Mole Mushroom Tamales: I remember when I first became a vegetarian years ago it’s was the hardest adjustment to make during Christmas time…. because TAMALES. I was taught at a young age to make my own tamales and wanted to continue on with that tradition… but prepared masa 99.9% of the time has lard in it. I was going crazy calling every Mexican market that sold prepared masa and googling vegan tamales to see if I could buy 10 pounds of  lard-less masa. No luck. It was something the city was in desperate need of, and yet no one was doing it. I ended up making my own masa that year.