Latin Empanadas

It's the Holiday time.  Which is also a "busy time" for most of us.  Getting the tree up, baking goodies for all your friends and neighbors, and hosting holiday parties.

You know what I mean.  A busy time.

Today's recipe does double duty.  My Latin Empanadas can be served as a main course dinner.  Made smaller to serve as appetizers for a party.  Or even frozen and baked for a quick weeknight meal.

Gotta love those types of recipes.  And...gotta love the flavor of this empanada!  Typically fried, I baked these to golden brown.  Using my Mom's pastry dough made the recipe special...plus easy.  The dough turns out tender and perfectly easy to work with.

The filling is a combination of chicken, veggies, cheese, and just a kick of flavor to pull it all together.  These are excellent.

I think they are calling me now...!  So if you are hosting a party soon or want a great meal for your family you'll be blown over by this dish!

Enjoy!

Latin Empanadas

Mom's Pastry Dough

      1 cup  flour
      1/2 tsp.Baking Powder
      1/2 tsp salt
      1/4 cup  shortening
      1/4 cup water

Meat Filling

      1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
      1/2 cup onions, small dice
      1/2 cup red bell peppers, small dice
      1/2 chunky salsa (I used a medium spice)
      1 clove garlic, minced
      1 cup  Mexican Style Shredded Four Cheeses
      1 egg beaten with 1 T. water
                                                                                                                     
For the dough:  In a medium bowl, add flour, baking powder and salt, mix to combine. Cut in shortening with pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Gradually add 1/4 cup water, stirring until mixture forms ball.  Dough may seem dry but try and incorporate it all together.  If too dry add 1 tsp water.  

Knead dough on floured board until smooth and elastic. (About 5 minutes) Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.                

For the filling:  In a large skillet cook chicken, onions and peppers on medium-high heat 8 min. until chicken is done. Add salsa and garlic stirring to combine.  Cool 10 minutes.  Once cool, stir cheese into chicken mixture.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Divide dough into 6 pieces and roll out each piece in to a 7-inch round. (For appetizer use a 3 or 4" round)   Place parchment paper on a baking sheet.  

Place dough on parchment and fill with about 1/2 c of the chicken mix the middle of the round.  Brush edges with beaten egg and pull the  top edge of dough over the filling.  Seal on the bottom with a fork.  Brush tops with remaining egg.wash.  Bake 18-20 minutes.

Eggnog Muffins

Oh, the weather outside is frightful

But the fire is so delightful

And since we've no place to go

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

I just love that song don't you?  It is a such a beautiful seasonal song.

Not likely that it is going to snow anytime soon in Los Angeles, but a girl can dream can't she?

This time of year screams holidays and holidays scream winter food.  Like eggnog.  We have eggnog every year cause MGG loves, loves, loves it!  Me...ehhh.  It's okay and I'll have a glass here and there but it's not on my top 10 list of holiday treats, like say....FUDGE!

But we do enjoy some and I enjoy using the leftovers even more.  Last year I brought you Eggnog Waffles which are spectacular!  This year I used my leftover eggnog to flavor up some wonderful Eggnog Muffins.  You know how I love my muffins!  I have tons and tons of recipes out there for you.  

But...these Eggnog Muffins are special.  They are spiced just right with a moist and fluffy inside and a sweet crunchy outside!  I really can't think of a better use for eggnog.  I'm sure that MGG can, but for now, these are at the top of my list!

Enjoy the season!


Eggnog Muffins

makes 6 muffins

2 T melted butter
3 T splenda bake sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup plus 2 T lite eggnog
Topping
Splenda brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray a 6 serving muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl add butter and sugar and mix well until fluffy. Add the egg and blend. Add the baking powder, nutmeg, salt, and vanilla, flour and eggnog. Mix until just incorporated. Batter will be a little thick.

Scoop the batter evenly into the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle a little brown sugar over the top of each muffin.

Bake 18-20 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes in the pan and then transfer the muffins to a wire rack to cool before serving.

Harvest Cobb Salad

Overindulgent during Thanksgiving?

Get back on track with this wonderful Harvest Salad.  Not long ago I had pinned this recipe on Pinterest (yeah baby!) which comes from the blog A Spicy Perspective by Sommer Collier.  She has an excellent blog! Stop by and say Hi!

So I quickly made this salad substituting a homemade ranch dressing instead of the one she made. Using some help from leftovers is a great way to put together a salad.  If you don't have leftovers you can always grab some of the ingredients from your grocery store's salad bar.

What makes this salad unique are the roasted butternut squash, and spiced pecans.  These are in place of blue cheese and tomatoes which are typically in a Cobb Salad.  I had leftover roasted butternut squash from dinner the other night, and leftover roasted chicken as well.  

MGG loves hard boiled eggs so we had a couple on hand as well.  Really all there was to do was to cook some bacon, and spice up the pecans.  

Simple to put together and tasty to eat!  This salad is a deconstructed salad, each ingredient laying side by side over a bed of romaine lettuce.  You can put this together mixed together if you want.  It's all good!

MGG loved, loved, loved, this salad.  He promptly requested that I make it again this weekend.  

Guess I need to roast more chicken, and butternut squash!

Enjoy!

Harvest Cobb Salad

Ingredients:

makes 2 large servings

1 romaine heart, roughly chopped
1 cup cooked chicken, torn in to pieces
1 1/2 cups roasted butternut squash cubes
3 slices thick cut bacon, cooked and crumbled
3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped
1 small avocado, sliced
1/2 cup pecans halves
1 Tb. butter
¼ tsp. garlic powder
¼ tsp. paprika
¼ tsp. onion powder

Heat a skillet on medium-low heat. Add butter to the skillet, add the pecans. Sprinkle the pecans with the  garlic powder, paprika and onion powder.  Saute for about 4 minutes tossing to coat. Set pecans aside.

Place the romaine on a platter. Arrange the chopped chicken, roasted butternut squash, bacon, pecans, eggs and avocados in rows on top of the romaine.  Serve with your favorite creamy dressing.