My Life, it is Busy. My Camera, it is Broken. -- Easy Empanadas

So the plan was to post this easy-peasy recipe immediately following the Cinco De Mayo one, but that didn't work out as planned. Sorry about that.

Pretty sure my life is about to get crazy-busy with the play I'm in beginning rehearsals (I'm going to be Bonnie in Anything Goes with my local theater group, very excited!) but hopefully I'll have time to keep cooking!*

Also my lovely point-and-shoot randomly broke on me. It won't turn on, though the battery is fully charged. This is the third point-and-shoot in three years that's broken on me, and it always would cost more to fix than to just buy a new camera. I'm taking this as a sign that I need to get a new camera, but since I'm actually going to shell out for a DSLR it's going to take a paycheck or two. And though I've only had this blog a short time, and you can see my grumblings over my photo quality, I figure it makes sense to get a nice camera. Not just because of this blog, but because I take a ton of non-food pictures and it would be nice to have a good, reliable camera that not only takes good pictures but also won't break in less than one year.

And since I'm entirely illiterate when it comes to cameras, any suggestions or advice on what I should be looking for are most welcome. I'm not entirely partial to Nikon or Canon (as I've heard there is a great debate) but am feeling a little anger towards Nikon since that's what all my point-and-shoots were.

The requirements:
-Easy for beginners like me who have only ever had point-and-shoots
-$500 or under, and $500 being the absolute most I would think to spend
-Nice pictures?

If nothing else I still have a bunch of recipes on stand-by with pictures, and also can borrow my boyfriend or mom's camera or worst-case-scenerio use my phone or laptop cameras. So I won't be gone, I just might be rationing out my back-up blog entries for a bit.

Anyways, here are the "empanadas"which I have no idea if they really are anything like this. In truth you might just want to call them Little Pie Things. Enjoy!

*By "hopefully" I mean I'll totally still be cooking, but definitely more sporadically. 

The strawberries ended up not being used.

Easy Apple Empanadas

• 1 package refrigerated pie crust
• 2 large apples
• 1/4 cup cinnamon-sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbs melted butter

-Cut pie crust into rectangles. I suggest rolling the dough out a little thinner than I did, as the empanadas came out pretty bread-heavy and I imagine they'd be better with a little less bread.

-Peel and cube apples into about centimeter-thick cubes. Toss with cinnamon-sugar mixture and vanilla.

-Spoon about three tablespoons of the apple mix to each dough rectangle. Roll up the sides and make at least three slits in the top of each little pie. Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with more cinnamon sugar.

-Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes, or according to pie crust directions. Serve once cooled enough to handle, and with some vanilla ice cream if you'd like.