Hamburger Roll-Ups

Or at least that's what we call them. Several summers ago, my mom was visiting family in Vermont so my older sister was trying to get creative with some ingredients for our dinner. She's an excellent cook and often gets inventive in the kitchen. She came up with these, and we all loved them. In fact, I loved them so much they've become a favorite with my own little family as well. I hope you all enjoy them too.

First, you make biscuits. My favorite biscuit recipe is Baking Powder Biscuits from an old Betty Crocker cookbook.

1/3 cup shortening (or softened butter)

1 3/4 cup flour

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup milk

(I often double this recipe, as these make for good leftovers)

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Cut shortening into flour, baking powder and salt with pastry blender until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in just enough milk so dough leaves side of bowl and rounds up into a ball. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead lightly.

Filling:

1 lb. ground hamburger, browned and drained of fat. Add some onion and minced garlic and saute a bit with the hamburger.

Add some Thyme, Rosemary, Oregano, salt, pepper (sometimes I use seasoned salt and sometimes some Steak Seasoning. It really just depends on your tastes. I don't really have an proportions, so I just suggest adding to taste.)

Optional: shredded carrots-cook in hamburger mixture until soft.

Roll dough out on cupboard, like you would with cinnamon rolls. Spread hamburger mixture onto dough, then sprinkle with either mozzarella, chedder or parmesan cheese. Depending on my mood depends on what I use, but my favorite is mozzarella or chedder, or a mix of both :)

Roll up, again, like you would a cinnamon roll and cut into 1-2 in. circles. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Top with your favorite white sauce or country gravy.

White Sauce:

I don't really have a recipe for this either, but it uses butter and flour and milk. melt the butter in a saucepan, then add enough flour that it makes a ball, then whisk in enough milk to make it smooth. Add a bit of salt and a bit of pepper and voila, you have your white sauce.

See, they even kind of look like cinnamon rolls, but believe me, these are far from sweet, although still quite savory.

Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

Prep time: 10 min. Cook time: 40 min.

2 lbs. round red potatoes (I used russet, since that was all I had), unpeeled and quartered

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. dried thyme

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary (you can use dried rosemary as well)

1/8 tsp. pepper

Combine all ingredients in a large zip-top freezer bag. Seal bag, and shake well to coat. Arrange potatoes in a well-greased 13x9 in. baking dish.

Bake, uncovered, at 450 degrees for 40 minutes or until potato is tender, stirring occasionally. Yield: 6 servings

*I didn't have time to wait for them to bake, so I actually cooked them on the stove in a frying pan and they turned out great. These have just the right amount of taste to them.

Garlic Rosemary Baquettes

4 cups water
1 1/2 Tbsp yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp Salt
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar

8 cups flour
4 Tbsp rosemary, minced

1 head of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

1 egg white

In a large non-reactive bowl (plastic or stainless steel) combine four cups warm water with yeast, salt and sugar. Stir until yeast is dissolved. Let stand ten minutes.

Pour mixture and half of the flour into your *stand mixer with paddle attachment. Mix and add remaining flour until dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Switch to bread hook and mix on speed 2 for 2-3 minutes. (You may need to stop occasionally and push down the dough with a spoon or spatula.)

*Note: If you do not have a mixer, you can use your bread machine to mix the dough, or mix dough by hand. Just make sure ingredients are well mixed.

Add rosemary and garlic and mix briefly. Remove dough hook and cover bowl with a clean cloth. Allow to rise for one hour or until dough doubles in size. Shape loaves into long baguettes and place on a greased baguette tray, or a greased cookie sheet. Brush loaves with olive oil or egg white. (This is an artisan bread, so you don't need to let it raise again.)

Bake for twenty minutes at 450 degrees F.