Calzone!

All who dwell within this house love calzones!

It's rule #1 of being in this family. Must Love Calzones.

What an easy rule to obey!

This recipe is a really fun one. It's easy, it's interesting and it's flexible.

You can change it on a whim and it always comes out beautifully!

You can dress this down with plain sauce, cheese and pepperoni.

Or dress it up with pesto and chicken. Try barbecue sauce, pineapple and Canadian bacon.

I'm thinking I'd like to try Alfredo sauce with something.

Just about anything you've got in your fridge will taste yummy in a calzone.

Mushrooms, meatballs, sausage, olives, onions....

There's no limit to what you can create!

First I make the pizza dough. I use a bread maker recipe from The Bread Bible.

I'd be happy to give the recipe to anyone who wants it.

Bug likes to feel the bread machine vibrate on her chin while it kneads the dough.

It is pretty mesmerizing. This is what the dough looks like straight out of the maker. A nice round airy lump of dough.

Bug felt compelled to jab her fingers in the top.

She's slumping her shoulders because I just scolded her for it.

With a little bit of flour, I roll out the dough.

If it's snapping back to much, I let it rest for a few minutes

(a little tip from my cousin L that saved me from having to yell

at my pizza dough to stay put. It's never good to yell at dough.

Especially in front of young children.)

Isn't my Bug beautiful? She takes my breath away.

I let her help me roll out the dough as

long as she promises to stop jabbing at the poor thing.

I made a 1 lb loaf of dough, so that should be enough to make an 11 x 17 pizza.

I'm going to roll the dough into an 11 x 17 inch rectangle to assemble the calzone.

Then I prepare the baking sheet by spraying it with Pam.

Sometimes I sprinkle cornmeal on the cookie sheet.

That makes it seem very authentic.

Then I get to thinking I'm authentic.

So I start saying things like "atsa matta for you".

No one thinks it's funny.

I call Bug over.

"I'm going to show you a very important baking technique.

Pay close attention honey, and watch your mother, the master.

I'm going to roll this dough onto the rolling pin..."

"Just like this. Are you paying attention? This is a complicated

maneuver, but once you master it, you'll be an expert, just like mommy."

"Ah yes. Here we go.

Now we just transfer it nicely to the baking sheet just like so..."

"And then we HEY! NO! ARRRGH!"

*SIGH*

Bug is eyeing me suspiciously and wondering with trepidation

if someday she will, in fact, be "just like mommy".

Soooooo, I was supposed to masterfully unroll the dough onto

the Pam'd baking sheet. It's not really a complicated maneuver.

I just wanted to feel special.

Anywho, the dough got to where it needed to be.

In a round about way.

Just not any way that would be photographed.

Let us never speak of this again.

How about some sauce?

Bug spreads on the pizza sauce...

...lengthwise down the middle 1/3 of the dough.

3/4 cup total.

I'm finding her so cute, I can't stop photographing this part.

"Mom? Do you want to put down the camera and

get this show on the road? Or should we just keep

taking pictures til the cows come home?"

Then Bug layers on the pepperoni. As much as she likes.

This is where it gets fun because you can create your

own masterpiece with any filling you crave.

Look at this diligent little Bug.

What would compel a little girl to make such straight pepperoni lines?

Ah, thatta girl! Pose it with flair, Sweets.

We thought some yellow bell pepper might be fun.

What's happening here? Is she giving you a closer look,

like the good cooking show hostess that she is?

No, it's just a yellow pepper airplane, flying down to land on the

pepperoni landing strip. Ah, yes. Ever Grandpa's girl.

Good thing Bug's at the helm because I have to clean up after the twins.

This entails opening the slider to let in my dog-vac.

Hannah's even got a feline helper today. Hello Harrison.

Ooo! A little tiff ensues over a clump of oatmeal!

Stand down Harrison! Stand down!

( I don't even know what's happening with the corners of that photo above).

Don't underestimate Harrison due to his small stature.

Just look at this wicked cat in action.

Mrs. Belle's ears never regained full upright form after that day.

We had some spinach lying around and thought that might be interesting to try.

Here Bug helpfully explains our rationale for trying spinach: Then cheese. Lots of cheese.

Several kinds of cheese if you wish.

Which we did wish.

Mark my words, this girl's 2 seconds away from her own cooking show on the Food Network. Here she's describing

the nature of the cheese to you, so you can feel like

you are in the kitchen with us....

Once we've piled on all our fillings of choice,

I cut the edges of the dough on an angle.

If this seems really unnecessary, you can just fold the

two sides of the dough up around the filling.

But this makes it so pretty. And it's not hard. Cut the strips oh, maybe an inch thick.

Keep doing it all the way down one side.

Then repeat on the other side. I don't even bother to count or

try to keep it even with the other side. It's not really going to matter.

When I finish, it looks like this:

Then I start at one end and overlap the strips up over the filling,

going in the same direction as the angle I cut.

That last sentence doesn't make sense even to me, and

I made the thing, so here's a picture that shows what I mean to say: And another for good measure.

I keep a little dish of water nearby and periodically dip my fingers in it...

...and then sprinkle the water on to the dough to help seal some of the seams.

But it's not too big of a deal if the seams are left unsealed.

Then I brush the top liberally with butter.

This will brown it very nicely.

I bake it at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

Bug has brought in some vegetation. What is she doing?

I tried to photograph some evidence of her activity,

but she said it was to be a surprise.

Ooooo, it's done!

Look how crusty and chewy and melty

and chewy and cheesy!!

See what unsealed seams will do????

Facilitate gooey crustiness! YAY!

Why do I always do this to this poor child?

She's just so patient though. It's very sweet.

Now I can show you the surprise she was working on earlier:

Making a centerpiece fit for a woodland nymph.

Oh good gracious. Somebody help me.

This is gonna be gooooood.