Egg McMuffin and Hash Brown

My favorite cooking show on TV is The Chew. I absolutely love Carla Hall, she is my inner funky sister.  For Christmas dinner we made Michael Symon's Turketta with Salas Verde, I'll post pictures separately. It was too die for. Everyone enjoyed it and wanted seconds.

Symon made his version of McDonald's egg Mcmuffin and hash brown and I thought that would be something fun for a Saturday morning. I don't really care for the Mickey D's version but this was awesome because I knew what went into it and it was easy to fix.

I followed his recipes found here and hash brown's here.

Breakfast was a hit with two adults,  myself and a friend. My husband only eats soft fried eggs, so none of that for him. Kids didn't care for the hash browns, so they eat part eggs and bacon. Don't know if I'll try this one again for my family but it's a good quick breakfast for a brunch or something.

Chocolate Filled Cake

Today I felt like having cake, didn't help when I saw this while looking for coupons to get flour from the store. The cake immediately spoke to my sweet tooth and I knew it will be a hit with the kids.  I didn't use the three cups of chocolate chip as recommended, way too much for my kiddos. I only have a few pictures since it impossible to take pictures with a toddler sous chef.

 

Enjoyed by all.

 

 

Curry Squash Empanadas

For Thanksgiving, I was to bring the Turkey balls I did last year and I suggested pumpkin empanadas.  Two weeks prior, my sisters and I had gone to a Thai restaurant that had the most delicious curry pumpkin empanadas and I was determined to recreate some.  To my dismay, when I went grocery shopping, there were NO cooking pumpkins. What's a girl that loves to improvise to do, but to improvise and use the squash I had at home already.  I was a bit apprehensive taking it for Thanksgiving because they were expecting pumpkins and I was bringing squash that not too many of them like to eat anyway.

I cooked the cubed squash in the oven and then sautéed some onions on the stovetop and added curry powder and my seasonings. Sorry, no pictures. I was trying to work with two toddlers at the same time.

I then went searching for empanada dough recipes online. I found several and one that actually had squash as the stuffing. Authentic Suburban Gourmet's recipe was the easiest I could find.  Hers looked so good and simple, I had to try.

I made a little bit of her mint and cilantro chutney to go with it

 

 

All my worries were put to rest when DH eat a whole one from the first batch. Once I shared with the entire family during dinner, it was a hit. I've been asked to make them again at least three times now. I don't know if it's the crust or what, BUT they loved them.