Easy Breezy Empanadas

Every so often I make an effort to use up items that have been sitting in my pantry or freezer.  I make myself do this by only buying perishables at the grocery store that week, so I have to use what I have on hand.  This meal was made completely with items I had on hand.  The idea came from both Paula Deen and Sandra Lee, they have both featured this idea on their TV shows.

I am not the neatest cook, so my empanadas don't look nearly as nice as Paula's or Sandra's, but they sure did taste good!  I made 16 and had no leftovers, so I'd say that's a pretty good endorsement from my guys!

Easy Breezy Empanadas

Ingredients:

2 refrigerated pie crusts
2 cans of chicken breast or three cups of shredded leftover chicken
1/2 block of cream cheese, softened
1/2 large can of enchilada sauce
1-1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack and Cheddar mixed cheese plus extra to sprinkle on top

Mix together the chicken, cream cheese, sauce and shredded cheese.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Sprinkle some flour on a surface that you can roll the crusts out on (I just put wax paper on my counter).  Roll out one of the crusts and cut into circles using a 3" cookie cutter.  I am not a baker so I don't have a cookie cutter.  The can the chicken came is was 3" in diameter so I used that!  6 You should be able to get 6 circles out of the crust, and two more out of the scraps, for a total of 16 cirlces out of the two crusts.  Roll each circle out to about 4".  Put a spoonful of the mixture in the center of each circle.

Fold the top of the circle over to meet the bottom and press edges with a fork all the way around to seal.  The recipes I've seen say to brush the edges with water before sealing but I didn't find this to be necessary.

Put empanadas on a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes until crust is browned.  Sprinkle with shredded cheese and put back in oven to melt the cheese. 
I served the empanadas with sour cream and picante sauce on the side for dipping and a side dish of black beans with a can of Rotel tomatoes (diced tomatoes with green chiles mixed in for you non-Southerners) mixed in.   Next time I make these I think I'll jazz them up with some peppers or maybe use picante sauce instead of enchilada sauce.

Turkey Take Two

Now that the Thanksgiving holidays are over with the big question is, what to do with all that leftover turkey?  A person can only eat so many turkey sandwiches!  My favorite turkey do-over is a dish my Mom used to make.  She would make a white sauce, add shredded turkey and mushrooms and serve it in puff pastry cups.  The puff pastry cups are hard to find though.  Pepperidge Farms makes a good one, but I couldn't find them this year.  So I moved on to my new favorite turkey leftover recipe, Turkey Chilaquiles Casserole. 

This dish was inspired by a Sandra Lee recipe, but it's my own take on it. 

Turkey Chilaquiles Casserole

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons oil
1 small can chopped green chiles
1 can tomatoes with green chiles, such as Rotel
3 cups shredded turkey
3/4 large can of mild enchilada sauce
1 can black beans
4 cups crushed tortilla chips
1-1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook chopped onion in oil on medium heat until soft.  Add green chiles, tomatoes and turkey and mix together.  Add enchilada sauce until turkey is coated in sauce.  Heat through and remove from heat.

Spray a 9" X 13" dish with non-stick cooking spray and add black beans, spreading to coat the bottom of the dish.  Add turkey mixture.  Cover top with tortilla chips and then cheese.  Bake at 400 degrees 20-30 minutes, until cheese is melted and browned on top.

You can also add more veggies by adding a can of corn on top of the black beans.  This year I actually used a can of Bush's Grilling Beans Black Bean Fiesta because that's what I had on hand.  The heat in this dish is moderate, but if you are not a fan of heat at all, you can substitute regular diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. 

Crazy for Carbonara!

My all-time favorite dish to cook and eat is Carbonara.  If I was a professional chef, it would be my "signature" dish.  I learned to make Carbonara from my Mom, she made it often when I was growing up.  Carbonara is basically any pasta cooked with eggs, cheese and bacon.  The traditional Italian Carbonara is made with pancetta, which is still hard to find in my neck of the woods.  It wasn't available at all when I was growing up, so my Mom always made her Carbonara with regular bacon.  I have made it so many ways over the years I have lost count, with just about every strand pasta out there.  I've made healthy versions with egg substitute and turkey bacon which turned out pretty good.  I've added cream which turns it into more of an Alfredo type dish.  I still think the original Spaghetti Carbonara, a take on my Mom's recipe, is the best of the bunch.  The dish pictured and the recipe below is Linguine Carbonara, but you can substitute any pasta for the Linguine.  I made this version with Buitoni Fresh Pasta, a new obsession of mine.  I actually think the dried pasta is better for Carbonara than the fresh, the egg and cheese mixture sticks to the dried pasta better.  To me this is Italian comfort food at it's best, and always brings back warm memories of my Mom.

Linguine Carbonara

Ingredients:

9 Strips of Thick Cut Bacon
4 Cloves Garlic, minced
1/2 Large Onion, chopped
2 - 9 ounce packages of Buitoni Fresh Fettucine (or your favorite strand pasta)
5 Eggs
1-1/2 cups shredded Parmesan Cheese, plus additional for garnish
1 Teaspoon pepper

Cut bacon into small strips width wise (the French call these "lardons")  and cook on medium heat halfway to crisp.  Turn heat to low, add onion and garlic and saute' until bacon is crisp and onion and garlic are soft.  Cook pasta according to package directions.  While pasta is cooking, beat eggs in a medium size bowl, then add cheese and pepper.  Drain the pasta, reserving a cup of the pasta water.  Immediately put pasta back in pot, add bacon and egg mixture, stirring rapidly so eggs coat the pasta and don't cook into big clumps.  Add 1/2 to 1 cup of the reserved pasta water.  You don't want to make a sauce, just lighten the texture of the egg mixture a little. 

Serve with additional parmesan cheese on top, a nice chilled glass of wine and a good crusty bread.