Empanadas

Ok, I know I just posted an autumn wonderland recap and it is only two days later, but this weekend was so much fun I just had to share a few of the main events.  If you've had enough of the Lahti blathering, stop reading now and move along.

Friday night, kids in jammies, we loaded up the ol' faithful minivan for what may have been her last voyage to Parkdale.  We are upgrading to a 4wd Sienna in a few days--Yippee!  (As an aside, I'd like it to be noted that I am genuinely thrilled to be getting a swank new minivan but also slightly appalled at what this says about me) Saturday was a bit of a chilly day so most of the day was spent indoors.  My friend Erin and her two girls arrived at noon with grocery bags full of food.  Our goal for the day was to make empanadas.  You know, those little dough enclosed meat pies you buy from street vendors in just about any Latin American country.  The ingredient list alone was two pages long.  This should have been a clue to what our day was going to turn out to be.  Or should I say day, evening, night. . .

We started with the dough since it had to sit in the fridge for at least two hours.  Kneading the dough was like a full on upper body workout.  Did I mention we tripled the recipe so we'd have leftovers?  Holy shoulder muscles.  Next we cut a million ingredients into miniscule sized pieces.  Some we cooked.  Some we chilled.  Ultimately we mixed them all together.  During this whole time Erin & I cursed our other friend (you know who you are) who had given us the recipe claiming "it's sooooo easy."  Like hell this is easy.  It was already 6pm and we'd neglected the children all afternoon.  But we got smart and decided to recruit the little slave laborers. 

Our wine fueled mess became beautiful pinched corner successes.  Aren't they spectacular?  You better say yes because it took us ten hours to make em'

Enjoying the fruits of our labor after the kids had gone to bed.  I know Erin is a little blurry, but the empanada is in perfect focus.  Bliss.

This morning I decided to be ambitious and take all five kids on a nature walk--give Erin an hour to relax at home.  The sun was shining and the day was perfect.  We set off on a scavenger hunt through the woods looking for such things as "ducks, berries, spiders, waterfalls, rainbows" and trying to avoid such things as "poison ivy, spider webs, horse poop, prickly nettles."  We crossed the rickety little bridge, tried our luck on the rope swing and did some serious exploring.  I eavesdropped on conversations between the kids.  Here is my favorite:

Carmen:  What exactly is God?

Cooper:  Some people don't believe in God and some people do.  God is like a good spirit. 

Carmen:  Yeah, he's a good spirit.  He killed all the dinosaurs so he could make people on earth. 

Cooper:  No Carmen, the dinosaurs were killed by a giant meteor that shook the earth, like a tornado. 

Carmen: Oh.

The kicker of this whole weekend extravaganza is that when we pulled into the driveway tonight, back here in Portland, my heart went straight into my stomach.  Boomer!  I left Boomer in Parkdale.  Packed up the whole damn car, got all the kids (small miracle) but forgot our dear, sweet beloved doggie.  Thankfully, the best husband in the world was waiting for us at the door and after popping the kiddos in bed he got in the car and drove back out to Parkdale.  I guess it wasn't the last trip for the minivan after all.  One of these I will have my act together.  Right?  Please tell me that one of these days I will get it all right.  Until then.

Comments

[L Rose]

Ha ha ha. As soon as I saw the title I knew which friend you got this "easy" recipe from!