My Crazy!!!! Life

So obviously I have not  blogged in a while.  not that I’m not creating, I am. But I’m also hosting a foreign exchange student, brought one son home from the Marshall Islands then sent him off North to college, have a daughter graduating high school and heading off to college in a few short weeks, have been growing my health businesses (weight loss and essential oils so IF you have questions, just ask), and selling my home and moving the family across country, just to name a few things.  But all that aside, I thought I’d share one of my favorite South American recipes. My family (who are truly some of the pickiest eaters I know) absolutely love these.  I hope you will too.  If you try them out, leave me a note as to what you thought.

 

Chilean Meat Empanadas

Makes 60

2 lb ground beef
2 onions, finely chopped
1 bundle fresh cilantro
¼ tsp cayenne
¼ tsp salt
¼ c cooking red wine
5 hard boiled eggs, sliced
1 can green olives
3 small pkg raisins (soak in bowl of water for 3-4 hours ahead of time)
2 pkg dough discs (can be found in any Hispanic or Latin grocery store)

Brown up the ground beef in a pan. In a second pan, cook onion. Add salt and cayenne to beef and let simmer for 3 minutes. Add flowering tops of cilantro to onion to soften (about 1 minute) then combine onion mixture, beef, and 1 wine. Simmer on very low.

Taking a disc, spoon 1- 1 ½ tbl on meat mixture on one half of disc. Add 1 slice of egg, 1-2 olives, and 3-4 plumped raisins. Wet eadge of dough disc with raisin water, fold over do the disc creates a half moon and using a fork, press edges together.

Empanadas can be either deep fried (Chilean Country Style) or baked in the oven at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes (Chilean City Style).

Variations:

Cheese Empanadas

1 bundle fresh oregano
2 pkg twist cheese (mozzarella works great)

Prepare as above

Fruit Empanadas

any type of pie filling fruits

Prepare as above

Dessert Empanadas

2 pkg prepared pudding or custard

Prepare as above

I had to reblog this from my dear friend, Chef Tess Bakeresse

These brownies are to die for!!!!!

Chef Tess Bakeresse: The Evil Brownie…:

 

Meet my friend. We have a LOVE-HATE relationship.

 

His Royal Evilness…Baron Brownie.
Stop staring at me with those piercing eyes!

This is an entry on THE evil Brownie. Really sick and wrong…in a good way. So deathly delicious they kill any effort to lose weight and have to be banished to the tower… and even then I manage to find the locked door and fight off the bats and fairy dust to get to them! Here is my favorite brownie recipe, for good reason. I doubt you will be able to keep the munchkins at bay…or giants for that matter. There is a reason why I only make these when I can take them somewhere. Otherwise they stare at me all day. How rude. Don’t make these…save yourself!!!Okay, make them. You have been warned.

My Chef Tess Brownies
1 1/4 cup butter
4 cups sugar
1T vanilla,
2tsp rum extract
1T cinnamon
1T orange zest
1/2 tsp ground Cayenne pepper
8 eggs
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
1 T salt

Preheat oven to 325degrees. Cream the butter,sugar, eggs, vanilla, and spice until light. Add the flour, cocoa, and salt, mixing 2 minutes. Pour int a lightly greased bar pan ( at least 9inch by 13inch by 3) Bake 40-45 minutes–slightly undercooked is better than overdone and dry. Cover with ganache and toasted almonds:

Ganache
16 oz. high quality chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups toasted almonds

Boil cream.
Place chocolate in a metal bowl and pour hot cream over the chocolate. Stir with a wire whisk until smooth. Pour over brownies when they are cool and cover with toasted almonds. Allow to cool…if you can wait that long and cut into squares.