Making up recipes: biscuits, cheese sauce, ham and peas

I don't like to cook much. I'm usually tired at dinner time and don't want to be bothered. My long-suffering hubby is OK with that. (No, you can't have him.) Sometimes he cooks, sometimes we scrounge in the freezer or refrigerator, and a lot of the time we go out to eat. We are a family of two adults. That helps too.

This afternoon though, I felt inspired by the bits and pieces of ham I found in the chest freezer. Meat, I had then. What should I cook with it? We ended up with a yummy cheese sauce, home-made biscuits, and freshly shelled peas. How fresh? My hubby was shelling them up to the time I told him to get his plate, dinner was ready.

Biscuits you can find a recipe for. I used Bisquick baking mix.

Ham, of any sort. I frizzled it in a bit of butter to make it warm.

Cheese sauce - here's where you need a recipe - home style, the way I made it.

• Dice 1/2 small onion and cook in butter or margerine until transparent.
• Add salt and pepper. Stir it in well.
• Sift about 1/4 cup flour into the onion mix. (I said sift, but I kind of shook the measure and let the flour fall out.) Stir the mixture, adding butter, if necessary, to keep the mixture soft, not hard and lumpy. Stir and cook about 1 1/2 minutes.
• Slowly stir in at least 1 cup of milk. Keep stirring until the sauce begins to thicken.
  
• Turn down the heat and add 1/2-inch slice Velveeta - from a 2-lb box; a slice of Tillamook cheddar cheese; and a half slice or more of Tillamook pepper jack cheese. The Tillamook cheeses add a bit of flavor that's lacking in the Velveeta. Stir mixture until the cheese is melted and the sauce is evenly textured.

Meanwhile, get hubby busy shelling peas. He's slow and if you don't keep after him you'll have to eat the peas raw. (Actually, we did eat them raw because fresh from the garden peas are sweet and delicious raw.)

The meal goes together like this:
Slice the biscuit in half, top with frizzled ham, cover with cheese sauce. If you like your peas this way, sprinkle the raw peas over the top. It gives it all a bit of crunch.

Good luck! The ingredients are so tasty that if you don't follow this recipe exactly, it will still be pretty fine eating. I would recommend not stirring the ham into the cheese sauce before serving. You want it to taste like cheese, not like ham.

Marilynne
[I fixed this recipe Feb. 8, 2010. MRS]