Pepperoni Cheese Bread

1 batch of my favorite pizza dough

1 tablespoon instant yeast
1 cup water
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups flour

-Dissolve yeast in water and oil. Stir in sugar, salt, and flour.
-Mix until a ball forms. Knead in a little extra flour if dough seems overly sticky. Otherwise no real kneading needed (that was a tongue-twister to type!:))
-Cover and let rest in warm place while you get other ingredients out. (This does not need to rise more than a few minutes...it should raise just fine in the oven!)

1 pkg pepperoni slices (~3.5oz, use as much or as little as you like)
8 oz mozarella cheese shredded (freshly if possible)
butter
parmesan cheese (2 Tb)

-Roll dough out into large rectangle.
-Spread cheese out over dough, leaving approx 1 in space on ends (east/west), little space at top of bread (north), and ~ 1-2 inches space at bottom (south) of rectangle.
-Cover cheese with pepperoni slices.
-Roll dough from top (north) toward you, slowly, back and forth from one end (east) to the other (west).
-Tuck in east/west ends as you get to the bottom to seal off sides. Stop rolling when long seam is at the bottom of loaf and gently seal edges.
-Lift loaf with seam side down onto sprayed 11x15 pan.
-Bake at 375 until nicely browned approx 15-25 minutes.
-Remove from oven.
-Rub butter lightly over top of loaf. (I just use the end of a stick of butter.)
-Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
-Let rest approx 5 minutes before cutting.
-Serve with pizza sauce to dip!

Y: 3 servings (we were hungry!:))

Tuna Casserole from Scratch

3 Tb butter
3 Tb flour
2 C milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp season salt (i.e. Lawry's)
3 C. cooked elbow noodles
2 5-oz cans tuna in water, drained
1 C frozen peas
bread crumbs

-Melt butter in saucepan on medium heat. Sprinkle flour over and whisk together until well blended.
-Slowly pour in milk and add salts.
-Continue to cook on medium, stirring often at first and continually at end until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Remove from heat.
-Taste...if it seems too bland, add in some more salt to taste. I like to start low on salt and then add to taste, so I don't end up with a salt lick by accident!:)
-Mix with noodles, peas and tuna in a greased, ovenproof bowl (2.5-3qt) or pan (8x10).
-Top with bread crumbs. Bake at 350 for ~25 minutes.

Y: 4 lg servings

I used to be very intimidated by making the idea of making white sauces by scratch. After being in Guinea, coming back and trying it a few times I look back and feel silly! It's very easy and very cheap! Do try it if you never have. No need to have cream of mush/chx soup on hand if you have a lil' bit of flour, butter, salt and milk!:) Spice it up as you like!

Homemade Tortillas & Pia-Mato Sauce

I learned to make these tortillas in Guinea, West Africa. They are sooo good, and remarkably easy - even I could do it! Ha! (I am not so great with bread:)). They do take a bit of time though, but once made you can freeze the extras if desired.

Flour Tortillas ( from Wycliffe Int. Cookbook)
Combine:
-4 C flour
-2 tsp salt
Cut in:
-6 Tb oil ( or shortening)
Add
-1 C water
-Form a ball. Add more water if necessary, until bowl is clear of all dough. Knead well on floured board 20-25 times, then make balls the size of eggs. Let stand 15 min. Roll very thin with rolling pin on lightly floured surface to size of salad plate. Place on hot, ungreased skillet and cook for about 1-2 minutes on one side (until starts to bubble). Turn and cook approx 1 min longer. Watch closely, as second side will cook fast!
-Keep warm on a cookie sheet at 200 degrees in the oven, stacked, covered with a light towel if desired.
-Serve with fried ground beef, seasoned with salt and pepper, and Pia-Mato Sauce, and Cheese!
Y: 2 doz.
Variations:
Cornmeal: Replace 1 C flour with cornmeal
Whole Wheat: Use 2 C whole wheat, 2 C white flour

Pia-Mato Sauce:
2-4 Tomatoes, diced
1 Avacado, diced
Onions, diced (optional)
Green Pepper, diced (optional)
1 pkg Italian dressing dry mix, mixed per instructions or Italian Salad Dressing to cover

-Combine shortly before serving!

This is an impromptu recipe:) nostalgic of the wonderful food we had in Guinea. Our missionary friends there called it their own special Guacamole, and it was made with fresh local veggies and imported Italian dressing!:) For those with sensitive tummies, just leave out the peppers and onions. I made up the name for fun and for memories...the Pular (a Guinean dialect) word for Avacado is Pia!

Pretty Beef Stew

1 lb beef stew cubes, slightly thawed or thawed
1 Tb butter
1 onion, diced
1/4 C gr pepper, diced
1 C hot water

4 med potatoes, peeled & chunked
1 sweet potato, peeled & diced
1 C tomato, diced (canned or fresh)
2 carrots, diced
salt
pepper
Lawry's seasoning salt
1 pinch of Parsley
2 C hot water

1/2 C cold water
2 Tb flour

-Melt butter in pressure cooker over med/high heat and brown beef, onions and gr pepper.
-Add 1 C water and close cover securely. Place pressure regulator on vent pipe (I use a Presto 8Qt Cooker), and cook 8 (thawed) or 13 (partially thawed) minutes with pressure regulator rocking slowly.
-Cool cooker at once by running cold water over it (it will make strange noises that are a little scary, but really, this is what the company recommends and my mother-in-law has done for years and years - don't be frightened:)).
-Add hot water, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, pepper and salts (to taste - go easy...can always add more later). Place pressure regulator on vent pipe and cook 5 minutes once regulator rocks.
-Cool cooker at once.
-Mix flour in cold water well. Stir into stew, and stir until thickens.

Recipe adapted from Presto's Instruction manual.

Y: 4-6 servings

I really like the sweet potato in this and the color the stew turns out...so pretty! Add any veggies you have sitting around...as a friend in Africa called it...anything that must go you can turn into "Mustgo" Soup. :)

Round Steak Sandwiches

2 round steaks
~1/4 C Worcestershire Sauce
Pepper
Dried onions
Mini-sub buns
Cheese (flavor of choice)


Cut each steak into two pieces. Lay in 9x13 pan (will overlap each other). Sprinkle with dried onions to taste. Splash worc. sauce over meat. Add 1/4-1/2 in. water to bottom of pan, pouring a little over steaks to spread out sauce, but not to rinse it off. Sprinkle with pepper. Cover with foil, bake at 350 for 2 hours.

Break meat up with a fork into shredded pieces/chunks. Serve on mini-sub buns (we like wheat) with desired cheese of choice on top!

Y: Approx 12 mini-subs

We have recently been using this recipe to eat up our round steak and really like it! Very simple and really softens the tough steak. Of note, I can't eat cheese right now, so I crushed a few potato chips into the sandwich and enjoyed the crunchy variety! My vote 8/10 for simple, filling, tasty food.

Lasagna

1 lb hamburger, fried with a little salt/pepper
24 oz cottage cheese
2 1/2 C mozzarella cheese, shredded and divided
1/2 C parmesan cheese, divided
2-3 Tb dried parsley
26 oz can spaghetti sauce
1 C water
12 lasagna noodles, uncooked

-Let cottage cheese sit in strainer to drain juices some.
-Mix cottage cheese, 1 1/4 C mozzarella cheese, 1/4 C. parmesan cheese and parsley. Set aside.
-Mix hamburger and spaghetti sauce. Add water to empty sauce jar and shake well. Add to meat mixture and blend well.
-Spread 1 C sauce mix to bottom of 9x13pan; top with 3 noodles; top with 1/3 cot cheese mix and 1 C sauce. Repeat twice. Top with 3 remaining noodles and remaining sauce.
-Sprinkle with 1 1/4 C moz cheese and 1/4 C parmesan cheese. Cover with greased foil.
-Bake 45 min at 350. Remove foil. Bake additional 5-15 minutes, until heated through and cheeses lightly browned. Let sit 5min or so before cutting.

Yield: 12 large servings

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com Pretty good, especially since I don't like runny lasagna - this was on the drier side. 7/10
*Note to self, do not skimp on water or recipe will be too dry. Cot cheese amount increased a little from original recipe. Cheese got too hard after foil removed - would not leave in full 15 minutes.

Beef Roast with Veggies

Roasts are always an experiment for me - I usually just add to them whatever veggies are around and vary the spices/sauces depending on my mood. This recipe I actually wrote down once, so we must have liked it:). My mom taught me that you can throw a frozen roast in the oven, and my planning ahead was all over from then on...the only difficulty is getting the wrap off of the roast!

1 frozen roast (sirloin, chuck, pot, etc...)
veggies (red potatoes with skins on, green/yellow fresh beans, green pepper, onions, carrots)
garlic salt
pepper
paprika
dried parsley
butter
worcestershire sauce

Place frozen roast in roaster pan. Liberally squirt with worc. sauce to coat. Add hot water to pan to lightly cover bottom and a dash over the roast. Sprinkle spices over roast. Cover and bake at 400 for 10 min, then turn oven down to 350. Bake for approx. 1 1/2 hours, then add veggies around roast. Dot with little bits of butter. Sprinkle some more spices over veggies. Bake another 45 minutes (covered) or until roast is done to your desire.