Runzas!!

(waves hands around furiously to clear out the cobwebs.... sorry folks, around here the past couple of weeks have been a holiday season around here, with Valentine's Day and Fat Tuesday being Holy Cooking Days around here, and then quickly followed by my birthday, and then a run of crappy weather combined with 3 massive document deadlines in three weeks - that made for some very lame dinners around these parts. I'll try to be beter. I promise. Really)

So... I will admit to being one of "those people" that LOVES watching shows about regional foods. One thing I love to do when I travel is sample whatever local thing is in the area. The hubby is like that too... only right now he's totally focused on "Hot & Juicy Crawfish" in Vegas being the next "local" thing he has to try. And I won't argue that one since I love me some crawfish.

One thing that has always seemed interesting has been Runzas. Apparently a Nebraska thing... people say "midwest" but I live in the Midwest and we don't have them around Chi-town. So, when I was flipping through a Cooks Illustrated special issue of "Forgotten Foods" in the Grocery store and found a recipe for Runzas.... I was all over that. I will not let the fact they involve yeast dough throw me!!

I actually made these on a "snow day" where I stayed home from work. I whipped up the dough while I was eating my lunch, took about 5 minutes to do, then I left it on the counter for an hour and then popped it in the fridge to wait for dinner time.



That's so happy dough!!

I actually made the filling a couple days before... I refuse to buy the totally irradiated ground beef at the chain grocery store, which means that the shelf life of the stuff from the produce mart (which has actual butchers and not just people in white coats) is less. But it's ground beef... cook now, use later.

Oh, it's mixed with some chopped onion and about half a bag of cole slaw mix that I had leftover from something else. Smart shopping....



Now, filling them was a little tricky. I tried just doing it in my hands before I decided to FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS (really... you'd think a Technical Writer would follow instructions better than I do when it comes to recipes....) and I started using a bowl, which worked well. Roll out the dough, lay it in the bowl, put in a slice of American cheese, add meat, and then seal it up...

Threw them in the oven, and prayed to the Yeast Gods that all would turn out.

And it did!!

Some spillage/leakage, but nothing major. I liked them a lot... the hubby, not so much. Apparently the fact it's a rather sweet dough kinda threw him. He ate his one, but didn't go back for seconds. Which was fine with me... threw them in the freezer and ended up pulling one out for a lunch later in the week. Turned out to be a perfect lunch when I had about five minutes to try and eat before a meeting while I also needed to continue to work with at least one hand. (Leave it to the Germans to figure out how to make something that you can eat while also being productive).