tamales we now enjoy only at Christmas time. She has since retired from the restaurant business, but at 82 years of age, still sells tamales from her home during the holidays.

As with most traditions, it can be a challenge to carry it on to the next generation. So too with this one where we may have trouble keeping it alive beyond Armeda’s grandchildren. In any case, we have made many wonderful memories that we can share with our children giving them an opportunity to carry it on to their kids.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!