empanadas!

Ever since my time in Argentina, I've been searching for an authentic Argentine recipe for savory empanadas.  I stumbled upon an excellent one from LAYLITA   You can make these empanadas with pre-made tapas that you can buy from latina markets, but I didn't want to search and search for something that might not exist in Auburn.  So, I opted to make the dough myself.  I feel like the proportions were off a bit.  The dough didn't yeild as much as it said it would.  I doubled the recipe and got about 35 empanadas.  The meat, however, doesn't need to be doubled.  I learned that the hard way and ended up with a big bowl of leftovers!!  

  The empanadas took a long time to prepare from scratch, but the product was delicious.  I'd say one of the most authentic recipes I've tried.  You should give 'em a whirl!  

   I did all the cooking, but my wonderful husband showed up in time to put them together for me while I was rolling out the dough.  He did a superb job, don't you think?!  The empanadas were a hit with our young marrieds group here in Auburn!  The surest way to make friends quickly is to introduce them to Argentine delicacies:) 

saute the meat with onions, paprika, chile powder and cumin

Chop the olives (you can use slices too)

Hard boiled egg

put it in the middle

squish the edges with a fork to seal

then start rolling- pinch by pinch

here's the pre-baked product

And the finished product

tahoe, vegas and the hoover dam

As you can see, this trip was packed!  It's taken me almost 2 months to be able to post all the pictures from it.  I'm not sure if people are still checking the blog or not, but if you are, here are the pictures from Lake Tahoe, Vegas, and the hoover dam!  Tahoe was beautiful, vegas was super crowded and hot, and the hoover dam was huge! the photos from the trip are wrapping up, so keep checking in to be able to see the end.  Love you guys.

The famous bellagio cacino and fountain:)

The crazy, drunk mexican who supported me while playing the slots:)

it was so windy on this bridge!! Bad day to wear a skirt

The hoover Dam

The Redwoods

After our freezing trip to Crater Lake, we traveled down to northern california to visit the Pacific coast and trek through the redwoods.  The water was FREEZING and the beach was foggy, but we really enjoyed our trip to the coast.  We traveled through some of the redwood forest and I was just amazed at how big the trees were! Shawn had told me some stories about the humongous trees but I didn't believe it until I saw it.  If you've never gotten the chance to travel through that area, I would highly recommend it!  The pictures definitely don't do it justice.  Hope you all enjoy! blessings.

Freezing water! shawn pretended to get a blurry shot on the first one so I would have to stay in the water longer...punk.

pretty sure this is california's state flower

a sight I saw frequently- shawn fiddling with the gps

how beautiful is this bark!

oh my gosh.  have you ever seen a tree this big??

babe the ox:)

Paul bunyan! he's huge

this whale was found in the klamath river near the redwood national forest

the bark was like artwork

i hate this photo, but look how gigantic the tree is!!

Multnomah Falls and Crater Lake

Here are photos from where we visited Multnomah Falls (542 feet) and Crater Lake.  The trip to the falls was just a quick stop on our way to Crater Lake, Oregon.  Crater Lake receives over 500 inches of snow per year!  Of course, the snow was still on the mountains (but not the roads, thankfully!) when we arrived! Shawn had to drive us through a huge cloud foggy thing all the way up the mountain in pitch black darkness.  I'm not gonna lie, there probably were a few fights that ensued because of the speed of his driving in those conditions:)  We set up camp in about a foot of snow (it was patchy), and froze our tails off.  Praise the Lord we found a campsite with electricity.  We spent the night at crater lake and then explored in the morning

Crater Lake was first a volcano that erupted and then collapsed to form the large crater that was then filled over time with snowfall that melted.  The Lake has no rivers that flows into it and is completely stagnant

Shawn wanted to recreate a picture that he took in the same spot when he was 12. so lame!! haha