http://pinterest.com/pin/148478118934574407/
Here's a quick sneak peak at what I'm planning to make for Valentine's Day dinner in case anyone needs an idea. I'll come back to edit this post after I've made it and let you know how it goes.
When I clicked on the pin the initial link says "Kids will have fun helping to make these cute calzone hearts for dinner." Perfect, sounds like they are something that matches my cooking skills nicely. What could go wrong?
UPDATE: What could go wrong is... I could make the mistake once again of not reading the directions all the way through before starting something. When will I learn?!?! I scanned it and read the part where you mix the dough but somehow skipped right over the part where you "let sit for 1-2 hours" before continuing. Oops! That's going to really mess up my plans to have dinner in a half hour "because it only takes 10-15 minutes to bake!"
Despite my husband's highly offensive suggestion that we order a pizza, I powered through and figured we'd just have a glass or two of wine while we waited and instead of a family Valentine's Day dinner we'd have a nice dinner for two after Andrew went to bed. So I mixed up the dough and set it aside to rise. It took about 5 minutes to mix up and we cracked open our first bottle of wine. The wine went down pretty smoothly, Andrew had dinner, a bath and was put to bed and we came out and opened a second bottle of wine, to go with dinner of course. Huh, it's only been an hour according to the clock... and I wouldn't say the dough has doubled in size so I guess we'll just wait a bit longer... it turns out that waiting for dough to rise is much like watching paint dry. It's a very slow process, especially when you're hungry and getting drunker by the minute. Finally two hours had passed, the dough seemed much larger and I was ready to go. I rolled out the dough, cut out a heart shape with a knife and filled in the center. The only thing I don't like about the original recipe is that it doesn't give you any measurements for cheese and sauce etc... I suppose that's so you can make it to your liking, but I'm a fan of guidelines when cooking since I do it so rarely. I added ricotta to the mix as well and put them in the oven. A mere two and a half hours after dinner was started it was done! Naturally we wanted to have some wine with dinner, so a third bottle of wine was opened and we dug in. These turned out so great! Super easy and they may be my favorite new thing to make! I was concerned that the three bottles of wine had something to do with why we loved them so much, but the next day I made a birthday lunch for my dad and made them again (this time making the dough in the morning) and once again they were delicious! Aside from the wait two hours part, these are super easy to make, super quick and really tasty! I highly recommend!
ONE MORE NOTE: About 2 minutes before these came out of the oven I brushed some olive oil across the top. YUM!
Calzones
1 pkg yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup warm water
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp olive oil
1 3/4 cup white flour
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
Mozzarella cheese
Marinara sauce
Turkey pepperoni
Directions
Step 1: Combine yeast, sugar and warm water and let set for 5 minutes. Mix remaining ingredients and then add yeast mixture. Let dough rise, in a warm place, for about 1-2 hours, until double in size.
Step 2: Roll out a small portion of the dough at a time, cutting two equal-sized hearts. Fill middle with filling, thin layer marinara sauce, turkey pepperoni, cheese, and then crimp edges with a fork. Set on baking tray. Bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned. Test to make sure dough is done baking. Serve with marinara sauce for dipping.
