Expidentures in Empanadas

I had been planning on trying to make empanadas for a long time now. Trying to cook new foods is always fun for me. After much search for a manageable recipe, I finally came across one that was not only in English, but written by a woman who married an Argentine and is now living in Mendoza (wine country) of all places. Her name is Rebecca and she is the author of the blog From Argentina With Love. She talks hits every major topic about living in Argentina from the perspective of an American exquisitely. However, my favorite section is her recipe section.

As I followed her recipe there was only one down side. Yes, when she uses pounds, cups and Fahrenheit as forms of measurement, it makes my life easier, but I'm in Argentina. My oven measures Celsius. Oh, wait. Never mind. my oven doesn't measure anything. It is just a knob marked by the words horno, min and max. No degrees. Just guesstimations. And if I was not in enough danger with this, it is a gas oven to. As in I have to light it. Uhhhhhhhhhhh.....................

I was clueless. I had managed to overcome the measurement obstacles and figure out half a kilo was close enough to one pound to make the recipe ok. On top of that, I had found a youtube video to educate me on properly folding the empanada dough. Celsius was probably another challenge I could have figured out too, but lighting a gas oven sounded dangerous for someone to do without any direction.

Sadly, my roommate was out and unable to help me. Lucky for me though I have Nick. Nick is my coordinator for my program. He mostly deals with students once they arrive in BA. He oordinates events (hence his title as 'coordinator') for us weekly, answers our questions about the city, helps us make weekend travel plans and hosts mate and medialunas every Friday. I have been planning on going to mate and medialunas so I took it upon myself to run there and have him inform me on how to light a gas oven.

Of course when I got home there was Sole to give me more specific directions for our particular oven (a precaution I found necessary), but I really wasn't hungry so I didn't make them. They went in the freezer. I went to Uruguay, and baking process was put off five days.

Finally on Wednesday I had to chance to try and light the oven myself and finish the empanadas. Luckily, I succeeded in both. I even got compliments from my roommates. Ok, the were kind of ugly. They had been frozen and I could not locate any non-stick spray for the pan, but all that matters is the taste right?

¡Besos!
La porteña Emilia