Go to the frozen foods and get the Goya or Saltano brand of empanada dough. You won't get an authentic empanada with puff pastry. You can fills these with veggies, chicken, ham and cheese (sprinkle oregano for an authentic Argentine flavor). In Argentina they use different patterns in the crust edges to distinguish the type of empanda that you are eating. In my opinion the raisins are a more Chilean style and my husband's family, nor our friends include them, but I'm sure this varies from family to family.

Reviewed On: Mar. 5, 2008

This is a party staple for my family and friends. I love to mix it up. Sometimes I do the standard cranberries and apricot preserves, other times I use my food processor for super thin slices of granny smith apples or pears that I fan out over the brie wheel then spoon cranberry whole jelly and almonds. For a more savory treat I use saute fresh mushrooms in garlic olive oil with touch of salt and pepper then sprinkle w/ healthy dose of fresh parsley and sprinkle with walnuts. This summer I am going to fan out some fresh, thin cut strawberries with some high end strawberry preserves. Then I'm going to use clear and colored red and blue egg wash to do a mock flag on the top of pasty before baking for a 4th of July theme. I have a star shapped cookie cutter so the left over pasty will get cut into star shapes. For Christmas I always use my snowflake cookie cutter and for Thanksgiving I use some leaves.

Reviewed On: Feb. 26, 2008

I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand so I had to improvise this to a take on an Italian twist. So I really used the recipe more for quantity guidelines. I added Italian seasoning to the beef and a bit of bread crumbs - mainly cause I had some homemade leftover ones and I wanted to use them up. I also added some parm cheese and mixed Italian cheese to the mixture as well as a few tablespoons of tomato paste. After I covered them in the pastry dough I sprinkled the tops w/ parm cheese again and sprinkled a few italian herbs and a pinch of salt. Instead of the sauce I used Marinara sauce. The end result I wasn't too sure of, but my husband ate two of these and I had planned on us both taking left overs to work, but he couldn't get enough of it. He LOVED it. I will deffinately try this recipe again as written out, but its a great inspiration recipie. I would love to take this Mexican or even Jamacian jerk style, or even Sloppy Joe'ish! Or even just with my faveorite meat loaf, the idea of the indivudual pastry wrap would dress up just about anything! Just tell your family you made Sloppy Joe Wellington, Meat Loaf Wellington, etc.

Reviewed On: Jan. 14, 2008