Pumpkin and apple empanadas (turnovers)

I have always wanted to know how to make empanadas ("ehm-pah-nad-ahs")  but being that my mom was a busy working woman and not the cooking type I never got a recipe, everything I learned from her is simple and quick..

I googled how to make empanadas even did it in Spanish (como hacer empanadas)  I had too many answers and nothing I liked.. I still like simplicity but I wanted something somewhat authentic..  I found things ranging from using frozen pie crust, to ready made from  the brand Goya to overly complicated doughs involving yeast, which to tell you the truth horrifies and scares me.. maybe it's that I love Lucy episode where she added too much yeast to homemade bread and then ended up getting attacked my it  ha ha.. I know silly huh?

Anyway I took things from here and there and experimented..  they came out great, and there is ways to make it easier, tired of pumpkin pie? Scrape the filling and add it to the empanadas..  I did make my pumpkin ones with the same method to make the pumpkin pie filling (minus the clove I think clove is too strong for my palate I never was keen on it.)  and the apple ones were super easy!.

The beautiful part of this.. is that empanadas can handle anything, pineapple pumpkin, sweet potatoes, yams, apple, figs! pretty much any fruit AND on top of that you can make dinner ones not necessarily dessert, you can make "picadillo" (ground beef w/veggies), ham and cheese, chicken, beans and cheese etc.. I truly love dishes that you can make your own... this recipe is a raw one, please feel free to add or take away or to make it different.. if you have a different way please share, I would love to perfect my method.. and  seriously go play with this recipe and share! have fun! I dare you! ;)

You start off  by making the dough of course, you will need:

4 cups of flour
2 TBS of butter COLD
12 TBS of Vegetable Shortening  (about 3/4 of those crisco sticks) COLD
4 TBS of sugar
3 tsp of salt
2 egg YOLKS
1 cup of water

mix the dry ingredients first, flour salt , sugar
add the butter and lard and mix it in with a fork just keep cutting it in with the fork as much as you can.

Whisk the egg yolks and water together and add it little by little while kneading the dough. The dough is going to look a bit like drying play dough don't worry make a big ball with it and saran wrap it and throw it in the fridge, let it cool for at least an hour.

flour the surface you will work on with a rolling pin stretch out balls of dough on the table to about 1/4 inch thick. cut them with a large cup or circular container depending on the size you want them.

Add the filling to the very center do not let the filling extend to the edges or it wont close.  For pumpkin you can use the canned pumpkin pie filling or make your own.  I made half pumpkin and the next day made apple ones..  2 apples chopped into small chunks boiled for 5 minutes then sauteed in a saucepan with 1 TBSP butter, 1/8 cup of sugar and a whole lot of Cinnamon ;).  I tell you, I love easy! <3

close them and mark them with a fork...

Pop them in the oven 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until dough is firm, sprinkle them with Cinnamon and sugar and enjoy!

post by
Tanya E.

Cheesy scalloped potatoes.

My dad used to cook a  lot when I was growing up, if he didn't know how to make something he would make up the recipe in his head with his own ingredients and make it his own, this is his version of scalloped potatoes.

I once took it to a family Easter dinner last year it was such a hit that they beg me to bring it every single time, Christmas, thanksgiving, birthdays etc.. it's my signature side. The Secret? Cotija cheese!  now this is not the time to get picky or scared about trying new things, cotija is delicious. When you open it it's kinda stinky not a lot though and not gross stinky just different, however don't judge it just yet.. the flavor is actually that of a salty Parmesan or a feta, you could replace with either of those if your store does not carry cotija but trust me, you will miss out.

Ingredients

10 potatoes
sour cream
1/2 cotija cheese (you can use the other half for my upcoming lasagna post)
shredded jack cheese
salt
pepper


Boil about 10 medium potatoes, you want to boil the potatoes with skin and everything, if you don't it'll be very difficult to slice them, also you want to poke them ever so often with a fork  to make sure they are soft enough to poke yet still a bit hard.

slice them into circles once they cool. The skin will come off and if it doesn't completely then leave it in! the skin actually works with the dish.

butter a pan, it could be a glass pan, a loaf pan, my favorite to use is a cake pan, especially a spring form cake pan because you can take the sides off and it looks like a beautiful potato pie, commence your assembly, do one layer of potatoes...

add sour cream, salt and pepper to taste, the shredded jack cheese as well as shredded cotija cheese.

keep layering, potato slices, sour cream, salt and pepper, jack cheese and cotija cheese, and again.. I did 3 layers I could have fit another layer but I ran out of potatoes. :)
bake in oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes then move to broiler for 2-3 minutes (watch your broiler so it wont burn) you just want the top cheese to brown a bit creating a bit of a crunchy top layer.

 you can make this ahead before you warm rolls in the oven etc.. it needs to cool a bit so the slices wont fall apart.

enjoy! <3
post by Tanya E.