Sweet Potato Empanadas

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sweet potatoes, mashed or pureed
• 1/4 cup cream cheese, softened
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar*
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• Kosher salt
• 1 tube refrigerated ready-made crescent rolls (uncooked dough)
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 3/4 cup plain yogurt
• *Cook's Note: Omit the brown sugar if the sweet potato leftovers are already sweetened.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, mash the sweet potatoes with a fork, and mix in the cream cheese, brown sugar if using, lemon juice, and pinch of salt until creamy. Remove the dough from the tube and separate into 4 rectangles. Working with 1 rectangle at a time, roll over the perforated lines in the dough to seal together. Cut the rectangle in half and then cut the halves into 2 triangles. Place a heaping teaspoon of sweet potato filling in the center of each of 4 triangles. Fold the dough over on each, as if you were making ravioli, and pinch the edges together. Cook's Note: Use a tiny bit of water if the dough is too dry to seal.

Continue making little triangle empanadas with the rest of the dough, 16 total. Place the triangles on a parchment-lined baking sheet and into the preheated oven. Bake the empanadas until golden, about 10 to 12 minutes. Meanwhile, in a shallow bowl, mix together the sugar, cinnamon, and pinch of salt. While still warm, brush the empanadas with melted butter, and then gently toss in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Serve the empanadas with tangy plain yogurt for dipping.

**Made these for the Super Bowl also. These were SO good. I actually used yams rather than sweet potatoes because it's all I could find at the store. Same thing, right? I more than doubled the recipe and had uber amounts of the sweet potato mixture left over. Any idea on what I should do with it now? ha! I didn't serve them with the plain yogurt because I absolutely hate the taste of plain yogurt. 

Hummus with Pita Chips

Hummus
4 garlic cloves
2 cups canned chickpeas, drained, liquid reserved
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/3 cup tahini (sesame paste)
6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons, bottled works fine too)
2 tablespoons water or liquid from the chickpeas
8 dashes hot sauce (I use Tabasco)

Turn on the food processor fitted with the steel blade and drop the garlic down the feed tube; process until it's minced. Add the rest of the ingredients to the food processor and process until the hummus is pureed. Taste, for seasoning, and serve chilled or at room temperature.

Pita Chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray baking sheet with olive oil cooking spray; set aside.

Cut each. pita bread into 8 triangles. Place on baking sheet, in a single layer. Lightly spray with cooking spray and sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven; let cool.

Graham Cracker Delights

1 package of Graham Crackers
1 bowl of homemade icing/frosting

Open the package of Graham Crackers.
Take one cracker from the package and snap into 2 equal parts.
Spread the homemade frosting on one half (Thickness of frosting can be to your own personal delight.)
Put the other half of the Graham cracker on top to form a sandwich with frosting in the middle.

Make as many as you desire. For variety, a drop of food coloring can be mixed with the frosting to make different colors.

Place Graham sandwiches in the freezer for 5-10 minutes. Let chill thoroughly.

Better than an Oreo cookie.

For a variation, i.e. HB style, you can skip the Graham cracker part and just eat the frosting straight from the bowl.

White Chocolate Popcorn

3 Pkg- Orville R. Movie Popcorn, pop and remove unpopped kernels.

2 C. (heaping) white molding chocolate. Microwave 1 min. on HI stirring every 20 to 30 sec.

Drop 4-5 drops of Pina Colada Flavoring into the chocolate and stir.

Pour mixture over popcorn coating well and enjoy.

Sunday Snackie

Usually on Sunday I try to have some munchies or snackies around as my chilluns' have enormous sweet teethies. You know, stuff like, Kit Kats, Italian Icees, Brownies, etc. Also, sometimes I need to take a treat around to someone in the ward. Well, that's how I justify making it. Anyway, my fav quicky treat to make is one Kathleen gave me years ago and one I published in the original Arnett Family Cookbook. I made it yesterday.

Carmel Corn

(I have made this recipe so much I can do it by heart. This is Brig’s fav. It’s soooo easy and it stays soft. But please only use real butter. It makes all the diff)

2 cups brown sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1 cup butter

Boil the above mixture just barely. Add ¾ teaspoon soda and stir. Pour over 2-3 batches of popcorn. ( I use microwave popcorn, because I’m so lazy)

Kathleen's recipe (and now mine too:)