I love little pies like this.  Truth be told, if it has a pastry shell chances are I am going to like it.  I am kind of a fanatic for carbs.  I was a bit hesitant when I saw that these little morsels had tuna in them.  I generally do not care for fish and tomato based sauced together but I threw caution to the wind and followed the recipe.  They were not half bad.  The tuna wasn’t too fishy tasting and the tomato sauce didn’t totally overpower the fish so I thought that it struck a nice balance and I enjoyed these very much.  I do think that I would have liked them alot better with ground beef or pork, maybe even chicken.  My family agreed and so next time I will be trying them with those meats in the filling instead of the tuna.  I also goofed a bit when cutting them out.  I thought my cutter was 3 inches but it really wasn’t and my empanadas are a but small as you can see from the picture but no matter, the smaller size just meant that I got more out of my recipe for the dough and we certainly finished them all off so no problems here.

This white bean soup I thought was totally delicious.  My mom and grandmothers always made white bean soup and I always enjoyed it, their soups however, were never blended but rather featured the whole cooked beans.  I don’t think I have a preference either way.  I may in the future, hold out some of the cooked beans when I puree the soup and add the whole beans back in and get the best of both worlds.  I really really enjoyed this soup.  It has been a bit rainy and damp here the past few days and I generally crave soups in the fall and especially on those damp,windy days such as we have been having.  The smooth, melting cheese, the rich beans and sweet onions all combined to make a hauntingly mellow and rich soup.  That combined with the crispy, crackly bacon on top and this soup can’t be beat.  A green salad and some hearty crusty bread and you have dinner, lunch and everything in between.