Little Pockets of Yummy

This past Saturday in our house was Empanada Day. Empanadas are savory fried turnovers. Sometimes you can find savory empanadas, but my husbands specialty are a Paraguayan tradition. Making empanadas with three children turned into a most of the day experience, but it was so worth it.

Jon started the process at 7am by hard boiling 1 dozen eggs. I then peeled and chopped the eggs. After the eggs cooled we shredded a whole block of Monterrey Jack cheese and mixed it in with the eggs. For the meat filling he took a 2 pound should steak trimmed the excess fat and ground it up in the food processor. Also grind up 2 large onion and several cloves of garlic. Before browning the meat finely dice a tomato in Olive Oil in the pan until fragrant. Add the meat and brown. To the browned meat add rice, no mambie pambie minute stuff, real deal long grain takes 20 minutes to make, you will thank me for that tip.

Once the fillings have cooled, you have taken your monthly trip to Costco, unloaded and put away all your wares, feed your littles and put them down to rest it's time for the real work to begin.

First, we clean. Scrub, scrub, scrub..

Now dirty up that freshly cleaned counter top with flour, sprinkle, sprinkle 

<---- You will need some of these, ours came from the local Hispanic super mercado.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sprinkle with a little Paraguayan love. (Not sold in stores, sorry I have no suggestions where you can pick some up.)

 

Place a heaping tablespoon in the center of the shell, moisten half of the shell with water using your finger tip and fold over.

Press the edges with a fork. This may or may not require a "hmph" noise to escape your lips.

Watch as your husband runs circles around you press out the empanadas.

All done, and ready for the fryer.

Action shot, frying.

We are just a couple in and I can't help myself.

Yummy eggy cheesiness....

Mountains of Empanadas

The best part of the whole day was seeing my husbands face when the kids loved them. Coralee in over dramatized fashion said YUM-YUM-YUM with every bite and ate the whole piece that we gave her.