New Concept, New Recipe

We are trying this new concept at our house. Everyone in the family has a night where it is their turn to cook supper (our evening meal...some apparently call it dinner....but that is for another post). Our youngest is to help the others so he can learn. He will then graduate from sou chef and have a night of his own....should become interesting at that point! :)

How did this come about? I blew up one evening (it seriously was not pretty, people!) when I came home from work, no one had started or even thought about supper and had the nerve to ask what was for supper. I KNEW things had to change for my sanity especially but for them to learn about this thing called helping out! Don't get me wrong, they help a lot. They really do...but it was this one little thing....

Good has come from my explosion. We have experienced a multitude of first time recipes. Most for the good, some...eh. It has also made me ask myself, Why didn't I do this sooner?!

Here is a recipe Writer Daughter made last night. She found it on Paula Deen's website. She made it exactly as the recipe reads and it is good. We might tweek it the next time.

Chicken Empanadas
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
4 ounce cream cheese, softened
1 (8-ounce) package shredded Colby and Monterey Jack cheese blend
3 cup chopped, cooked chicken
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 (15-ounce) package refrigerated pie crusts

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking sheet. In a large bowl, combine chicken and next 7 ingredients. Unroll 1 piecrust onto a lightly floured surface. Roll onto a 15-inch circle. Cut out rounds, using a 3-inch cookie cutter. Re-roll dough as needed. Repeat procedure with remaining piecrusts. Arrange 1 piecrust round on a clean, flat surface. Lightly brush edges of crust with water. Place 1 heaping teaspoon of chicken mixture in center of the round. Fold dough over filling, pressing edges with a fork to seal. Repeat with remaining rounds and chicken mixture. (Up to this point, the recipe can be made ahead and frozen for up to 1 month). Arrange empanadas on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes. Recipe Courtesy of Paula Deen

Warning: Writer Daughter had a lot of filling left over and even made more than the 15 pie crust circles. We froze the left over filling for another time but I think you could get away with using 1/2 of the filling ingredient amounts. The empanadas didn't stay "closed" which did not alter the taste, just the looks.

Those who gave this recipe a rating on the website offered advice on how to make it tastier. One suggested to use bread dough instead of pie crust. While the pie crust is okay, it is fairly bland. We ended up using some salsa and/or red sauce with sour cream mixed to dip this little morsals into. Or you could perhaps sprinkle some sort of southwest seasoning on the outside right before baking? Others suggested sour cream instead of cream cheese in the filling and other spices.

My dad always said a recipe is a guideline....so have fun!