Anyone have a good Spanish appetizer to share? We're going to a friend's house for dinner on Saturday and I've been told the theme is Spanish. I know we have a couple women in here who may be able to help me out.

empanadas are the best things you could take. THey are awesome. I make them big enough that it could be a lunch, but I know people make them small.

I'll get the recipe out from my big box tonight and put it in here.

I have two words for you...TACO BELL...

JJ, you crack me up, and Candice...thanks, can't wait!

JJ, I'm making your jambalaya on SUnday...mmm with soem hot crusty bread. Wanna join us?

Good grief woman, you sure cook a lot! I bet the grocery stores love to see you coming. I have 2 working eyes on my stove and that is 2 too many.

..okay...count me in. Pass the hot sauce...

This a.m. I am having a fresh, hot, homemade fried apple pie...clog...clog...mmmmmmm....wish I could share! Oh well dang it...here comes my girlfriend Anne and she is going to give me that pitiful look, I just know it. Might as well go ahead and divide this pie. Bet she smelled it walking by the office...geewiz...is nutin sacred anymore?

Sorry it took me a wheil to find the recipe and I've been really busy.

I have the recipe for both the meat filling and the shells. I think you should just buy the flour shells somewhere. When I do them, I use about a 6-inch circle to make the shells and usually makes a lot, but I can't remember how many I never count. Maybe 30 or 40.

For shells
2 lbs of flour
14 ounces of crisco

Pour the flour in a pile on the table and put the blob of crisco in the middle. The n work them together to amke the dough. Roll it out real fine and makethe circles. Keep them refrigerated and moist.

Filling
2 lbs of leanground beef
3 yellow onions
2 green peppers
1 teaspoon of cruched red pepper
jar of green olives
3 hard boiled eggs, shelled

In a grill/frying pan, put two table spoons for crisco
Put the chopped onion in the pan and cook till transparant
put in the meat and the cut up peppers
add the pepper and some salt
after it's cooked and off the, put in teh cut up hard boiled eggs.

Then put the meat filling and one olive in each shell, close it over. paint it with an egg and put them in the oven at 420 for 10 to 15 minutes.

Candice, thanks so much for the recipe. Quick question from the practical cook here...

Do you think I could buy the ready made pie crusts and roll them thinner and use them?

Just trying to cut corners...

You'd have to buy a lot of pie crusts I think. You can buy 6-inch flour shells all over the place here, but I live in a pretty ethnically diverse area (ailes of Goya folks) so I don't know where you could get them. They're not called empanada shells though. They'd be in a refirgerated section, they're not as thin as tortillas, but they'd probably be with them.
That's my only suggestion.

I'm going to try to make them as appetizers...smaller. I'm gonna give the pie crusts a try. I'll let you know if I have any luck........

Oh boy, this is funny...I just made 42 little ones using the store brand ready made pie crusts. I rolled them very thin and just started plopping the meeat mixture in them. Next I sealed the edges. I came running to the computer to read about the egg whites and realized... oh shoot, I forgot the hard boiled egg! Oh well. The mix is still delicious. I'll let you know what everyone else thinks.