Sausage and Fresh Mushroom Calzones

The hardest part of making a meal is always, "What should I make?" The actual making it is the easy part.

I wrote up a list of things we like to eat and have it hanging on the side of the frig so when I am stumped I can look at it. Today I went to the computer instead and typed in sausage + mushrooms and suddenly there were more ideas than I could imagine. There were pasta casseroles and several pizza variations and soups and rice dishes. I didn't see a single calzone, but that is what I am making. Go figure.

Sausage and Fresh Mushroom Calzones

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a large cookie sheet with spray oil.

Dough:

1/2 cup warm water
1 Tablespoon Yeast
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 cups flour
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
about 3/4 cup water or milk

Mix 1/2 cup water, yeast, and sugar and let sit 5 minutes until frothy. Then mix in the flour, oil and salt. Add water or milk until it holds together and cleans the side of the bowl. Knead 1 minute until smooth and elastic. Cover and let rise for half an hour. Meanwhile, make the filling.

Filling:

3/4 pound ground farm-style sausage
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, chopped in 1/4 inch pieces
1/2 of a fresh tomato, chopped (I had some left from tacos)
1 Tablespoon flour
1/2 cup milk

Cook the sausage over medium high heat until well cooked and crumbled. Add the mushrooms and tomatoes. Continue cooking with the sausage until the moisture is mostly cooked out. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Then a few tablespoons at a time, stir in the milk to make a creamy gravy to hold the meat together. (This sauce is really good over biscuits for breakfast, too)

Cut 6 slices of sharp cheddar cheese for the next step.

Now divide the dough into 3 parts. Roll each piece out into a 1/4 inch thick circle.











Add 1/3 filling along one half of a circle keeping the outer 1/2 inch clean. Then put two slices of cheese onto the filling - breaking it up to fit.  Fold the other edge of the circle up and over the filling and cheese.

Carefully pinch the edges of the dough together making a good seal around the outer edge. Repeat with the other dough circles.




Put the calzones onto the oiled sheet and cover with a damp dish towel. Let rise for 15 minutes. Then bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Here is an Introduction

     A lady at church once actually called me eccentric. Out loud. To my face. Where other people could hear her.
     I was flattered.

    I am Bea Tew. Pronounced B2 - like the Bingo space. If you just do the first name and last initial I am BeaT. If my middle name was Uriah, then I'd be BUTT (my maiden name started with a T - a long German thing that was hard to spell). But my parents didn't give their daughters middle names.
     Too bad.

    And this is why I am B2 'at random'.

    I have a little of my artist grandmother's creativity in me, a little of my dad's writer in me, a little of one grandfather's love of nature, a little of my other grandfather's persistent optimism, and some of my father-in-law's wondering about the world in scientific terms. (How did that happen?)

    But, I have none of the math from my rocket scientist (yes, he really is) husband. And that's okay with me.

    I graduated from high school with 36 other people. Then I went on to attend five universities and had six declared majors. I ended up with a master's degree in fun and games. No kidding. Recreation, they call it. My emphasis was outdoor recreation, tourism, and interpretation.

    I have four nearly grown children, all very unique from each other and the world. All brilliant and curious and constantly learning. Guess we did something right.

    Welcome to my random and eccentric world. Hope you enjoy the ride. It might get bumpy.

Valentines Pumpkin Chocolate Muffins and Raspberry Chocolate Muffin Trifle

For Valentine's Day, I made the hub some chocolate muffins with a tag, "Good morning, Stud Muffin! I love you." for breakfast.

That is one of the nice things about Valentine's Day, no matter how tacky and cheesy you get, it is okay.

And cheesy it was, too. I also made pork burritos with lots of cheese for supper because they are his favorite. Go ahead, I know you are thinking it. Go ahead, call me sentimental. Yeah. Well, neither one of us really is much, except for Valentine's Day. And then it's only me. So I will get on with the post.

Here are the Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins for the Hub's Valentine breakfast.

These are delicious and ever so easy.

Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins

1 box chocolate cake mix (if you want to save a few calories, use a sugar free mix)
1 15oz can pureed pumpkin
1 cup (plus a handful extra for the muffin tops) milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 12 medium muffin cups or 6 large muffin cups (or line with paper).

Mix the pumpkin and the cake mix together. (Really: no eggs, no water, no oil.) Stir in the chips. Scoop into greased (or paper lined) muffin cups to 3/4 full. Drop five remaining chips on top of each muffin.

Bake for 15 minutes for medium tins (20 minutes for large tins) and check to see if they are set in the middle with a toothpick. Add more time as necessary until a toothpick comes out clean. The wetness of the mix really depends on the pumpkin you use, and wetter batter takes more time.

Remove when just firmed up and remove from the muffin tins after 5 minutes to finish cooling on a rack. Done. And they are sort of healthy. Sort of.

Here it is mixed up. Who would have thought it would mix?

Here are the muffins ready for the oven

 Now what do you do with the leftover muffins? Use them for dessert on Valentines night, of course!

Sweet dessert for Valentine's

These glasses are a reminder of our wedding night. When we got to our motel after all the festivities we found the light on the phone flashing that we had a message. The hub went down to the hotel office to see what was up and came back with a grin and a package. He had me open the package which was from my two sisters - matching red, wool, thermal nightshirts - one, size extra-small for me, one, size extra-large for him. How romantic.

But he was still grinning like something was up. He reached into the pockets of his coat and pulled out these two glasses and a bottle of sparkling apple juice that my romantic brother had left at the desk for our celebration. I love these glasses, a lot. See, I am sentimental.

Here is how to make these desserts.

Raspberry Chocolate Muffin Trifle for Two

1 Pumpkin Chocolate Muffin, broken into pieces

8 oz fresh raspberries, washed

For the Trifle sauce:

2 Tablespoons sour cream
2 Tablespoons cream cheese, softened
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Crumble a fourth of the muffin into each of two nice goblets. Then add a tablespoon of sauce to each. Add 8 raspberries on top of the sauce. Repeat. Eat.