Home Made Runza's

Here in the Midwest we enjoy a wonderful little fast food restaurant called Runza.  I love their hamburgers and fries.  My husband loves the namesake... Runza's!  Last time we were enjoying our yummy treats from Runza, my husband mentioned that we should try to make the Runza's from scratch.  Which really meant, I should find a recipe so he can have them more often!  Oh well, the things a girl does for her family.  I searched the web and I found a recipe at Christephi's Sprouting Flowers. I changed it up a little but I tried to follow the original recipe pretty closely.


In looking for a recipe I found out that this dish originated in Russia and then spread to Germany before coming to the United States in the 1800's the dish was called bierock, fleischkuche or kraut pirok.  Enough of the history lesson now onto the recipe!

Filling Ingredients
8 stalks chopped green onions
4 shredded garlic cloves
2 lbs ground beef
12 medium sliced mushrooms
1 head of cabbage chopped
2 small pouches of sauerkraut with juice (I found them at Hy-Vee in the dairy case but a small can of sauerkraut would work as well)
choice of seasoning for the hamburger
cheese of your choice (I used Swiss singles cut in half)

Dough Ingredients
1/2 cup shortening
1 pkg quick rise yeast
1 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 TBL salt
2 beaten eggs
7 cups of flour

Directions
THE NIGHT BEFORE
Cook the hamburger with the green onions, garlic and seasoning (to shred the garlic I used a micro plane). Once it is done I drain the meat mixture.  I put a bowl under the colander and let the meat sit while I prepared the rest of the ingredients for the crock pot (a friend of mine told me to make sure I drained everything really well because if you don't the dough doesn't cook well and it is all a big mess).  I then chopped the cabbage, I cut mine with a lettuce knife in long thin strips.  I put them in the crock pot.  Then I cleaned the mushrooms with a wet paper towel (I've heard that if you run them under water it makes them rubbery). I sliced them a little thicker than I would have for a salad just because I knew they would cook down a whole bunch.  I opened the two small pouches of sauerkraut and put that in the crock pot with everything else.  Including the juice.  I know I just got done saying to make sure it is well drained but in this case... put the juice in, it provides flavor for all of that cabbage that you just put in the crock pot.  Then add the meat mixture and mix it all up.  Put the lid on and set the crock pot on warm. 

NOTE: The reason I put it on warm is that I let it sit that way all night long.  I cannot tell you what would happen if you put it on low or high because there is very little liquid in the crock pot at this point.  My guess is that it would scorch or burn the cabbage.

3 HOURS BEFORE DINNER (I say 3 hours because it takes a bit to get this all done and then it has to sit, once that is done it takes time and patience to roll out and put together each little yummy bun of goodness)
Combine the shortening, quick rise yeast, warm water and warm milk in a bowl.  Let it sit.  I just used a large measuring cup put the milk and water in it, heated it in the microwave and then added the yeast and shortening.  Set it aside.  I used a stand mixer with dough hooks for the next part.  Mix together the sugar, salt and eggs.  Then slowly incorporate the yeast mixture.  I added flour 2 cups at a time, stirring well after each addition.  If the dough becomes too stiff to stir, you can finish incorporating the flour by hand however, with dough hooks and a stand mixer I didn't have this problem.  The dough should end up being smooth and elastic.  Let the dough rest covered in a bowl for 1 hour.  The original directions said that the dough should double in size however, mine didn't but I moved forward without any issues.

I should have taken more pictures while I was making them but I didn't so here goes the instructions for making these...

Now is a good time to pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F.  I drained the crock pot mixture, I pulled out the Swiss cheese and cut them in half. Then I just started making balls of dough, I made mine a little bigger than a golf ball.  If you have a pastry mat I would highly recommend using that but since I am pretty sure mine is still packed from moving I had to use wax paper, which worked fine (a little sticky though but it worked). 

Roll out your dough ball, place a slice of cheese and a scoop of filling, then you just pinch of the sides and then I folded over the end pieces and placed them on a greased cookie sheet. Put them in the oven and bake them for 30 minutes.  Now I did check mine at 20 minutes and decided that it needed the full 30 minutes.  They were quite yummy and the husband is already thinking of ways to make them even better next time, I on the other hand am thinking about different fillings!

Enjoy!

Carpet Cleaning 101

I have two kids, one dog, and a husband that wears shoes all of the time.  Answer me this... WHY DID I BUY A HOUSE WITH WHITE BERBER CARPET?  

It seems like I am always fighting this losing battle with stains, high traffic wear and just plain dirt!  

Carpet sprays don't work out too well because the dog is always trying to lick the floor.  Sprinkle powders don't work because then the dog is constantly sniffing the floor and sneezing... why can't he just learn "If I sniff this floor I will sneeze"?  And I really don't relish the thought of having a professional come in and clean my carpets because of the chemicals that they use to clean the carpet which would likely take me right back to a sneezing dog (or worse)!

Which lead me to searching Pinterest for something to try, I must admit when I saw this post I thought "This is too good to be true".  Since I had the ingredients on hand I decided to give it a try!

Before

A large spot right at the top of our entryway stairs!

A small spot on the entryway stairs!

The first step in the direction was to scrape up the liquid, but these stains are long standing... no need for me to do scrape!

Next I needed to sprinkle baking soda or cornstarch on the stain to let absorb for 10 minutes and then vacuum.  I suspected that this was likely a step for fresh stains but since it was in the directions I did it anyway.  I was correct, there was absolutely no change or value in this step for me.  How do I know that?  Well the first stain posted above was treated with the Baking Soda and the second stain was not.

Now for the magical solution:  Mix 1 Tablespoon dish washing liquid (the directions said clear but all I had was purple lavender so I used it instead), with 1 Tablespoon white vinegar and two cups of warm water. Give the mixture a little swirl to mix but don't do it vigorously enough to create bubbles.

Using a rag, I dipped it in the solution and sponged, dabbed and a little forcefully scrubbed the stain.  I couldn't believe it... the carpet looked stain free.  But I thought to myself "It looks clean because it is wet, I wonder if it really did the trick".  So I waited for it to dry, even after it dried I couldn't believe that it did that good of a job.  So then I thought "Give it 24 hours and see if it changes back to the big ugly stain".  24 hours later and still no stain.

The final part of the original directions was to sponge off with cold water and blot dry... who has time for that??? I didn't do the last step.

After

NO SPOT at the top of the entryway stairs!

NO SPOT on the entryway stairs!

Now I just have to figure out how to clean the rest of the carpets without having to be on my hands and knees going section by section!  Maybe just rent one of those Rug Doctors and use this as my solution instead of their cleaner!

Please checkout Lizzy Writes for additional tips and comments about this process.  It worked for some folks and not for others.  I however am a I firm believer, it worked for my carpet!

Have you heard? There's gold in them chickens!

Yes corny, but oh so true. I use chicken stock in many of the dishes I make and I think it just makes things taste better. BUT oh my goodness so expensive! I happen to take a cooking class at my local gym in which they talked about how to break down your own chicken and how to make your own chicken stock. Which I promptly did, just to prove I could, but I honestly struggled with getting it just right.

After a bunch of searching and trying things I found that this is what worked for me:

In my crockpot I put:

1 whole chicken
onion, roughly chopped (whatever you have on hand)
carrots, roughly chopped (whatever you have on hand)
celery sticks, roughly chopped (whatever you have on hand)
parsley (if I have fresh I do one or two stems but if I don't I put enough dry in the palm of my hand until it gets to nickel size)

(if I happen to have mushrooms hanging out in the fridge they go in too)

I add salt & pepper too but I really don't know how much... I just go with my gut (if I had to guess I would say about a 1/4 teaspoon of each)

Cooking time... well I generally do this after the kids go to bed so I start it around 8:30pm and then I let it cook until about 5pm the following day. I pull out the chicken (or as much as I can without it all falling apart on me). I take a large bowl or stock pot and put a strainer on top of it... the very important thing is to line the strainer with cheese cloth. Then I pour the liquid into the strainer.

Now comes the fun part... storing the stock! The best method I have found is to let the liquid cool slightly and put it in freezer bags. A word of caution... Sandwich bags are not a good substitute unless you let your stock cool down a whole lot. I like to lay the bags flat when I freeze them... mainly because the first time I did this I put them in the side door and when they froze they sort of molded themselves to the space and it wasn't easy getting them out... let's just say it involved a blow dryer and a whole lot of swearing (in my head of course).

OK so now I have all this chicken too. We typically just shred it and put it in a container to use during the week in enchiladas, mix it with pesto and pasta, salads... etc. Again, I have to say I do not like chicken BUT it is a huge time saver during the week most of the time AND it keeps me from going through the drive thru!