Beef and Cabbage Rolls

Here's a yummy recipe I hope your family will enjoy.  Its one of those recipes I cut from one of my magazine: Sunset, Cooking Light, Cooks, or Bon Appettite.  You know which recpies I mean - - those recipes that get clipped, copied, but never cooked.  Or cooked, but never properly filed, so never repeated.  This is one of those I made a long time ago and had never repeated, but I remembered that it was a hit.  

Well, now I have a super cool recipe program on my Mac which I love, and I am organzing all my recipes.  In the near future, expect to find more gems I've uncovered and rediscovered.  So with this one I didn't create it, but as always, I made minor adjustments to it for my family.  My husband LOVES it, and my kids like it. 

It looks difficult, but really it's just a bit time consuming - like about 45 to 75 minutes of prep and cook time.  It's so worth it! Tell me what your family thinks.

What you'll need:

• ½ cup green onion, chopped
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame seed
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil, dark
• 1 tablespoon sherry, dry, cooking
• 2 teaspoons splenda
• ¼ teaspoon pepper, fresh ground
• ¼ teaspoon ginger, ground
• 1 or 2 clove garlic, to taste
• ½ lb sirloin, ground
• 2 cups cabbage, green, thinly sliced

*** Dough ***

• 4 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ⅓ cups water
• ¼ cup honey
• 2 tablespoons canola oil

***topping***

• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 large egg white
• 1 tablespoon sesame seed

How to make it:

In a non-stick large skillet, over medium-high heat, combine all the filling ingredients except cabbage. Cook beef mixture for about 4-8 minutes, until beef is no longer pink.

Stir in cabbage and cook about 3-4 minutes until cabbage is wilted and tender. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

Preheat oven to 350 convection; 375 standard. (I tend to prefer to cook with convection).

For the dough: Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Stir gently.

 

Combine water, honey and canola oil in measuring cup. Whisk until honey is completely blended.

Add water to flour mixture and stir until a soft dough forms. (The flour is mostly moistened).

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead dough until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. (This is fun! Get into it! Take out all your frustrations of the day and work that dough!)

 

Now cover the dough and let it sit 5 minutes. If you haven't done so yet, open a bottle of wine and pour yourself a glass. Sip and breath in and out for 5 minutes.

 

Roll the dough into a large rectangle 16 x 12 or 20 x 15, depending on how thick you like your roll. Either way, you want the dough thin. Cut the dough into 12 (4 or 5 inch) squares.

 

Take out 1 square and cover the rest. Place one scoop (I love the Pampered Chef large scoop!) in the center of the dough.

Dip your finger in a lil bowl of water to moisten all four edges of the square. Bring 2 opposite corners together, and pinch them together to seal. Do this to the other 2 corners. Make sure it is all sealed or your yummy juices will run out.

Place rolls seam side down on silpat baking sheet (or on parchment paper). Proceed with the other 11 squares.

Combine water and egg white; lightly brush tops of rolls. Sprinkle each roll with 1/4 teaspoon of sesame seeds.

Bake at 350 convection for 20 minutes or 375 standard for 25 minutes, until lightly browned.

The above photo is how thick the dough will be if you make a 4 inch square. For thinner dough shell, roll flatter into a 5 inch square.

Be sure to let me know your families thoughts!  Blessings,  Laurie

Secret Soup Recipe

Ever since the craziness of Christmas, I haven't had the time to post any recipes.   I did try a couple of new recipes out last week that were really fun to make.  I even took pictures of  them to post, but after tasting the food decided that it wasn't as tasty or worth sharing. 

So I still don't have a recipe to share, but I do have a soup secret weapon to share.   I recently discovered McCormick Chicken Base.   The closest thing I can think to compare it to is chicken stock.  It is not overly salty and it's MSG free.   I use it for everything.  Its what I add to all my soups and it adds just the right amount of flavoring, but not too salty.  Every soup recipe I've added it to has turned out fabulous.   Usually no other salt is needed.   I'll even add a little to my rice to enhance the flavor. 

You can purchase it in the spice isle of your local grocery store (I've even found a large container of it at Business Costco) and then once opened, store in the refrigerator.

Banana White Chocolate Cranberry Muffins

I'm back!  The past couple weeks have been crazy at our house. The respitory stuff of all types floating from person to person, leaving me, mom, exhausted.  I relied on tried and true recipes, or Trader Joes frozen entrees to get us through while recovering from my childs walking pneumonia and who knows what else was here.  Hope your family is missing it all.

Back to cooking and enjoying it this week!

So here's an easy one to get you started again.  This muffin recipe is great too because it's all in one saucepan, and no mixer is needed. Altho, I'm not too big a fan of "white" chocolate because the chocolate purist in me screams generally "there is no chocolate in white chocolate".  But the combination of flavors here is delicious, and the whole wheat stays moist, so I'll not be too picky about the white chocolate.

Prep time:  20 minutes with toddlers helping

Bake time:  15-20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup butter unsalted, melted
¾ cup sugar
2 egg, large
4 tablespoons rice sour cream
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
4 tablespoons cranberries, dried, chopped
2-4 ounces white chocolate, chopped
3 bananas, very ripe, mashed

What to do:

• Melt the butter in a medium to large saucepan.
• Remove from heat. Add sugar, vanilla and mashed bananas. Stir well.

 

Stir in the rice sour cream and the eggs, using a wooden spoon.

• Add baking soda, baking powder and flour. Stir until flour is almost mixed, but not quite. This coats the cranberries and chocolate so they spread out in the muffins.

• Stir in the cranberries and chopped white chocolate until just blended. Don't overstir. You want the muffins to be light and airy.

 

• Scoop into 12 muffin cups. I love the Pampered Chef scoops for this!

• Cook for 15 to 20 minutes at 350.  I bake for 15 minutes at 325 convection.
• Cool on a baking rack.

These smell so delicious while baking.  Set a pot of tea on the stove, clean up your utensils, and the muffins will be ready to enjoy when your kids come in the door after school.

Blessings to your family!  Laurie

Cheesecake revisited

One of the first posts I made on this blog was for Roasted Sweet Potato Cheesecake which you can click on here or scroll down to read.  I went back, updated the recipe to make it more user friendly, and added some new photos.

If you haven't tried this one yet, be sure to add it to your recipe file of things to make when you want to impress someone you love. Or just make their tummy quite happy.

    bon appétit  ~ Laurie