Taco Empanadas

I saw this originally on Down Home with The Neely's on Food Network. I remembered that I had some taco meat in the freezer and viola! Dinner in a pinch! I'm including only the empanada part, you can use whatever meat mixture you'd like best. I left out the corn kernels from mine and they were still really good! I even had enough to freeze for snacks later!


Cornbread Dough:

* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 3 cups fine cornmeal
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 2 teaspoons kosher salt
* 2 tablespoons sugar
* 1 cup cold butter, cut in small cubes
* 2 eggs
* 2 tablespoons warm water
* 2 tablespoons lemon juice
* 2 tablespoons whole milk
* 1 tablespoons dehydrated lemon peel
* 1 cup roughly chopped corn kernels
* Water, for sealing
* Special equipment: 5-inch round cookie cutter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and sugar and cut in butter until the mixture is crumbly. In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs and mix in the water, lemon juice, milk, lemon peel and corn. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and combine to form a soft and pliable dough. Knead the dough until fully mixed. On a floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thickness and cut into 5-inch rounds.

Fill each round with 1 to 2 tablespoons of meat filling. Fold the dough in half and dab the edges with water to seal. There should be a 1/2-inch of dough to work with to form the seal. For a tight seal, press with the tines of a fork all around the edge of the empanada. Transfer the empanadas to a lightly buttered baking sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes.

Banana Cinnamon Cream Cake

So I know that I'm way behind in posting from Easter. I have no excuse....just been busy and haven't really thought about it. So for the big dinner we really didn't do much out of the ordinary. I made roast chicken and homemade mac n cheese. Chicken was on sale at the store last week and so I went with what was on sale rather than what tradition dictates for Easter dinner (we usually have ham). But I did branch out and made a super yum, banana cream cake. Here is the recipe

Banana Cinnamon Cream Cake
35 nilla wafers, divided
2 C cold milk
1 tub cool whip
2 tbsp melted butter
2 large or 4 medium bananas, sliced
2 pkg vanilla instant pudding
2 tbsp cinnamon (more or less depending on how you like it)

Crush 21 (give or take) wafers and mix with butter. Press crumb mixture onto bottom of round baking dish (9in) Stand remaining wafers vertically around the edge of pan.

Beat the pudding, cinnamon and milk in a large bowl with a whisk for 2 minutes. Stir in whipped topping. Spread half mixture over crust, cover with layers of bananas and remaining pudding mixture. Top with a few extra wafers crushed. refrigerate for at least 3 hours.


I dove into into this like a swimming pool! Soooooo good!! The cinnamon really gives it a great flavor and jazzes up the vanilla pudding! I hope you enjoy!!!