Christmas Nacatamales

One of my favorite traditions growing up was eating nacatamales with coffee on Christmas morning.  Aimee graciously took the time and effort to learn from my mom how to make them, and goes through all the trouble each year to prepare them (and trust me, it's a lot of work), all because they're my favorite Christmas breakfast food.  That makes me feel loved!

Marinading the ingredients.

Only in the Schneegans house will you see Ethiopian girls making nacatamales.

Just before wrapping in the banana leaf.

Traditionally, you'd wrap them only in banana leaf and tie them with twine, but we can only buy frozen banana leaves from an Asian grocery store here, and they are not fresh - and pliable enough - for that, so Aimee adds aluminum foil to the wrapping.

 

My Nicaraguan baby!

Gamma and Gampa get to try nacatamales.