Tales from the Damp Side: Buttery Goodness

Sometime lousy weather brings out the chef in me. Other times it makes me reach for a takeout menu. Last Friday was cold and rainy. I fought the urge to ring up some Pad Thai, deciding instead to test a recipe that I'd been eying for some time. My selection du jour (du noir?) was 'Argentine Empanadas'. I'm pretty good at making the pastry shell for apple pie so making dough for empanadas didn't seem like it would be too much of a stretch. It turned out to be pretty simple.

Dough: water, butter (lots of it; not for the feint of heart), flour, salt, paprika

Filling: olive oil, yellow onion, red bell pepper, chicken bouillon cube, paprika, red pepper flakes, cumin, diced boneless beef shoulder, russet potato, raisins, olives, scallions, hard-boiled egg

Wow! Very tasty. Must be all the butter. I think just about any filling would be good in that dough. Chocolate filled empanadas, anyone?

All is quiet on the cat front. "The Door" is working wonderfully. I think we have a winner there. Meanwhile, we continue working on cat-proofing other aspects of our lives. For example, Smudge tends to be very disruptive when Chris works at home. She doesn't like it when you sit at a desk for long periods of time. Something about wanting to be the center of the universe. You sit at the desk trying to work (or write bills, or whatever) and she sits behind you, meowing at intervals timed just far enough apart and at just the right pitch to drive you insane. Sometimes when Chris really would rather work at home he goes to the office instead. So we are experimenting with ways to keep her quiet for longer periods of time so that Chris can work at home. One trick is the heating pad. We keep one on the end of the desk. Like giving candy to a baby.