Wednesday, June 28, 2006

sixteen empanadas, two avocados and a beer later…

So, last night I made empanadas. I got a recipe out of one of the old everyday food magazines I ordered off of ebay—but I made it with ground turkey instead of pork/beef. So here's what I found out.

  1. they are delish!
  2. these people never bothered to actually make this recipe.
  3. the cilantro that I was growing in my container garden is actually parsely.

See how similar they look? Not identical, mind you, but similar enough to mistake one for the other, considering the circumstances.

Otto’s mom gave us some basil, cilantro and dill, according to the dissolve-in-the-soil pots. The dill died indoors, and so, as far as I was aware, there was cilantro and basil left. And it turns out that some of the pots labeled cilantro, which were actually parsley, turned out to be dill. But at least everything that said basil was basil.

And speaking of basil, our sacrificial basil, as we’re now calling it, since it distracts those damn japanese beetles from the other plants, is really letting those basil plants down lower flourish. We have oodles and oodles of basil. I think we’re going to make pesto without the cheese and freeze it. Mmm hmm. We'd move those sacrificial plants, but it might mean that all of our basil would be attacked, and that's just not a risk I'm willing to take.

Anyhow, back to the empanadas. See how the recipe says it makes eight empanadas? Well, they’re lying. It makes sixteen. I even measured the width of the dough I rolled out on my handy dandy Tupperware mat. And let me tell you, only Mary Poppins herself could have gotten that much filling in such a small space. The second batch of empanadas required a beer--and Carolina Brewery's Summer Wheat is excellent! It wasn't like we could just let the meat mix go to waste!

But at least they were yummy. And if you ever make them, add some cheese, and maybe a little bell pepper too. And if you don’t add cheese, then put salsa on top. And speaking from experience, since Otto and I now have six more cooked to eat and another eight in the freezer, I recommend halving the filling recipe. Or making room in your freezer.

Tonight, there's a new recipe to tackle. AND THERE'S THE BLADE SERIES PREMIERE AT 10/9C. YOU SHOULD WATCH IT. Sterling is working on the show, and it seems like it will be good. And then go see Superman tomorrow. Or at least that's what I'm going to do.

5 comments:

Turner said...

What does Sterling do for the show?

BTW - It's pretty good

Anonymous said...

Hi. I forgot to tell you this but you can by Japanese beetle catchers - it's a bag thing that you put in the ground and they get trapped and die. Die die die. My parents have a lot of them.

Also, cilantro smells. That's how you tell the difference. ;)

care said...

ah. check. thanks del!
and turner, I'm going to let Sterling field it. He'll explain it better.

SJ said...

Ha. I'll explain it, but it might not be any better. My title is "Writer's Prodcution Assistant." Which means not a whole lot to people.

Basically, I make sure the writer's/producers have everything they need for whatever they...need it...for.

I'm the go to guy for the people in charge, I guess.

And I'm going to go lie down, since I'm still wasted from the party last night. (<---That's a song quote from Liam Lynch, don'tcha know. I'm actually quite sober and at work. However, everyone else is still wasted from the premiere party since, so far at 11 AM, I'm still the only one here.)

LO said...

Horticulturalist weighing in here...be sure whatever you use doesn't emit "jap beetle" pheromomes...my prof told us it's their sex hormone...sooooo, it's screaming to ALL the jap beetles, come and get it, boyz! Best way I've heard of is to knock them off into a can of gasoline or beer and watch them die a slow painful death. Sounds fun, eh?

Also, I've made the parsley/cilantro mix up many a time in the grocery store. Do they HAVE to sell them right next to each other!?

 
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