Time To Make Za RUNZA!!!

I made a big batch of these and took a basketful of these to a dear neighbor and friend yesterday...she and her husband had to move out of their farmhouse into a travel trailer because while on vacation they had furnace trouble and their whole house was filled with soot and debris; they had to move out of their home. I hope they enjoyed these for their dinner. They're going to be living out of a fifth-wheel camper for a good three months so I plan to be a regular contributor to their suppertime until they're back in their own farmhouse.












The process starts with browing your ground beef just past the point of pink so it's not too dry (not shown here), setting it aside, and cooking your shredded or finely diced onions, cabbage (I use a coleslaw mix that is chopped or shredded) and chopped or shredded carrots in a large saucepan to the point of tenderness, and then mixing the meat and the vegetables and seasonings together for the filling and heating to hot without cooking to the point of mushiness.

With your thawed bread dough, take a piece and stretch it to the size of a dinner plate (or almost). The filling goes inside on one half, fold over the top, use a bit water to pinch the dough together and bake!

What is a Runza? In short, it's a meat pie but full of vegetable goodness. A meal in your hand, and it's one I think you'll love! There are many variations on this meal, but have fun with it and find your perfect combination for the filling. The filling, which you'll not be able to resist, even while you're preparing it, while tasting, check it to make sure it's seasoned properly. The filling is made of ground beef, and lots of cabbage, carrots, and onions. (My filling has a good deal of ground venison in with the ground beef.)

This filling is then put into a bread dough and baked, and from the time the filling starts to cook, your whole house will smell wonderful. These little pies are great served hot out of the oven, or, once they're cooled, wrapped or put into a ziploc, kept in the fridge to re-heat for a lunch or dinner, or even a supper or lunch on the go. (They make a great take-to-work lunch the next day. When reheating in the microwave, wrap completely in a paper towel.)

Here's the link to the ALLRECIPES.COM website...just type in "runza" and take a look around at all the runza recipes to see what would suit your taste. I saw one that looked interesting that had sausage and sauerkraut inside! YUM! I can picture putting lots of onion and maybe some pepper in with that variation.

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My recipe is most like this one except that I take the shortcut of using loaves of frozen bread dough (you can get three to four runza per loaf) and I add Morton's "Nature's Seasons" and some coarsely ground black pepper to season my filling mixture. Once the hot pies come out of the oven, I brush the tops with melted butter to keep the tops soft and glossy. Enjoy!

OFFICIAL FARMHOUSE FOOD