Her grandfather wrote/translated the family recipes from his wife into a binder cook book thing while he was laid up and before he died 1 yr later. Neither of their English was all that great but he took pride in passing tradition on.

The dough recipe is a bit off, I learned this the first time I made it. See disclaimer below.

Empanadas

Dough:

2 C All purpose flour

4 tsp oil

1/2 tsp salt

1 C warm water

(this is too watery, need to add more flour to make it right, 4 cups or so. Looking for a pie dough type consistency, pliable and not too tough but not too gooey).

Roll it out like a pie dough, cut it into little circles using a 3-4" cookie cutter or a beer pint glass.

Fill with filling (see below for various fillings). Moisten edges with a wet finger, fold over and crimp edges to make a half moon type shape. OR, put one circle on top of the other and make a full circle one. It's a recipe not a mandatory set of instructions.

Fillings:

1)Cheese: Munster cheese slices. That's it.

2) Beef: Browned ground beef, onion, slices of hard boiled egg, raisins, sliced olives.

3) Beef: Browned ground beef, spinich.

4) Whatever you think would be yummy and go together to suit your tastes (after all, I think the beef, raisin, egg thing is gross)

Once the packets are filled and crimped, fry in a skillet with hot oil until golden brown.