Isn’t the weather absolutely glorious today? I’ve begun thinking about spring cleaning (gasp)! One day of nice weather is all it takes. I cleaned out under my kitchen sink, reorganized, moved my garbage can out from under there and purchased a new garbage can and a couple new plastic baskets to hold our paper and plastic recycling. That should do me for a couple weeks until I really go all out and clean house from top to bottom. Some more purging may happen this year as well. I got rid of a couple trunk loads the spring before last and another trunkload a couple weeks ago. Can you believe that about a day after I donated my trunk load of stuff, our local Value Village where I’d donated, caught on fire and closed for an undetermined period of time. So terrible. Many folks laid off with no idea when they will be able to return. So much waste too as I’m sure all of what was in the building would have to be disposed of due to water and smoke damage. I truly loved shopping that store for thrift buys. Mostly things for the home, dishes and books. Do you enjoy thrifting? I honestly think I’d continue to thrift no matter how much money I made. It’s not so much about the cost as the adventure of the hunt and the excited, elated feeling of finally finding that item you’ve been searching for, for so long! But I digress!
When you’re busy spring cleaning (or thrifting) you’re going to need some sustenance and it’s gotta be pretty easy to put together, right? Well, I have the thing for you! Last week I made these jumbo calzones and they were SO good! I love anything that starts with homemade bread so this was right up my alley! I think it would be up your alley too, haha, you gotta try them! Every time I make these I marvel at their beauty and I say to my boys (and husband) “Hey, look boys! Look at these big bad boys!” That’s how I ended up creating this recipe for Big Bad Boy Calzones. The calzones start with a double recipe of my Quick Mixing Pizza Dough.
Big Bad Boy Calzones
Equipment
- 1 Large mixing bowl
- 2 baking sheets
- 1 Rolling Pin
Ingredients
- 2 batches of Quick Mixing Pizza Dough See link to recipe in above post
- 1 Cup pizza sauce
- 1 Cup pepperoni
- 4 Italian sausages cooked and sliced or removed from casing and crumbled
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 green pepper, chopped
- 1/2 Cup fresh mushrooms, sliced You can also use 1/2 of an 8 oz can of mushrooms
- 3-4 Cups mozzarella cheese, divided
- 2 Tbsp kosher salt
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 Tbsp Dried parsley
- 1/2 Cup parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Make pizza dough using the recipe for Quick Mixing Pizza Dough (x2). Cover and set aside in a warm place for 1 hour.
- After dough has risen for 1 hour, punch down and divide into 8 equal parts. Form each into a ball and roll to 1/4 inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
- Spread pizza sauce on half of each circle. FIll with onions, mushrooms, peppers, meats and top with approximately 1/4 cup of shredded cheese. Fold over dough to create a pocket, brush a bit of water along bottom edge of dough to seal and pinch or roll edges together. Repeat for remaining calzones.
- Place calzones on parchment lined baking sheets (4 to a sheet) and cut vent holes in tops. Brush with vegetable oil and sprinkle with kosher salt, parsley, and approximately 1/4 cup of shredded cheese. Sprinkle parmesan over shredded cheese.
- Bake at 450 degrees F for 20 minutes.
