from scratch, with love.

friends! i finally managed to get the dogs off of me and opened up my laptop.. all because i wanted to show you last night’s home cooked extravaganza.

i told you guys that i was going to try my hand at scratch-made calzones.. using yeast.. and i don’t do yeast. yeast and i had a bad experience awhile back and i haven’t tried to reconcile our relationship. until last night.

my sister, marisa, made some white pizza dough using a recipe from the back of the pizza yeast packet.

i used biz’s recipe for no-rise pizza dough and made some whole wheat dough with my food processor.

• 2 cups + 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 packet dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 TB olive oil

i was so surprised how simple it was to make the dough! i may become a yeast user just yet. after preparing the dough, we got all the ingredients for the inside of the calzones ready.

chicken~

caramelized onions~

mushrooms~

artichoke hearts~

feta, mozzarella and asiago cheeses~

pesto sauce and pizza sauce~

once all the ingredients were prepped, my sister in law, lindsay, took all the orders. 

it was fun because everyone was able to create their own custom calzones and i was the short order chef.

because my hands were covered in flour, the whole calzone making process didn’t end up getting caught on film! but i will tell you how to do it. first, i took a clump of dough and rolled it in a bit of flour before rolling it out with a rolling pin into a circle about 7” in diameter.

next, i prepared each and every custom order calzone with love. i combined the requested ingredients in a small bowl with the requested sauce and mixed well. then i placed the filling on one half of the circle of dough and used a calzone press to clamp the dough together. you don’t need a calzone pres—you could simply crimp the edges with a fork– but it definitely made for better looking calzones.

lindsay used a brush to cover each calzone with an egg white wash (for a crisper crust) and all calzones went on a baking sheet that had been sprayed with olive oil. the pizza was for my niece, she couldn’t get into the whole calzone thing.

the calzones baked for about 15-17 minutes in a 400 degree oven. it is best to use the bottom rack of your oven so the underside of the calzones gets nice and crisp.

tada!

i had two calzones: one with the pesto sauce and one with the tomato pizza sauce.. both in whole wheat crust with all the fillings—even all 3 cheeses.

served with a side of asparagus.

the crust was perfectly crisp! i am so proud of my yeast success. the filling was pretty amazing, too.

i am just going to go ahead and toot my own horn, because everyone loved these. marshall told me i can go ahead and put them into regular dinner rotation.

we retired to the couches to let our dinner digest a bit…

…while my cuisinart ice cream maker was hard at work making dessert.

ben & jerry’s vanilla bean ice cream.. my very favorite!

i was SO excited to use these awesome bowls for the first time..

the wonderful katie sent us these personalized ice cream bowls a couple weeks ago—such a nice surprise! i love them. and i really love how BIG they are!! thanks, katie!

once the ice cream was done churning, i transferred it into ametal bowl and threw it into the freezer so it could firm up a bit. when it was nice and ready, we pulled the bowl out and gave the WHOLE bowl to izzy.

haha. in her dreams. two quarts of ice cream was probably a little much for an almost five-year-old.. but it was the perfect amount for the whole fam to have some.

i had my vanilla bean ice cream with some fresh raspberries on top.. perfection.

marisa’s melted a bit before she could finish it..

but she didn’t let a single drop go to waste.

ice cream moustaches are way better than milk moustaches.

we ended the night playing a few rousing rounds of rummikub.

my mom and i let marisa win.. after all, it was her last night in town.

Qs~

1. quick! build your own calzone! what would go inside?

2. what is your favorite board/card game?

xo. janetha g.