March 25, 2012

Cooking: Calzone

One of the kids favorite meals is a 'pizza roll'. The recipe I use is from the TRR (at least I think it was- a few years back maybe?) submitted by Mallie J.  Calzones are extremely easy to make as long as you remember to start the dough early enough as it has to rise.  Here's the recipe that I use, in my KitchenAid with the dough hook.

Dissolve: 2 packages dry yeast (or 4 1/2 tsp.) in
1/2 cup of warm water

Add: 1/3 cup shortening
4 T. sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 cups water
5-6 cups of flour (I often use 3c. Whole Wheat, 2c. white)

Mix well with dough hook, knead dough and then cover and let rise for 45-60 minutes. Divide dough in half (I always throw one half into a freezer bag and save for another time. Also you can use it for a pizza or breadsticks.) Roll dough into a pretty wide rectangular shape on a floured surface. Don't go to thin or your toppings will explode out the side when cooking. I know this from experience.

I dash a little bit of olive oil on the crust, spreading very thin and then sprinkle liberally with seasoning.

This time I used pepper, garlic, parsley and italian seasonings. Just whatever I've got on hand. After the spices you add toppings. We usually go pretty basic with pepperoni



and mozzarella. Isn't my helper cute?


Roll the calzone up loaf style, starting with the long side.



Rolling, rolling, rolling. Then tuck the edges under and place on a greased jelly roll pan. I always end up curving mine since it's to long.


Here it is all ready to pop into the oven. Bake at 375 for  30-40 minutes. It should be a nice golden brown when it's done.  Now you're all ready to slice it up and dip into your favorite pizza or spaghetti sauce. Enjoy:)



March 24, 2012

It's Progress

Wow this month has been flying by..and dragging too! A few weeks ago I was feeling absolutely ready to have this little girl, but now that I'm down to 3 weeks it almost feels to soon.  The difference is that my 'nesting' has completely dropped down to zero and I've been super lazy lately. Thank goodness today I woke up and was ready to get a few things done. So here is the only little bit of progress around here:


 Curtains for the boys room are done:) I know I need to spray paint the rod they are on, and that is next on the list. I've got some cans of dark blue hanging around and plan to paint R's bed with them as well as the rods. I think all the aspects of their room are finally coming together after we hit up the first garage sale around here. It was well worth it- I got some painted canvas' for their wall, some cute train hooks and a few other small things. Once the 26 nails on the wall get pulled, and N pounds some that are in a straight line I'll get the rest of the room pics up.

March 10, 2012

Games with Toddlers

A couple weeks ago it was requested of me to buy Uno. Since then we have played approximately every other day and even the 2 year old has caught on and gets his own cards now. Having mastered one game, they have moved on to Monopoly. It's quite hilarious to play with them and as long as you don't mind bending the rules, even very fun. Rory's absolute favorite thing is getting a house and hotel on his property's, so the 'monopoly' part of owning all three pieces first has fallen by the wayside. As soon as you own it, you can build.



 It makes for a quicker game, which is an advantage since there's a lot of skipping around, wrestling and car playing on the other players turns.



I can't really believe that my kids are old enough to actually play games the correct way-kind of an "oh my goodness, they are getting so big" moment for me. Since I love to play games it's also nice, no more waiting until N's home!