Practice Makes Perfect (or at least improvement…)

The thing that I normally gripe about the most in my 52-in-52 journey is that I never have time to really practice the new techniques / recipes that I do each week. The whole point I’m doing this is so that I can have more tasty meals for Kirk and I (and whoever we may be entertaining) to enjoy at home. SO, I’m attempting to practice the new skills I’ve picked up while learning new ones.

TONIGHT’s Menu: Turkey Empanadas Grande with Jalapeno Cheese Sauce and a Corn & Avocado Relish

Total Cost: ~ $9.00 (I shopped at Food Lion instead of Harris Teeter… 93/7 Ground Turkey was BOGO and their produce is dirt cheap and the quality is the same, if not better than HT bc I shop at one that has a strong latino population nearby and they cook with really awesome fresh ingredients… limes are 20 cents and jalapenos are 8 cents… corn ear in the husk was 33 cents and avocados were each 79 cents…)

Total Servings: 4-5 people… 10 Med Size Empanadas / ~2 per serving (I actually made 6 and then used the rest of the filling and dough to make 6 large taquitos that I froze for later…)

Techniques Repeated:

• Empanada Dough (I tried a new version this time… vs original version, which I also liked)
• Cheese Sauce with Roux Base (this was a new version too)
• Roasting a Jalapeno

New Techniques:

• Sweating Onions & Green Bell Pepper (which I then blended into a puree for the filling)
• … yep, that was about it for tonight…

Tonight’s meal was definitely better than my first empanada run, although it still took me just as long… if not longer.   Maybe I’ll get the timing part down pat next time.  If you have any versions of empanadas, dough, or anything mentioned in this post – please share! 🙂

Thanks for checking in and Happy Cooking!!  ~Liz

Tags: avocado, cheese sauce, corn, dough, empanada, empanadas, jalapeno, roasting, roux