Food has been a sensitive subject up in these parts for the last five months. We spent the fall slogging through life in general. I just could not deal with grocery shopping or cooking (or living, really), and my husband, while very supportive, is really not a cook. It was also troublesome that one very specific food item would sound slightly palatable at dinner planning time, but in the amount of time it took to acquire that specific item, it would undoubtedly become mostly unpalatable. I had an intense relationship with Starbucks breakfast sandwiches in the first trimester, but our love burned hot and fast. I went through a short Velveeta/Rotel/Hormel chili queso phase, and most recently, had an intense affair with danish (but only Wegmans raspberry or cheese kuchen -- so good). (Danish still has my heart, but I had to break things off before he also got my ass.)
In short, while I'm still not in top form on the food shopping/preparation front, I am doing my best. I phone it in more than I would prefer, and grocery shopping often is more than I can manage, but there is dramatically more real food coming out of my kitchen these days. (Woo!)
Last night, I kind of winged it on a phoned in dinner and it was so easy and delicious, I had to share. I was yet again too sore at the end of the day to buy groceries, so I had Mark stop and pick up some pizza dough and deli ham. When I got home, I threw together a quick calzone and white bean soup from an Alessi mix.
For the calzone, I rolled out the dough into a long rectangle. I sprinkled a good layer of Trader Joe's Quattro Formaggi shredded cheese blend down the middle. Next came a layer of ham (about 6 oz) and a layer of swiss cheese. I folded the sides of the dough over, tucked the ends in, and pinched everything closed. I flipped it over, gave it a brush of an egg wash, and threw it in the oven. I put it on parchment on a preheated pizza stone. I normally cook pizza at 525, but had preheated the oven to 450. I turned it down to 425 to make sure the calzone cooked through without burning. It took maybe 15-20 minutes, until it was a deep, golden brown and melty cheese started to escape.
It was sinfully delicious -- the kind of meal that leaves us saying, "Damn, my brain wants more, but my belly is too full." We were both super excited to have leftovers for lunch today too. Stupidly easy and delicious? That is a win in my book.
0 comments:
Post a Comment