Making Tamales

Last night, I went to cooking class. Even though my dad said I was already a good cook, why did I need to go to class? Well, the answer is that I thought it would be fun. I wanted to do Mexican cooking, but it was full, so last night, I went to Tamale making.
There were 20 of us, and I am pretty sure I was the only newbie to cooking class--the others were talking about the chef for the sushi class, the tequila tasting class ( I would have liked a tequila tasting, I am sure it makes your food taste better!) the "teambuilding" cooking experience--you name it, they have a class for it. I went to the Seasoned Chef, and was given a name tag and an apron. Charlotte was our teacher, a seasoned chef, having cooked for 5 children! We made tamales almost from scratch. We made our own masa, which was kind of like playing in the mud only it tasted better. We soaked and dried the corn husk (we even got tips on the best kind to buy and where to buy them), smeared them with masa, filled them with a variety of fillings, that we also made from scratch: green chicken chili filling, red chili pork, black bean and corn, and, of course, mexican chocolate!
I was on the red chili team, and we were warned to use the towels NOT our aprons to wipe our hands, you could see why almost immediately; the red chili filing dyed everything it touched in a matter of seconds. Charlotte likes to use a certain kind of chili that turns bright red when it is ready. Anyway, we smeared and we filled and then we rolled. On our team was one bossy lady named Tabby, who was from Mexico and was already an expert in Tamale making (I still can't figure out why she would pay 60 bucks to take a class that she was already an expert in, but some people...) and she kept criticizing my technique. After about 15 minutes of that, I decided to move over to the black bean team, but they thought my rolling technique was "messy". So I got myself a tasting spoon and I decided to take seriously the job of quality control, tasting all of the fillings.
The only downside to this whole affairs was this: It was a take-home tamale class, and somehow I did not process the "take-home" part. So, while I was expecting to eat tamales and drink sangria at the end of the class, instead, we got iced tea and peanuts, and baggies to take home our food--and it still has to be steamed for an hour and a half before we can eat it.
All-in-all, a great evening, but I went home hungry.