Empanadas Kiwi Style

Empanadas are typically known as a Latin American pie, but I grew up knowing them in NZ as pasties. Here they can be deep fried or baked. Tonight, I made a bunch and added my own twist and thought I´d share it with you.

Pre-heat oven to 180 deg C.

Dough

3 cups of flour
1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder
a pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of sugar
1/2 cup (or 1/4 lb of butter)
2/3 cup of chicken stock
1 egg

Filling

250g minced beef
1/2 cup of diced capsicum (bell pepper)
1/2 cup of frozen corn
1 tsp mixed herbs
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 brown onion gravy sachet
salt and pepper
I also added some backyard oven seasoning I got in the USA.

Sweet alternative filling (I only made one but it was delicious even with the chicken stock, which sounds weird, but it does work)
1/4 grated apple
1 pecan (left over from Christmas)
1 tsp sugar
a sprinkle of cinnamon

To make the dough: mix the dry ingredients and cut in the butter until it resembles breadcrumbs. In a cup, whisk the egg with a fork and add the room temp. chicken stock. Add these wet ingredients to the dry and mix to form a soft dough.

Sprinkle your work surface with flour and divide the dough into about 18 evenly sized balls. Roll each ball out into a circle and place a spoonful or two on one side, dampen the edges with egg white, fold the edges together and pinch. Brush the top with egg white and bake on a tray lined with wax baking paper.

For the sweet alternative,  place grated apple into one of the rolled crusts, chop up the nut, sprinkle sugar and cinnamon, and close up the empanada. After brushing the top with egg white, sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for about 20 minutes. Then flip them over and put them back in the oven for another 5 minutes.

Well, folks it is time for prayer meeting. Blessings to you all.

Shifts and Surprises!

Christmas has come and gone for yet another year. It seems to me that a shift is taking place. Not a dramatic one and probably not a significant one, but it is a change that makes me stop and think about how our lives with God shift as we grow older. (Why is it that when I find a space in time to get all reflective, a massive shouting match breaks out on the street and all the neighbours flock to see? It seems people are still edgy over the stabbings that occurred about a month ago, killing two of my neighbours.) Now, where was I?

Once upon a time Christmas morning was abuzz with little ones teetering on the edge of hysteria at the thought of opening the surprises in their overstuff stockings. As the years rolled on, this level of euforia has dwindled, slowed, and then took a gradual turn.

This particular Christmas morning (actually afternoon since Mexico celebrates Christmas Eve with a large meal that lasts into the wee hours of the morning, and no one wants to get up early on the 25th, ever!), I realized that our kids' greatest moment of delight was watching their parents open these fantastic stocking fillers! They told us they took hours choosing what to get us and and had the most fun doing it.

When did this shift occur? When did my kids 'grow up', and find more excitement in giving instead of getting? Well, they still like the getting too.

Is it not the same with falling in love? It's all firecrackers and jingle bells at first, and then over time we mature and realize it is better to give than to receive.

As I have been following my Saviour now, for close to 40 years, I have grown to love serving Him beyond words. With each New Year, come the challenges and heartbreaks of dealing with the poor and the broken on a daily basis, but there also comes a deep-seated joy, an expectation. What surprises will He let me discover this year? What crazy gift has He secretly planned for me to unwrap? Better yet, what can I surprise Him with? It may take me hours to plan, perhaps even all year, but I can't wait.