Baseball and bdays

"Baseball in the summer feels good like bearing your testimony." J.C.

Yesterday was my friend, Stephanie Cook's, birthday. I love that girl! She is from Seattle but moved here from DC last fall. It's hard to believe I've known her for less than a year! We celebrated her bday at the Angels game last night. I've been to a lot of baseball games but that was seriously the best ever! The weather was perfect, the friends were fun, the Angels won in the 10th inning, and Steph & Todd were on the Kiss Cam! And in just 5 weeks, I'll be in Seattle to celebrate their wedding!

2011 New Recipe #11 & #12

Whew, I almost blew my goal of two blog posts a month! I'm still behind on posting the recipes I've made but I'll do two easy ones now.

On May 25th, Wendy and I threw a bridal shower for our friend, Angie. I made turtle cake. It's a recipe that Wendy makes and is always a hit. I don't actually have the recipe so I can't post it (sure makes this post easy, though!). I can tell you that it's made in a silicone mold (I think I used the sunflower mold). It has chocolate cake mix, lots of caramel, and fruit on top. I really don't remember the details (should have done this a month ago).

Then sometime after that, Wendy and I made waffles. I'm not really a breakfast person but these were delicious. I just used a standard recipe I found online (sorry...I'll try to do better!). Maggie gave me a waffle iron when she got married because she had an extra one - it's so nice! Thanks, Maggie! We made a few different varieties. Some had chocolate chips, some had coconut, some had peanut butter on top, some had bananas, some had syrup. Delicious.

2011 New Recipe #10

Yikes, I made these delicious empanadas for Cinco de Mayo and I'm just now blogging about them! It's been on my forever long to do list but obviously not a priority. People in my office love to eat (I am no exception). Whenever I have leftover food that I want to get rid of (whether it be too much food, not good enough to serve at a party food, need to get it out of my house so I won't eat it food, etc), I take it to work. We have monthly birthday lunches, potlucks for practically every holiday, and donuts and other treats way too often. Cinco de Mayo is always a fun one. Someone fired up the grill out back and cooked carne asada and chicken. We had chips, guacamole, salsa, all the taco fixings, dessert...enough food for days! After a lot of deliberation, I decided to try my hand at empanadas. I have to say, job well done. Way to go, me. They were a hit.

Empanadas

Allrecipes.com

By: Rosina 

"Better make plenty - these disappear fast. The unbaked dough may be frozen. The baked cookies may also be frozen."

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese
• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 cup fruit preserves
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Directions

1. DAY BEFORE: Cream butter and cream cheese together until smoothly blended. Beat in the flour. Shape dough into a smooth ball, wrap in foil or cling wrap, and refrigerate overnight or up to a week.
2. AT BAKING TIME: Remove dough from refrigerator 30 minutes before using. Start heating oven to 375 degrees F.
3. Roll chilled dough thin. Cut with 3 or 4 inch round cookie cutter. Place small spoonful of jam in center of each round, moisten edges with water.
4. Fold round over and press edges together. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet 15 to 20 minutes. Immediately roll in sugar mixed with cinnamon (traditional) OR in confectioners' sugar if preferred.

It's true that these puppies go fast so make a lot! I doubled the recipe (I guess if you aren't making them for a party, though, a single batch should do). For filling, I used canned apple pie filling. Easy and so good. Since I made these the night before I needed them, I did not have time to refrigerate the dough overnight. Instead, I just stuck it in the freezer for awhile (don't remember how long but definitely less than an hour). Maybe it would have been easier if the dough had been completely chilled, but the end result was the same. I have a love/hate relationship with my oven so I lined the baking sheets with parchment paper.

If you've never eaten an empanada, you are missing out. They are delicioso!