Busy busy!

I was a busy girl today... school starts soon (ugh!) and I wanted to get some freezer meals ready, plus I also was inspired by what my sister made last night, so I have two recipes to share with you today.

This hamburger roll was the highlight of my culinary experience at Camp Wabimasquah back when I was a kid. I'm hoping the kids will like it for lunches, because I made a double batch and froze them, so they better eat it!

HAMBURGER ROLL
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 onion, diced
1 pkg. active dry yeast
3 tsp. sugar, divided
2 1/4 c. warm water
2 tsp. salt
5 c. flour
grated cheese
pizza sauce (optional)

Brown beef and onion. Sprinkle with seasonings if you like. Dissolve yeast and 1 tsp. sugar in 1/4 c. water. Let stand for 10 minutes, then add salt, remaining sugar and water. Add flour and combine until dough is soft. Knead for about 6-8 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turning once to coat dough. Cover and let rise in the oven with the light on for about 1 hour. Punch dough down and roll out into large rectangle. Spread with tomato sauce (if using), hamburger mixture, and sprinkle with cheese. Roll up and cut into two loaves. Place in 9x13" greased pan, cover, and place back in the oven with the light on for about an hour. Uncover and bake at 350 F for 30 minutes. Slice and serve.

This is an easily adaptable recipe... try ground chicken with some swiss cheese and bits of bacon for a "Chicken Cordon Bleu" roll, or use the pizza sauce and put your favourite pizza toppings instead of ground beef. There are lots of possibilities!

Once that was finished, I moved onto tonight's supper menu. My sister heard about my Peach, Bacon & Chicken Skewers and decided to toss some fresh nectarines onto her pork tenderloin while it was cooking. So I copied her and modified my Cuban Rum Pork recipe and came up with this:

PEACHY PORK TENDERLOIN

1 pork tenderloin

1 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tbsp. Cuban Seasoning

1-2 tsp. lime juice

1/2 peach, diced

drizzle of olive oil

Mix together the brown sugar, Cuban Seasoning, and lime juice and rub it onto the pork in a baking dish. Sprinkle with diced peaches and drizzle with olive oil. Bake at 375 F for about 45 minutes to an hour.

This was so good, and so simple to make. I'm sure it took me less than 5 minutes of prep time. We ate it with some baked potatoes, and by golly, both my kids ate all their supper tonight! There wasn't even any bribing or whining going on at the table. It was a joyous occasion, which we celebrated with some mint chip ice cream.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to try ceviche tacos, after seeing this recipe at Simply Recipes. I don't expect we'll be celebrating with ice cream after that meal, but it looks like an awesome recipe, so it's worth the impending battle with the children.

P is for Perfect!

There's something about alliteration that I just love; it must be the English Major in me. Or maybe it's just that all amazing foods start with the letter P.

Last time I made a pizza, it was a Provolone, Pear & Prosciutto Pizza on Puff Pastry for a Christmas party appetizer.
Tonight I'm making Prosciutto Portobello Pesto Pizza on homemade dough*. I have a love affair with prosciutto, so I can hardly wait to eat this! I'm going to throw on some fire-roasted red peppers as well (since I bought them for the Cat Cora menu plan that has been abandoned for now!) and I have provolone cheese instead of mozzarella. Peppers, pesto, provolone, portobello, prosciutto, pizza.... PERFECT!

*I had to throw out my first batch of dough because there was too much flour, so I tried it again with only 2 1/2 c. instead of 3 c. and it seemed to be much better. It's supposed to make 3 pizza crusts, but I just made one big crust instead.

Step One: Cover the pizza dough in pesto. Top with a little provolone cheese, mushroom slices (that have been cooked at 450 F for about 10 minutes), artichoke hearts, fire-roasted red peppers, and more provolone.

Step Two: Bake at 425 F for about 20 minutes. Then toss on pieces of prosciutto and baby spinach.

Step Three: Dig in!