pretty simple and hearty, topped with grated colby jack, homemade chili sauce, cubed avocado mixed with cilantro, cumin and garlic....these tamales are filled with chicken, grated cheese and green olives....I modified an emeril recipe to try to duplicate a tamale a friend had made years ago, with green olives and potatoes, i forgot the potatoes :( 2 cups warmed chicken broth 1 teaspoon cumin 2 cups lime treated cornmeal (ma se ca was the only brand i could find here) 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 2/3 cup shortening I made a small batch of about 10 smallish tamales with leftover chicken cut off the carcass, grated cheese and 30 green olives cut in 1/2...i used 1 tablespoon chicken and 1 tablespoon cheese per tamale, with 4-6 olive halves, next time I will put more filling, just wanted to follow the recipe i had I heated the broth in a saucepan with the cumin, then added it to the cornmeal baking powder and salt, mixing it by hand to insure there were no lumps, i blended the shortening with an electric mixer to kind of whip it up and then added the cornmeal/broth mixture in 3 increments, finishing by smushing in by hand to insure even distribution, it was pretty easy.......I had corn husks, fresh from shucking corn yesterday, i put them in boiling water in a rectangular pan to make sure they were pliable, and let them sit to cool in the water in the pan for about 30 minutes, i made square tamales by folding one husk in each direction around the filling mentioned above, I first tried to steam them above my rice in the rice cooker, but they were not getting enough heat, so i put them in an electric vegi steamer alone for an hour with a damp rag on top of them, and they were perfectly cooked in that hour!

My slow cooker is my favorite appliance, followed closely by the and the coffee pot. I'm pretty sure the rice/veggie steamer would be up there, too, if I could figure out some decent recipes for it, and learn how to prevent my rice from being gross.