Buckaroo Bundles and a Box Supper

The kids are preparing for the 4-H Valentine's Dance today. Along with the dance, they are having a Box Supper. Not sure how many of you remember box suppers (I don't), but I have read enough historical fiction, heard stories from grandparents and seen Little House on the Prairie enough to know what they are.



According to the 4-H leader, the kids aren't supposed to do anything fancy. She said that a pizza would be fine, but something in me just thinks that is wrong. I know that she is trying to make it easy, people are awfully busy these days. Yes, everyone will probably want to bid on the pizza ~ who doesn't love pizza, but I guess I'm just old fashioned enough to think that there should be some element of 'homemade' to this box supper. Fried chicken with all the fixins seems to be the obvious choice, but since we're cattle ranchers and I have a freezer filled with beef, fried chicken will have to find its way into someone else's box.

The kids are making Buckaroo Bundles and Cowboy Cookies. I thought it would be fun to have a western theme for their box. Since nobody knows how wonderful these Buckaroo Bundles are, we should be able to buy our own box back. Don't know if that's against the rules or not, but hey, it's a 4-H fundraiser and we've got to eat anyway!

So I thought I'd share my recipe for these yummy meals in a pocket:

Buckaroo Bundles

3 loaves of frozen bread dough

2 lbs lean ground beef

1 chopped onion

pepper, garlic and seasoning salt to taste

5 potatoes, peeled and cubed (I cut these pretty small)

green chile (if you can get your hands on fresh green chile, I highly recommend it! It really does make all the difference)

*Thaw out the bread dough (don't let it rise, just thaw it out enough so that it can be rolled out)

*Brown the ground beef and onion and season to taste.

*In the meantime, cook the potatoes (I fix mine in the Wok and they look like this)

*When the potatoes are done, add them to the cooked ground beef

*Toss in green chile (amounts will depend on whether you like it with a bit of heat to it or not) Here's what it looks like when the potatoes and the green chile are added to the ground beef:

*Roll out a loaf of dough and cut into 8 squares like this:

*Roll out each square. Place a couple tablespoons of meat mixture in the middle and seal the dough around the meat. It will look like a baseball.

*Place on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes or until lightly browned.

These are so good! They are equally tasty when they are cooled and they freeze well. Makes 24 Buckaroo Bundles.

I used to make these for DH to pack into his saddle bags when he would take off to check cattle on horseback and not be back for dinner. They were a great alternative to a smooshed sandwich! This past fall I had to fix them for the crew because one of the guys said that I was famous for my cooking. Hmmm... that could be good or bad. Turns out he was talking about these Buckaroo Bundles. I fixed them for the crew once when I had to haul a handheld dinner to them on another part of the ranch about 7 years ago. Apparently one of the guys who had never helped us before, walked up to the tailgate and saw the bread. He thought, "Man! All we get is rolls?!" He grabbed one and bit into it and he told everyone after that that it was the best meal he had ever eaten. Seems that story has made the rounds. And just to set things straight, I did not only have rolls. They had a couple different bags of chips and sticks of cheese and stuffed jalapenos and baby carrots and 2 kinds of homemade cookies for dessert. They did not go hungry.

I have made these hundreds of times in the past 20 years. They are great for picnics, potlucks, ropings, ranch rodeos, road trips and stock shows. Enjoy!

Here's what their box looks like. Still need to add some ketchup and a couple of drinks. Yes, they filled the box with hay from the barn and wrapped it in western paper. I think it looks neat! Wonder how much I'll have to shell out buy it back.