What’s cooking Grandma? Grandma’s kitchen is a favorite place to be at Grandma’s house when the kids and grandchildren are in town, and one of Grandma’s recipes that continues to be popular is Grandma’s ham roll ups recipe with broccoli.

Being a Grandma is wonderful, and passing along to my children and grandchildren many of their favorite recipes that have been prepared for them over the years is an added perk. People that haven’t learned how to make ham roll ups, or broccoli ham roll ups, are really missing out on a great recipe.

I would guess that many of the recipes given to me over the years originally came from my Grandma or great grandmother, but I can’t be sure of that. Cooking in the kitchen with my mother as I was growing up usually meant we were baking cookies or other sweet treats, as she preferred to be cooking in the kitchen by herself when preparing or cooking dinner meals for a family of eight, and that was ok.

There were never any leftovers at our house when mom made her ham roll ups recipe, and since we all loved broccoli with cheese sauce anyway, her ham roll ups were a hit. When I got married, I was given many family recipes and some great cookbooks to start my own cookbook collection, and I was thrilled to find a Mexican roll ups recipe included in one of the cookbooks. We always doubled (sometimes tripled) this recipe, since the kids love ham-broccoli roll ups so much.

Broccoli Ham Roll Ups Recipe

• 20 oz Broccoli spears, fresh or frozen

• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine

• 2 tablespoons flour

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

• 4 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

• 6 slices boiled ham, 4×6 inches in size

• 1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cook broccoli according to package directions or until tender. While broccoli is cooking, melt butter/margarine in a heavy saucepan. Stir in flour, salt, and pepper. Gradually stir in milk. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Add cheese and continue stirring until cheese is melted. Do not overcook.

Divide broccoli spears into 6 portions, splitting large stalks as necessary. Alternate direction of flower ends within each portion. Place broccoli portions on and parallel to narrow end of each ham slice, extending flower ends over edges of ham. Roll as for jellyroll with broccoli in the center of each rollup. Arrange rollups in a baking dish with seam side down. Use toothpicks to secure, if necessary. Pour cheese sauce over rollups. Bake until sauce is bubbly, about 20 minutes. Another variation of the ham broccoli roll ups is Asparagus-Ham Rollups — Use fresh or frozen asparagus spears in place of the broccoli.

Cooking Mexican food and learning how to cook Mexican type dishes I hadn’t learned yet became a favorite hobby of mine, and my Mexican husband was beside himself when I surprised him with Mexican roll ups. My entire history of cooking was all about Mexican food, and making typical American type meals was a rare thing at our house, except for the ham broccoli roll ups and a few other American foods.

I can make some pretty mean authentic homemade tamales, Mexican posole soup, beef tongue tacos, Octopus stew, Mexican fish soup, potato tacos, menudo, and many other Mexican dishes that would blow your mind. No Tex-Mex type dishes were ever made in this Grandma’s kitchen – only Authentic Mexican food will do.

I haven’t made homemade tamales for many years now, and the idea of spending two full days in the kitchen making tamales with pork, beef or chicken just doesn’t appeal to me anymore. I have one of the best sweet tamales recipes ever known to man in my recipe collection, and one of these days I may have to make some sweet tamales to surprise the kids and grandkids.

Since my whole history of cooking was making Mexican food and not your ordinary American meals, I couldn’t be happier that Grandpa is an excellent cook and is very handy in the kitchen. Grandpa knows how to grill a steak like no one else does, and you know you’ve had a great steak when you don’t want or need to add steak sauce to give it any flavor. Thank goodness for Grandpa’s kitchen abilities!

Image Source: Kraft Foods

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