Oh ye of little faith! I DID make tamales and did it flying solo! The requisite ingredients are readily available in the DC-Metro area. I already had the corn husks, and I picked up a bag of Maseca for Tamales. They turned out OK, but I'm not thrilled with the way they taste. The meat is great--I used pork and prepared it the same way I prepare beef machaca. The masa part could taste better. I'm waiting a few days and then am going to steam a few for a retaste just in case I was burned out on them when I first made them. Also, while there was plenty of meat in each tamale (I hate it when there are just a few threads of meat in a tamale and then a giant mass-o-masa) but I need to work on making the masa layer thinner all around, and I need to work on making them a uniform size, which will come with practice. The masa was fairly easy to work with, and I found that a silicone spatula was better at spreading the masa onto the husk instead of the often-referred-to-n-recipes wooden spoon. The masa stuck to the wooden spoon, but slid nicely into place and was easy to achieve uniform thickness with the silicone spatula (my mom would have called it a "Scotch spoon" if that describes it better for anyone.)

I'm thinking of making tortillas this week.

BTW, for those of you keeping track at home . . . I'm a she not a he.

edit: st2, I just noticed that one of your home airports is DCA . . . I live about 15 minutes from IAD . . . there are a few bodegas around if I need to get stuff there, but I'm able to get the necessary supplies at Giant, Safeway, and/or Food Lion.