Sturdy Homemade Food: Runsas

Dear guests,

This is the cabbage roll that I made for the Happy Movers on Monday.

I am including a list of suggested filling, which I have not tried yet but will when I am finished moving!

Runsas (Beef and Cabbage Buns with Cheese)
From Cook's Country 2009, April/May p 7

Dough
3/4 cup warm water (110 F)
1/2 c sweetened condensed milk or substitute
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
3-1/2 c all-purpose flour,plus extra for rolling out dough
2 packages instant or rapid-rise yeast (about 2-1/4 tsp ea)
1 teaspoon salt

Filling:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter or bacon fat
1-1/2 lbs 90% lean ground beef, or chopped leftover chuck
1 large onion, chopped fine
1/2 small head cabbage, chopped, abut 3 cups (feel free to use more cabbage and less meat, etc)
Salt and pepper
8 slices cheese (I had some extra cheese so I made a few stuffed with just some slices of cheese)

Other filling ideas:
Cooked sausage-egg-bacon; cheese; BBQ beef; pulled pork; sloppy joe filling; "supreme" pizza filling; asian cabbage slaw fillings, pork, etc.

Dough: Lightly grease large bowl with cooking spray.  Mix water, sweetened condensed milk, oil, sugar, and egg in large measuring cup (the picture is the recipe doubled).

Mix flour, yeast, and salt in bowl of standing mixer fitted with dough hook.

With mixer on low, add water mixture.  After dough comes together, increase speed to medium and mix until shiny and smooth, 4 to 6 minutes.  Turn dough out onto heavily floured work surface, shape into ball, and place in greased bowl.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap or damp towel and let rest in warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Filling: Melt 1 tablespoon butter in large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add beef and cook until just beginning to brown, about 6 minutes, breaking up any large clumps.  Using slotted spoon, transfer beef to paper-towel lined plate.

Pour off all but 2 tablespoons fat from pan (or if you used chuck, add some more bacon fat). Add onion and cook until softened, about 3 minutes.  Add cabbage and toss until just beginning to wilt, 2 - 4 minutes.  (Or if you don't have large enough pans, do it all separately like I did!)

Return beef to pan and season with salt and pepper (or just mix in a bowl).  

Assembly: Adjust oven racks to the upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350.  Coat 2 baking sheets with cooking spray.  Divide dough into 8 equal pieces.  Working on lightly floured work surface, roll each piece of dough into a 7" circle.

Place one dough round in a deep cereal bowl and top with one slice of cheese.  Spoon 3/4 cup filling over cheese and pinch edges of dough together to form bun.

 Transfer bun, seam side down, to prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, cheese, and filling, placing 4 buns on each baking sheet.  Cover buns with plastic wrap and let rise until puffed, about 20 minutes.

Baking: Bake buns until golden-brown, about 20 minutes, switching and rotating position of baking sheets halfway through baking time.  (To MAKE SURE they are complete, flip one over and poke at the seam, where the dough will be the thickest.  You don't want half-raw dough!)  Brush buns with melted butter and serve.

These microwave very nicely the next day.

Happiest baking days to you!


Mrs H
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Kitchen Understudy #1

To those out there who are missing something in life,

I used this concoction the other day to replace sweetened condensed milk in a recipe. It was in baked goods, not a pastry, so I cannot say how it would work in a pastry. 

Sweetened Condensed Milk Substitute

1 cup instant dry milk (I used fat free.  The recipe called for solid, I used powdered)

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup boiling water

3 tbsp melted butter

Combine all ingredients in a blender.  Blend until smooth. Store in refrigerator until ready to use.  Yields approximately 14 ounces (a little less than a can).  Note: it is NOT as thick as canned sweetened condensed milk.  You can add cornstarch to thicken if you want.

replacefully yours 

Mrs H
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Moving Day 2

Dear continuing faithful,

Today we were busy as could be, continuing moving.  We called the utilities and internet providers to cancel and switch our services to the new place.  Our internet will be shut off by October 5, so there may not be any blog updates for a while.

My cousin Max came back with his truck, and brought his 4-month old son David with him.  While the men took loads of furniture and boxes to the new apartment, I let David help me knead cinnamon-roll dough for party I am hosting tomorrow.

He loved the dough!

He didn't try to eat it, surprisingly! 

I had a dehydrator load of basil drying on my porch, so I blended it up so I could wash and pack the dehydrator.

I had also dried a load of onions, so I blended those into bits and put them in a jar.  My food-saver is already packed and at the new place, so I will package and freeze them later.  They are pretty dry, so they will last long enough in the jar.

I put two loaves of whole wheat bread in the oven on warm to rise; I was pretty proud of myself for planning ahead, knowing that this next week my new kitchen will probably be too chaotic to make bread.  Unfortunately, I forgot the bread was in the oven, and it rose for about eight hours!!  So we have some rather sad, deflated looking bread (one with onions and salt on top).  Oh well.

I had to use up a quart and a half of cream that was in the fridge for a while, and a bunch of leftover gingerroot.  I needed to use these up, so I made a double batch of ginger ice-cream... 

Peeled the leftover root, sliced it, and put it in vodka to make ginger extract and to preserve the root ... 

... and made a double batch of plum ice-cream (sorry, no picture!).  In the afternoon, my mom, my sister Manda, and Karissa went to the new place with Max and Mr H.  They scrubbed and cleaned and unloaded!  

I stayed at the old apartment and kept cleaning and packing and cooking.  My little brother Nate had a ton of fun playing with David.  I am not sure which one made more noise!  

I had three packages of a pumpkin-spice quick-bread mix.  I had to make a treat to take to Bible study in the morning so I made a bunch of mini-muffins.  I also made some streusel topping, and a dozen muffins for my hard-working mom and sister to take home!  I also used up a boxed mix for brownies, which is made using plain yogurt, which I also wanted to use up out of my fridge.  

The living room is now the stockpile for things that are dusted, washed, packed, and ready to be moved ...

The dining room has a nice fat pile of things that still need to be sorted and packed, and a box and a few things that belong to other people.  (I also need to pack my closet!)

A nice stack of boxes and baskets to pack what's left in the kitchen and the closet ........ oh dear!! 

Overall, a very productive 2nd day of moving!  I am pretty excited that we got so much done with only two-day notice that we can move.  

Tomorrow is a busy day, no time for packing or cleaning; but we'll be back at it on Wednesday! 

To all a good night, and a special thanks to my family for pitching in today to help with the move!!! 

love,

Mrs H
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Moving Day 1

Dear faithfuls,

We planned to start our move-out from our current apartment around the middle of this month; that's when our rental of the other place begins.  But the landlord told us he'd honestly rather have us move in now, even though we are only paying for the 2nd half of October, than have the place vacant.

It makes perfect business sense, of course, but big apartment complexes don't do that.  It's so much easier to work with this fella, instead of with a huge apartment company!

I've never moved before, but I always thought it would be fun.  Of course, my day job is working as a project manager for an aerospace repositioning firm, so it makes sense ...  But we washed, sorted, weeded, and carefully packed, taped a manifest to each box, and categorized to the final pin as much as possible.  I have a few obsessions about categorizing  .... I will categorize utensils until my fingers bleed, if left to my own pursuits.

So we called our cousins, and Jess let us have her husband Max and his truck all day to help.

My mom came over and scoured the guest bathroom spotless, from top to bottom!  It's definitely cleaner than when we moved in.

 My little sister played and helped (a little).  And ate bread with honey!

Mr H and Gabe worked hard loading the vehicles, and unloading at the new place with Max.

Max took some of our furniture to his man-cave at his house.  We didn't need our TV and one of the small couches and ottomans.  He and Gary will use them to play Halo!

I washed and packed and scrubbed and, of course, since hard work deserves good food, cooked and baked.  I was trying to bake specific items that would use up surplus ingredients in my fridge, instead of buying food to make, so that I don't have to move as much food! 

Homemade apple turnovers came out of the freezer for a mid-afternoon snack ... 

Beef-cabbage-cheese-stuffed "runsas" were made, to use up the bag of chopped beef leftover from the bones I used to make 20 quarts of beef broth ... 

And caramel sticky-buns finished the evening off with a sweet note! 

We got an awful lot done for the first day of unexpected moving.  Fortunately, Mr H and I were a little zealous in the week prior and had boxed a whole lot of stuff.  At the end of the day we moved our bed from the bedroom into the living room.  I demonstrated how tired I was ...

The house was pretty empty that evening.

MANY thanks goes to the family/friends that helped us get all of this work done!  We would not have had such a smooth transition without all of your help!!

Love,


Mrs H
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Respectfully Yours

Dear roaming readers,

Mr H and I live in an apartment; about a month ago, the leasing office told us they were going to raise the rent a great deal (for the second time this year) and start charging us for our parking spot.  They would brook no argument and refused to make a compromise, so after meeting with them again to ask if they would reconsider the amount they were increasing and being told "no, here is the notice to vacate if you want it," we decided the time was right to find more affordable housing.

Actually, Mr H decided.  I was fine with his decision; until I woke up the next morning and realized that we had to move.  I had nothing against moving in and of itself; I was just crushed to realize that, since we have been blessed with a kitchen with unusually large storage space and every new apartment we were looking at was incredibly small, I would probably have to put all of my precious dishes and canning equipment in cold storage.  You probably don't have to be reading this blog very long to know that cooking and baking are fairly essential components in my life!  I would think, "Oh, I can make do just fine!" and then I would wake up in the middle of the night and think what a miserable time it would be.  I had spent exactly one year learning how to creatively make everything fit functionally in our apartment (they aren't built for canners or long-term food storage!) - I had spent days agonizing over the storage shed and rea-rea-rearranging shelves until things fell into place perfectly.  To me, organization is critical.  It's much the same as breathing to some people - can't live without it!  I can feel in my bones when the shelves are organized properly, and I can feel in my bones when things haven't quite settled - I went through several kitchen organizations over the period of a few months before things clicked into place perfectly.  Mr H helpfully proposed to me that I could "rearrange the shelves at the new place."  I was frustrated with his response - no pity for me?  No sympathy?  "You don't understand!" I said.  "It took forever to make things fit ... the kitchen is finally organized how I want it!"  I was happy to move, but I was unhappy to have to change.  Didn't he understand that?

Ladies, this is the part where I re-learned something pretty basic that we all know about men.  Something I knew in my head, but needed to learn a little more about.

Mr H was sorely hurt by my comments for some reason that I didn't yet understand.  "You have to trust that I am making the best decision for us," Mr H said.  "You have to trust my decisions!"

I was driving home that night and listening to a Christian radio station.  Shaunti Feldhahn was giving a talk and describing my situation in detail!  She told me very clearly that what I was telling my husband - unintentionally - was that I didn't respect him.  And men need respect!  The Bible tells men to love their wives, and for wives to respect their husbands.  Pretty simple mathematics there.

In fact, Shaunti explained that in a cross-cultural study, they had found the overwhelming majority of men would give up feeling loved in exchange for feeling respected.  That's how important it is!

I don't think any of us would argue with that fact.  What I realized was that my complaining and worrying about moving was not translating to Mr H as a concern over "moving" but as a lack of trust in his decision-making abilities.

I agreed with myself to not whine any more about moving, and to show my complete trust in his decisions (he has always made the best decisions for us!).  Life went on, and we kept exploring new apartment possibilities.  The apartment we had looked at just prior to My Realization was an okay fit for us, but we really wished we could have had the end unit - unfortunately, it was already rented out.  Part of a 4-plex, it had a huge back deck perfect for canning and keeping a large freezer, two sliding glass doors, a spare bedroom, lots of storage inside and underneath, a fabulously open kitchen, and extra closets in the house.  "If only ..." I thought.  But I had already decided to stop whining and to rest in the capable hands of my husband and my God.  So I prayed about it that night and shut up.

The next morning, the landlord called Mr H and told him that - unexpectedly - the couple that was planning to move in to the end unit had cancelled their agreement.  Today we signed the papers and we are moving in!

Answered prayer?  I think so.


Mrs H
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Lazy-Day Sandwich Bread

Thanks for reading this post, I'm so excited to visit with you!  

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Dear busy bees,

Since life has been a bit frenetic of late (you'll soon be hearing why!), I have been lazy about making bread.  Sadly that means we haven't had bread in a while!  I look forward to the day when I will have a freezer and can bake bread ahead of time ... but until then!!  Today I had just a little time at home in the morning, in between errands and some hospice work, so while I took a shower did my dishes ran the laundry finished some tasks, I made this nice "lazy" loaf of sandwich bread (I doubled it to make two).  I call it lazy because it is a sort of "dump together" recipe, and it is finished in one day; usually, I use the overnight process of bread, which I tend to prefer.  I did make a batch of whole wheat bread dough to stick in the fridge while this was rising, but that is a recipe for another time.

I used all white flour for this bread, but usually we use a mixture of wheat and white, or all wheat.  If you use wheat flour, you will need to add a little extra moisture.

Tip: When using flour, I ALWAYS WEIGH IT to measure.  Sorry to scream. It's just THAT IMPORTANT!!

Lazy-Day Sandwich Bread from Cook's Illustrated The Best American Classics
a single recipe makes one 9-inch loaf

3 1/2 - 3 3/4 cups (17 1/2 to 18 3/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour (plus extra for work surface)
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup warm milk (95 F)
1/3 cup warm water (95 F)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 tablespoons honey (I used honey & molasses mixed)
 package (about 2 1/4 teaspoons) rapid-rise or instant yeast
Optional: Add vital wheat gluten and/or dough enhancer, per the measurements on the container

Warm environment: Adjust an oven rack to the lowest position and heat the oven to 200 degrees. Once the oven temperature reaches 200 degrees, maintain the heat for 10 minutes, then turn off the oven.
Mixing the dough: Meanwhile, mix flour and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the dough hook or paddle.  Mix the milk, water, butter, honey in another bowl - check that temp is about 95 - 110 F.  Sprinkle in yeast and whisk to dissolve.  Turn the machine onto low and slowly add the liquid.  When the dough comes together, increase speed to medium and mix until the dough is smooth and satiny, stopping the machine two or three times to scrape the dough from the hook, if necessary, about 10 minutes.  (After 5 minutes of mixing, if the dough is still sticking to the sides of the bowl, add flour 1 tablespoon at a time and up to 1/4 cup total, until the dough is no longer sticky.) Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface; knead to form a smooth, round ball, about 15 seconds (if, like me, your kitchen is in chaos and you don't have time to wipe down and flour a counter, just hold the dough in both hands and knead in the air!  This works about up to a double-batch!).
First rise: Place the dough in a very large lightly oiled mixing bowl, flipping the dough once so it is lightly coated.  Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap and place in the warmed oven until dough doubles in size, about 45 minutes.
To shape the sandwich loaf: Press the dough into thick rectangle about 1 inch thick, and no longer than 9 inches.  With the long side facing you, roll the dough firmly into a snug cylinder, pressing with your fingers to make sure the dough sticks to itself.  Turn the dough seam-side up and pinch the seam closed with your fingers.  Place the dough in a greased 9x5x3" loaf pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap; set aside in a warm place until dough almost doubles in size, about 25 minutes.
Baking: Keep one oven rack at the lowest position and place the other at the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Place an empty loaf pan on the bottom rack (use a metal pan).  Bring about 2 cups of water to a boil and pour into the empty loaf pan in the oven.  Set the bread loaf on the middle rack.  The pan of water will create a steamy environment, giving you a crusty, well, crust!  Bake until an instant-read thermometer stuck to the center of the loaf reads 195 degrees, about 40 - 50 minutes.

Remove bread from pan and cool on wire rack - or it will be soggy on the bottom!

Yum yum, enjoy!

Here's to our daily bread,


Mrs H
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P.S. If you need a little motivation to start baking your own bread, click here.