Friday, December 28, 2007

Wild Hogs

Christmas was nice and quiet.I spent most of the time just sitting around visiting with my parents, brothers and sister-in-law. The rest of the time was spent napping as my parting gift from the children in the ED was a nasty respiratory virus. I don't know why anytime I have any time off or my schedule slows down my body insists on getting sick.

One thing that I guess is a little bit different about the part of the country where my parents live is that
javelina rove the streets at night, looking for food anywhere they can find it. My mother was bitterly complaining as on Christmas Day they decided to completely obliterate the pointsettia that she had out by the front door. They really are a small-sized pig, and more of a menace than anything else, knocking over trash cans. Kind of like what raccoons are in northern areas, minus the rabies.

Tamales are also a Southwestern part of our Christmas traditions. Ever since we moved to that small town, one of the ladies that my mother used to work with brings us tamales every year. Tamales are such a pain to make that many women in that area will get together and make a day of it, and then freeze them to serve throughout the year. Her tamales are different than what you can get in a restaurant as they are made with more of a white cornmeal, and she always sticks an olive in each one for extra flavor.

So that was about it: continuous feeding and talking for a few days. My flight back the other night got in just in time for me to run home, turn the heat in the house back up, and head off to work. I was a little more tired than usual after sitting around the Philadelphia airport for about 6 hours due to my jet being stuck somewhere in Canada, but it wasn't bad.

3 comments:

~~Silk said...

Welcome back. I hope the tamales in your suitcase didn't drive the airport dogs crazy....

Chris said...

Is "javelina" Spanish for 'target practice' ?

Are these little straight toothed piggies good for smoking? Smaller pigs are usually more tasty, but it depends on their diet. Since they like fruit, they might fit into my smoker;)

Kate said...

I've never heard of anyone cooking up javelina, so I'm guessing they either taste nasty or are protected from hunting. I'm not sure what flavor a diet of alley trash would give the meat! They are pretty small, though.