Appetizers

We had a progressive dinner with Mary Ellen and friends last night. Appetizers and wine were at our place, then we progressed over to her house for the main course.

My repertoire was limited to foods I had on hand--I did NOT want to go to the store on Valentine's Day while people were scrambling for flowers and chocolate at the last minute. I ended up with marinated carrots; empanadas with a filling of spinach, currants, pine nuts, and a little goat cheese to bind; and a frittata with green chiles.

I boiled the carrots in salted water until barely tender, then marinated them for a few hours in olive oil, wine vinegar, fresh thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper. They were a nice change from richer things, and colorful as well.

Elaine made a fabulous lamb-meatball-and-spaghetti dish with Middle Eastern seasonings. She was on a TV cooking show and won a prize for it. Maybe she'll share the recipe here!

Empanadas

We had some people over to swim yesterday. We ate:

Ribs smoked by Lawson
Hummus made by Lawson, with whole wheat pita bread
Watermelon
Carrot salad, your recipe
Spiced spinach-zucchini empanadas

For the empanada dough I used your recipe (you inspired me quite a bit this weekend, I see). Here is how I made the filling. It was inspired by Mexican and New Mexican dishes I've had but didn't follow any recipe.

Spinach-Zucchini Empanada Filling
This wasn't quite enough for all the empanadas (I made them smaller than your recipe calls for -- there were 10 in all). For the other three I had some longaniza in the freezer that I hadn't put in casings, so I used that. Those three are like British pasties, except Central American. Very good.

Here's the filling.

Saute in order:

one small onion, diced
one zucchini, diced
one teaspoon garlic, minced
a bag of spinach, torn up

Add and simmer:
small handful currants
1/8 cup walnuts or pecans
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
salt to taste
a bunch of black pepper

Remove from heat, let cool slightly, and add:

several handfuls grated Parmesan
1-2 eggs

I filled the empanadas and baked them as instructed in your dough recipe. I served them with Herdez salsa verde.

It was a lot of food, but the watermelon and carrots offset the heavy ribs and empanadas well, so nobody felt too stuffed.

South American Food

Sam and Grace came over for dinner on Friday. We sat outside for the cocktail hour, with wine, fresh veggies from the garden, and Swiss chard empanadas which I baked outside.

For the main course we had Argentinian chicken, a quinoa pilaf, and zucchini cooked with corn. And Easy Almond Tart for dessert. I make this tart so often--it's not enormous like my other tart recipes, and so easy, and everyone loves it. I am reporting here that Sam ate two pieces.