tasty tuesday: margaret’s ez empanadas

My mom-in-love, Margaret, is 91 years old and still cooks for herself almost every single day, after she drives herself to Publix Markets to grocery shop!!! In other words, at 91 years old, she is AMAZING! She loves to read fiction and watch game shows. For the past two years we’ve been blessed to stay with her a few days on our winter trip to Florida. She lives on the west coast of Florida, where the Manatees swim! Her home is on a canal that eventually takes you out to the Gulf of Mexico – all that said to say, “I love it there!” Today, she shares her recipe for Empañadas, it is not an original recipe but I do not know the source. She makes a bunch of these and freezes them for quick, easy, delicious meals on-the-go – and at 91 she is still going!!!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chopped green pepper
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 lb ground beef, turkey or whatever you prefer.
• Olive oil to saute the above in
• 3/4 cup chopped green olives WITH pimentos, drained of briny water
• 3/4 cup raisins, cut up
• 1 tsp Cumin
• 1 T honey
• S&P
• 1 egg, separated and set aside
• pastry dough (of course she makes her own but we will cheat and buy it from the store!)

Directions:

1. Saute green pepper and onion in olive oil.
2. In the same skillet, add the ground beef and brown until cooked.
3. To the skillet add: olives, raisins, cumin, honey. Mix up well. Refrigerate to chill.
4. Roll out your dough and using a 3″ round cutter, cut out all the dough on hand.
5. Take out your chilled meat mixture and fold in the egg white – this serves as a binder.
6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
7. Take approximately 1 T (or more) of meat mixture and place in the middle of your 3″ circles of dough.
8. Brush the edge of the dough LIGHTLY with water. Fold in half and seal. Use the tines of a flat fork to “pinch” edges sealed.
9. Make a wash with the reserved egg yolk and 1-2 T water and brush on folded, sealed Empañadas.
10. Place your Empañadas on a parchment papered cookie sheet.
11. Bake 20-25 minutes until lightly browned.
12. I’m not sure how many it makes, depends on how much dough you have and the amount of filler in each! Serve with salsa.

¡Buen apetito!

Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. 3 John verse 2

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