My Cookbook!

 I found this gem the other day, hiding in a box that I pulled from the storage unit.

 

It's the cookbook I put together back way back when I was young and innocent.  I was still in High School when I assembled this. I used this notebook in Junior High School. I think it came through Junior High School in better shape than I did, honestly.   I curated this wonderful cookbook using recipes from the Sunday Supplement in the Washington Post, the backs of cereal boxes, and various women's magazines. I look at some of these recipes now and wonder "what was I thinking?"  I wouldn't have eaten any of this stuff back in the 80's, and I'm even less likely to eat it now.  

Some of these recipes are classics!  I copied this lasagna recipe from the back of a box of San Georgio Pasta back in the 80's.  I've used this recipe so often, I have it memorized.  I've modified it a little over time (I add a ton of veggies to the sauce, and I've cut amount of meat and cheese in half.) But, the bones of the recipe are still very much the same.

For a while now, I've been searching for a "Holy Grail" recipe.  I used to make this all of the time, and it was one of my favorites.  Basically, you took a large instant biscuit, flattened it out, and then filled it with broccoli and ham.  You'd roll the biscuit up around the filling, and put that into the oven.  While it was baking, you would make the cheese sauce from scratch.  I mastered this recipe when I was 14, and for many years it was a staple.  I stopped making it sometime in college, and hadn't really thought about it until I found this notebook. I don't even know where this recipe came from anymore.  I hand-copied the recipe onto a sheet of notebook paper.

Younger me thought that this was a complete meal!  It has broccoli!  Older and wiser me would add a side salad, a baked sweet potato, or roasted veggies to round this out.  I hope you enjoy this recipe from the Way Back Machine!

Broccoli and Ham Roll Ups

Ingredients:

For the Roll-Ups

1 can of refrigerated rolls

1 cup cooked, chopped, broccoli. (squeeze the water out with cheesecloth or a paper towel.)

1/2 cup cooked diced ham

For the Cheese Sauce

2 TBSP butter

2 TBSP flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1-3/4 cups of shredded cheddar cheese.

Directions:

Pre-Heat oven to 375*.

Unroll and separate the rolls.  Flatten them out.

Mix broccoli and ham together.

Along the middle of the biscuit, place 1/8 of the ham mixture.

Roll the two sides of the rolls inward, around the filling, and place in a greased 9x13 inch baking dish.

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes.

While this is cooking, make the sauce:

In a saucepan, melt the butter.  Add the flour and whisk until a paste forms.

Slowly add milk to the paste, and stir until the flour mixture is thoroughly incorporated.  Add the cheese, and stir until the cheese is melted into the flour mixture. 

Remove the roll-ups from the oven and pour the cheese sauce over top of everything before serving.