Tamale and Sangria Party!

My friend Nat and I went to the Viking Cooking School's Tamale and Sangria Party, oh my goodness! What a blast!
We were 2 of 10 in the class. The school's kitchen was of course humongous and gorgeous.
The chefs walked us through making all of the following:
Beef Tamales
Cilantro-Lime Crema
Spicy Lime Pepitas
Black Bean, Tomato and Avocado Salad (with a cilantro lime vinaigrette)
Mexican Rice
Sangria

It was a great experience that we hope to repeat with a couple of the teens that enjoy cooking (Charlye and Kent).

A couple of tips I picked up:
**Put a penny in the bottom of a steamer dish so when the water level gets low and the penny begins to rattle you know it is time to add some more water!
**The Japanese method of peeling and slicing an avocado.
**How to make chili powder from scratch.

I think we may try and have a tamale making party for New Years--big fun!
(Sangrias are a must)

Anyone that is interested in a class can look online for one that may be near you:
http://www.vikingrange.com/consumer/cookingschool/cookingschool.jsp;jsessionid=NbM99gdImftMinaFH01BQg**.node1?id=cat13100027