Calzones

This is probably one of our favorite meals in our house and it is quite easy. Enjoy!

Pizza Dough Recipe (This is a long-time family friend's recipe, Vicki Sabin. I love this pizza dough recipe because it only needs 15 minutes to rise but if something comes up and it ends up raising say for over an hour it still turns out!)

1 cup lukewarm water

1 pkg yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp. shortening (I typically use butter since I never have shortening)

3 cups flour

Topping Ideas:

spaghetti sauce (my favorite is prego traditional)

pepperoni

sausage

onions (If you don't have fresh throw in some dried onion it works well too.)

mushrooms

olives

mozzarella cheese

whatever else you'd like

Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water and let stand for 5 minutes. Mix in the rest of the pizza dough ingredients and knead until smooth. (If you have a bread machine or kitchen aid just throw everything in and beat until it looks smooth.) Let rise at least 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 425 degrees (If you have a pizza stone be sure to put that in the oven too, but if you don't placing it on a cookie sheet works just as good.)

Now separate dough into however many calzones you want to make. (I typically make three calzones which feeds both of us and leaves Michael one for lunch the next day. You could do just one large one but if you have eaters with different likes and dislikes its nice to make their own.)

Roll your dough out on the counter with flour to prevent it from sticking.

Now before you add your toppings transfer the dough to a cornmeal covered cookie sheet or large wooden pizza spatula that you're going to use to put it in the oven with. Add all your toppings on one half of the dough and then fold the other half over and seal the dough shut. You can use any technique to make your edges look nice I typically pinch the two sides together and roll them up and then pinch them down with my nails. Beware if you get pizza sauce too close to the edge it can make it harder to form a good seal on your dough and you could get some sauce and cheese oozing out while it cooks.

Finally, if you want to make it look even prettier smooth a couple of drops of oil on top of the calzone and sprinkle on some parsley flakes or Italian seasoning. This gives it a nice golden coloor and the green flakes as I said add a little flavor but really just make it look pretty. Bake at 425 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.