I started making a steak and pepper gravy for noodles tonight when I realized I only had ground hamburger, and dried green peppers - I decided to bake up some fries and use it for gravy over fries.

This is a pretty fast dinner! I make dinners for a family of 10, 5 are adult men, so if this is too much, just cut it in half. I sometimes cook on the fly, meaning I add certain things like liquids, without measuring. When it comes to making gravy, we just use enough cold liquid with flour until we reach the consistency we like. Do not add flour to hot liquid!

I have put exact measurements here for the liquids I used. The wine and milk make up the cold liquid for the flour - you can use all milk.

Taste-testing for spices such as salt is important if you use something other than beef base with water. The beef base we use is from Sam's Club, and is pretty good as a base. Beef broth in a can may not taste as good.

• 3lbs cooked ground beef
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 green peppers, chopped (or 1/2 c. dried peppers)
• 4 cups frozen peas
• 1 1/2 c. water
• 4 TBSP beef base
• 2 15 oz. cans chicken broth
• 1 c. red wine
• 1 1/2 c. milk
• 1 c. flour
• 3 tsp. ground pepper
• 2 TBSP. salt
• 2 tsp. onion powder
• Frozen French Fries - baked!
• Shredded cheese for fries

Cook the ground beef partially, then add the onion, peas, peppers, and spices.  Cook for 10 minutes, stirring, then add the chicken broth, beef base, and water. (Alternatively, you could use canned beef broth, but we like the base with water.) The goal is to cover your meat with liquid and then saute the veggies.

Prepare the roux (wine and milk), make sure the milk is very cold and whisk the flour in until there are no lumps. Add this to the beef mix. It should take about 5 minutes to thicken. Don't taste it for at least 5 minutes! Raw flour is yukky. If it's not getting thick enough try another 1/4 cup of cold liquid, with 3 TBSP of flour.

Bake the fries until almost done, cover with cheese, and bake the rest of the way. Spoon gravy on top! Note: I use sprayed glass casserole dishes for frozen fries. They come out nice and crispy and they are easy to stir.

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Blessings, Theresa