Bierrocks

A few days ago, I posted a picture on Facebook of my bierrock creations and it seems that for those who knew what they were, everyone wanted the recipe.  If you aren't familiar with bierrocks, here is a little brief history provided by Kansas State University's Research and Extension department:

Bierock History
Both the bierock and the runza sandwich have German-Russian roots going back to the
18th century. The term ''bierock'' comes from the Russian word ''pirogi'' or ''pirozhki'' and is
the name for any food consisting of a filling stuffed into dough. The recipe was passed
down from one generation to the next, and was brought to the Midwest of America, and
particularly to the states of Kansas and Nebraska, by the Volga Germans. Originally
bierocks were served to ranch and field workers for lunch.

I know that you were dying to know, right?

My original recipe was adapted from a version that I found at AllRecipes.com.  I tend to find a lot of my first attempts at recipes here, but I tend to change them up a bit.  Let's be honest though - when do I ever follow a recipe that doesn't involve baked goods to the letter anyway?

Nearly Nell Style Bierrocks 

Ingredients 
2 bags of frozen dinner rolls (not Texas-sized; approx. 24 rolls)

1 pound lean ground beef

1 pound pork sausage

5 cups shredded cabbage

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 teaspoon salt

10 slices of American cheese, cut into quarters

1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions

1. Allow rolls to rise according to package directions, or for 2-3 hours on greased baking sheets.
2. In a large skillet, cook beef and sausage over medium heat until browned; make sure there is no remaining pink color. Stir in cabbage, onions and salt with meat. Saute for about 20 minutes. Turn down heat to warm.
3. Take ball of dough and stretch it to form a 4-5 inch square.
4. Place one piece of cheese in center of square and top with a tablespoon of meat filling. Seal dough by bringing the four corners up and then overlapping them. Place pastry upside down on a baking sheet; repeat with remaining rolls.
5. Brush each roll with melted butter.
6. Allow rolls to rise for an additional 30 minutes and then bake in a preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven for 20-25 minutes.

Note: You'll also see a few in my picture that have some cheese melted on top.  Those are ham & cheddar cheese pockets!  Yum!  They are a great way to use up the rolls!  These also work great for the freezer.  Just make as directed, freeze, then microwave for about a minute and you've got an easy lunch!

Unstuffed Peppers

My main man made a request for stuffed peppers this week when I told him I was in a recipe inspiration rut.  I'm happy to oblige such requests as he almost never requests something that I don't like and I do like stuffed peppers - sort of.  What I find is that stuffed peppers are good in theory and composition, but not so delightful when it comes to actual consumption.  They're just plain hard to eat!  But I do love the filling and the mixture of flavors so tonight I decided to improvise.

I started with this recipe from AllRecipes.com that I've used for quite a while.  After experimenting with a few, I decided I liked the addition of the cheese and the meat to rice ratio, as well as the sauce/soup on top.  Tonight however, I got a little crazy and instead of stuffing those lovely green veggies I chopped them up and dumped them into the meat mixture with the tomatoes and the rice.  Then I put the whole thing in a casserole dish and covered it with the soup and baked as directed.  It was super yummo!  My only change in the future would likely be to stir the soup into the mixture instead since that's really how it ends up when you serve it anyhow.

The verdict was smiles all around.  It was pronounced to have superb leftover potential by my lunchbox-toting sweetie and my 1-year-old had two munchkin sized helpings.  And my fork and I both left the table happy about the absence of a knife.  All is well.

Lovely Ladies' Brunch

This weekend I played hostess for a Ladies' Brunch at our church and in true Janell fashion, waited until the last possible minute to finish my planning.  Why do I do this to myself?  I had a career in event management for goodness sakes!  I guess I just like to work under pressure.  Fortunately for me, there is a site called Pinterest.

Aren't they cute?  I'll have to make the deviled egg version at Easter now!
I used caraway seeds for their eyes and the beaks are little carrot triangles.

These were so beautiful and had all of my favorite fruits too!  (No melon here friends)

You also MUST try this recipe for Baked French Toast Casserole from Paula Deen and the Food Network!  Warning: contains butter.  (Coincidentally, now so do my dress pants since I spilled it down my leg while carrying it into the church.  Oops!)

Amazingly however, I also broke out some of my own creativity too.  Once I dust the cobwebs away, there's some decent stuff in there!  First, while not original, was the "guess the number of jelly beans in the jar" game.  Always a good way to foster some friendly competition at the table.  Since this was a inter-generational event, we also provided coloring pages and crayons.  For a fun twist, we printed ice breaker questions and attached one to each crayon.  Some of my personal favorites were:

"How often do you clean between your toes?"

"Time machines are real! Where would you go?"

and

"If you were a pirate, what would your name be?"

If you find yourself stumped for questions like I did, there is a great list I found while search around the web.

CF "Ice Breaker" Questions 

Finally, I've been taught that any good church event needs centerpieces (or maybe I just made it up).  So what does a girl do for budget-friendly centerpieces on March 9?  Look to the front yard and her closet of course!

Our yard is currently a wonderland of fall and winter "fallout" and I found some lovely branches that were happy to be painted white and stuck in a boot.  When I mentioned that there were Easter eggs and flowers involved, they practically leaped from the trees! The fluffy green Easter grass and my adorable, yet rarely worn galoshes were just the ticket to corral the twigs.

I had also just seen a fun little DIY article for tissue paper flowers that I decided to add in for a perfect finish to the project.  They are so cute and easy that I'm going to give up on buying bows and attach these to gifts from now on!  I'm even working on putting something together to show you how I made them.

Now that they event has passed, I just can't give up the twigs and eggs.  So I guess my hubby will have to tolerate the giant Easter tree in our house until the holiday has passed. 

Hmmmm . . . then what should I do with them?

Pasta e Fagioli

I've been on a quest lately to use up the items in the pantry and freezer that have been patiently waiting for me.  I went through a bit of a stockpile/coupon craze for a while and that left me with a nice supply of pantry goods.  We also usually find a farm that is selling a cow once a year and get our freezer stocked with beef.  Not to mention that I really like to try new recipes and rarely cook the same thing more than once, so that leaves a lot of options for things that I purchased and only used in one dish.

We've already gone through an entire month of meals where I had at least the main ingredient on hand and now we're on our way into month two.  (It seems there may also be a month three . . . )  I have been systematically marking ingredients off my list and tonight I had two things that wound up finding their way out of the cupboards - small shell pasta and cannellini beans!

My hubby and I love to go to Olive Garden and get the all-you-can-eat soup, salad, and breadsticks.  It's so yummy and cheap that it feels like we're getting some amazing deal and still leaving so full we could explode.  I always have a hard time deciding which soup to go with and generally end up with a bowl of more than one variety, but my man always goes with the Pasta e Fagioli.  Thus I was excited to find that this lovely recipe could help clean out my cupboards!  The shell pasta isn't exactly what the recipe calls for, but I think it was a suitable substitute.

With this pile of stuff, it's gotta be soup right?

The recipe that I decided to try was from Top Secret Recipes as I'd had good luck with their recipe for another one of my Olive Garden favorites, the Zuppa Toscana soup (sorry friends - apparently you have to pay for that recipe now).  The taste tester declared that it was just as good as the real thing and was pumped about the amount of leftovers he had for less than the price of a meal out with me.  So I think the experiment was a success.  My only complaint was that it almost turned into more of a chili than a soup once the pasta is added, so I might suggest more liquid or less noodles.  The flavor however was perfect!

Can you smell that simmering goodness?

Yummo!  This is a seriously hardy soup!

Now we'll see if I ever make it again!  But now I have this half-used bottle of V8 and some celery lying around so I guess I better find a use for that too - hmmm, where's the vodka . . .