The holiday season officialy began at our house yesterday, when my wife came home with three dozen tamales.  One dozen each of regular, spicey, and bean.  Bean, as in, tamales stuffed with beans instead of meat.  There are a couple of different families in our small town who churn out enormous quantities of excellent tamales during this time of year, and these were very good.


Quite some time ago, I got my hands on a jar of Billy Beans I Scream Hot Salsa.  This is a jalapeño salsa, not habanero, but unlike most store-bought salsas, it actually has some heat.  It also has excellent flavor.  For lunch today I had some of the "spicey" tamales slathered with this salsa.

I think the most popular tamales in San Antonio are made by Reuben's at the corner of Rigsby and Roland.  During Thanksgiving week, there will be a line of people halfway down the block waiting to get some of their tamales.  My uncle always gets several dozen from there for our annual holiday gatherings.