Burger Night

Tonight is Burger Night and since I have the freedom to make burgers how I want, I used my Burger Bun recipe to actually make Beef Hot Pockets and Pizza Hot Pockets :0)

Burger Buns

4 1/2 c flour

2 pkgs yeast

1/4 c sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 c butter or margarine

1 egg

1 c milk

1/2 c water

Mix 1 1/2 c flour, yeast, and sugar in mixer. Heat milk, water, and margarine in microwave for 1 minute or warm to wrist (not hot). Add to first mixture and let mix for about 5 minutes. Add egg and salt and mix well. Add enough extra flour to make firm dough. Beat for about 5 minutesor until smooth. Let rise for 30 minutes. Form into hamburger buns or hotpockets. Let rise again for another 30 minutes on greased cookie sheets. Bake in 400 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.

I used up some of the leftover roast beef from earlier this week with some shredded cheese to make the beef ones. I used about a tsp of spaghetti sauce, some shredded cheese and mini pepperonies to make the pizza ones.

Here's what the pizza ones look like in the making process:

Here they are rising.

And here's the final product:

I really, really like this bread recipe. It's my favorite and I use it for several different recipes (hamburger buns, hotdog buns, hotpockets, Bacon Bread,  and Monkey Bread). However, if you are not a homemade bread maker, you can always use frozen bread dough. You'll just have to follow the directions on the package for the rising process. Oh, and I'll be posting those other recipes in the future :0)

P.S. For all of you who sent me sweet messages of encouragement, I deeply appreciate it. It's odd how the smallest of things can trigger depression. I recently switched meds, and it's helped tremendously. This time around it only lasted a couple of days instead of weeks. I know that your prayers for me were heard, too, b/c I felt them.

It's Pizza Night!!

Well, we've made it to the kid's official favorite night of the week. They actually get up on Thursday mornings and announce that it's Pizza Night. On the menu tonight: Cheese Pizza, Pepperoni Pizza, and Sausage/Bacon/Mushroom.

As a disclaimer, I want to point out that I deal with depression, and have for 4 years this month. It's particularly difficult during this time of the year....when it's so cold all the time, when the days are so dark, when the kids can't go outside, when the hoopla of the holidays are over, etc. It's because of the depression that I quit doing my last blog. However, it's because of the depression that I've started this one. I need something to keep me busy, something to look forward to, an outlet, a hobby. This all brings me to the last couple of days. It's been tough. Feelings of worthlessness, of doubt; struggling abnormally with my weight; being overly angry at the kids; wanting to just sleep all day; crying over stupid stuff. They usually just creep up on me.

So even though I LOVE TO BAKE (and I especially enjoy making homemade pizza), today was just not one of those normal days. So I'm glad I have a hubby who's willing to do this for me: