Just in Time for the Game…or Any Time! Cheeseburger Calzones!

My family just loves these and they’re so easy to whip up! They taste JUST like a cheeseburger! Of course I have to customize several for personal tastes, but that’s easy enough.

The original recipe calls for refrigerated French bread dough, but I just use my pizza crust recipe that is soooo easy. I divide my dough in fourths, but you could easily make one big calzone OR divide the dough more… it’s all up to you!

Here is my pizza dough recipe:

1C hot water (my hot water from the tap comes out the perfect temp for the yeast)
2 1/2 tsp yeast (or one of those little pkts)
1 tsp salt
several glubs EVOO (that’s a technical gourmet cooking term, glubs… probably equals about 2T olive oil!)
2 1/2 C unbleached all purpose flour

Dissolve yeast in hot water, let sit for about 10 min before adding the rest of the ingredients. Add flour gradually until you have a nice workable dough… (you’ll know).

Cover dough with a little more olive oil, cover bowl and set aside while you prepare the cheeseburger stuffing!

Preheat oven to 400*

Basic Cheeseburger ingredients… customize to tastes, omitting or adding or whatever!

1/2 C chopped onion
1/4 C chopped dill pickle
3/4 C ketchup (I cut back the ketchup and add some mayo!)
2 tsp yellow mustard
1 clove garlic, pressed
1# (approximately) lean ground beef/turkey/meat substitute, cooked, crumbled and drained (no need to cook meat substitute)
1 T olive oil
sliced cheese…the choice is yours!

Now, this is where you might need individual bowls for those picky ones that don’t like onions OR pickles OR both! LOL… you get the picture.
Mix all the innards up real good.

Take your divided dough and pat it out, not too thin but not too thick…again, you’ll know *wink*!
Lay cheese slices on dough, top with filling, seal edges of dough around filling.
Drizzle with olive oil, cut vents in top to allow steam to vent.

I sprinkled sesame seeds on these.

Bake 18-20 minutes or until a deep golden brown.

The cheese bubbled out of the slits on that one. Oh, my, I might have to make them again today!! Just looking at the picture…I’m getting hungry!!

Play around with the recipe…have fun and enjoy! Let me know if you like it, I think you will!!

Thanks for stopping!

Dawn 

Christmas Baking and a Cookie Party!

Yes, it’s that time of year that so many are busy baking all those goodies for the holidays! Me? The older I get the lazier I get!! Plus I figure if I bake it… I’m gonna EAT it! My waistline doesn’t need all that! LOL!!

A friend always has a “Cookie Exchange” party… bring 6 dozen cookies and everybody shares! Makes my job that much easier!

I made ‘snowballs’, a recipe my mom always made only at Christmas. You might know them as Mexican Wedding Cookies… I like SNOWballs…lol, you knew that!

Here they are just out of the oven….cool a little then pop in powdered sugar. I like to coat them once, let them cool some more then give them another dusting of powdered sugar.

I also made some Almond Roca, a little dish to take to the hostess and the rest for our pleasure and entertaining. I’m thinking though, I should have taken a bigger portion to the party…. it is soooo good I’m afraid how much I’ll eat!

Almond Roca to me is special… growing up it was something we only had at Christmas. After I got married, moved away from home, had children and mom would come to visit, many times she’d bring a can of Almond Roca! In fact one of the kids said tonight, “Gee, Grandma always used to bring this!”

Mine wasn’t quite as pretty as the picture where I got the recipe… I had to hurry mine along a bit in order to leave for the party…but it sure tasted YUMMY!!
I toasted the almonds in the oven as it was warming up to bake the snowballs…I can still multitask!

Anyhoo, it was a hit at the party! This is where I got the recipe… and just a warning, once you visit you better have time cause you’ll get lost in there, and find lots of recipes you’ll want to try! Just sayin!

It was a nice evening of food, fellowship and fun…just us girls! Here are a few pics of the house, it looks like out of a magazine!

This wasn’t part of the exchange…
this was dessert! Yum

Everybody brings a fun container, we play a game passing our container left or right as the hostess reads a funny story with the words ‘left’ ‘right’ in it and everyone ends up with a different container. It’s a lot of fun….slap happy fun!

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Thanks for stopping!

Dawn

A Wild Flowers Birthday….and Pancakes

What a QUICK card I made this morning using this beautiful Flower Soft 3-D kit and Mini Tags 3!

By the way, no pancakes are on the card in case you’re wondering… keep reading!

The base is dry embossed with Cuttlebug folder Victoria. The oval is part of the FS die cut kit, you just pop up the cut parts! I stamped the tag in Ranger Spun Sugar and the sentiment in Adirondack Juniper. I love the fact they coordinate with Spellbinders Ribbon Tag Trio 3! See that ribbon going through the tag? It’s paper! Yup! It’s also part of the kit! I added a couple more flowers and leaves from the kit too. Super-duper FAST!

Now, about those pancakes… this morning I made the most yumilicious recipe, Cinnamon Roll Pancakes from the Recipe Girl! Oh my…. sinful, I’m telling ya! I did take some pictures, but mine didn’t turn out as pretty as hers, so I’ll just let you drool at her blog and not ruin mine! HAHA!

Enjoy your day….and, Thanks for stopping!

Dawn

Poppers, Judges Cards and MORE Zucchini!

You saw my TY's for those that contributed towards awards for our State Fair Llama Show, but I still wanted to make the two judges a special card. Last week on Splitcoast was a really cool tutorial called T-Slide Card, I knew right away that this was perfect for my judge's cards! I even colored one of the llamas like Eagle, a black & white tuxedo beautiful boy that one of the judges owns!

Once again I used Lina from Mo's Digital Pencil.

Once you do one of these and get the hang of it, it's super easy! I made mine 4.5 x 4.5. The sentiment is from Verses rubber stamps.

That's DCWV's Green Stack, Cuttelbug Embossing Folder Kassie's Brocade, Spellbinders Labels 9,12 and Martha Stewart border punch Gothic Arches.

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Did you see the picture of the jalapenos the other day?

Well, over the weekend I made POPPERS! Mmmmm! I used this recipe.

Mmmmmmm, soooo good!

Then I made Crabbiless Crab Cakes!
A good way to use up Zucchini!
I didn't take any pics...but here's the recipe!

2 C shredded zucchini
1 C seasoned bread crumbs
3/4 C grated cheddar cheese
1/2 C finely diced red onion
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 T mayonnaise
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
olive oil for frying

Combine all ingredients, mixing well. Heat oil in large skillet and carefully drop large spoonfuls of the mixture, gently flattening into a "patty". Fry 7-10 minute on each side until golden and cooked through. (they'll feel firm)

Well, lots to do this week...it's crunch time for State Fair!

Thanks for stopping!

Dawn

Sassy Temps in the 90's and Frosty Grapes!

I don't know about where you live, but the last few days here have just been HOT and humid...ugh! Maybe if I work with "Winter" images it'll help keep me cool! LOL

Don't forget the Winter/Christmas images at  Sassy Cheryl's are 10% off through the end of July! Our Sassy Challenge #19 is a sketch, you can play along too!

I flipped the sketch and used Reindeer Pull, water colored with wc crayons. The image layer is faux layered, Copic/ruler.

I tore 2 strips of lightweight cardboard and added "snow" by Deco Art. The sentiment is Be Thankful from Innovative Stamp Creations. The DP is DCWV Winter.

Now, here's a cool treat, Frosty Grapes. One of the ladies at my spinning guild brought these to share, so I made some for a picnic yesterday.

 

Wash the grapes and pat excess water off. I dump the grapes and jello into a gallon baggie to give them a good shaking, then refrigerate before serving. Try different flavors, red grapes work too. It's kind of like a sweet tart candy only with fruit! FUN!

For more sassy fun
be sure to check the other Sassy Girls.

Ann English Cathy Edgar
Heather Huggins Chrissy Le
Jackie Mooney Jodi Ann Lee
Kim Rhead Peggy Marsh
Tracy Jackson Alina Meijer
Judy Kreucher

And as always, Thanks for stopping!

Dawn

Butterflies, Berries & Ben....oh my!

A card with butterflies...
a cobbler with berries...
and my grandson Ben then and now!

Today's challenge on Splitcoast is a Magical Marquee Card. Jan Tink has a great video on her blog -------> here. It might take some fiddling if you change shapes and sizes, but it will work! (ask me how I know!) LOL!

This is a peek at one of the new sets from Innovative Stamp Creations, Beautiful Butterflies III, being released this week. I did several kinds of emboss resist. I stamped the butterflies in Versamark and used Pebbles chalks over them. (you can see the colors IRL). Then, using my stamp positioner, I stamped them again and clear embossed them. I started at the top and sponged Distress Wild Honey, flipped it and sponged Chipped Sapphire from the bottom up to meet the Wild Honey, overlapping a little to blend.

Here it is totally opened. I sponged the inside with what was left from the Wild Honey on the dauber. That STARK WHITE was just icky!

I stamped 2 of the butterflies, colored them with Copics, smeared them with Versamark and clear embossed them. This really makes the colors POP and they're so much easier to cut out!
The proscenium (Prism Twilight med.) is dry embossed with Polka Dots (Cuttlebug).

I didn't like the Candle Glow marquee (the curtain pieces that slide apart) just being naked, so added the butterfly. I had to cut it apart because when it was opened the one wing hid part of the sentiment! I drew in the antenna, they're too fiddly to cut out!
I just used a Martha Stewart 2-way glue pen to put the glue where it was needed so it wouldn't stick to the curtains as they pulled apart.

Before it was entirely assembled, I marked where the sentiment would go, stamped it and sponged the area with Wild Honey. Then like a watermark, I inked up the butterfly, stamped off and stamped over the sentiment.  

Can't even tell...pretty cool huh!

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I made this cobbler for dessert yesterday. It's a recipe a friend gave me some 30 odd years ago! It works great on any fruit! You can add a little cinnamon if you use apples. Oooh, it's so easy and ever so yummy! Recipe follows...

Of course I started with fresh picked raspberries! Some of those reds are bigger than the first joint on my thumb!

Then the batter goes over the berries....then you pour a sugar syrup over that and bake!

I actually could have doubled the batter for the amount of fruit I had, but it turned out good anyway.

I was trying to catch it bubbling as it was fresh out of the oven...but you can't tell! Mmmmmmmm!

Here's the recipe: Batter Cobbler   Bake 350* for 1hour

• fruit in a 9x13 baking dish
• 1 stick of butter, melted
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup milk
  combine and pour over fruit
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
  combine and pour over batter

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And finally... about four and half years ago my son brought home this cute little puppy. A Jack Russell/Boxer mix. It was to be HIS dog...he has since left home, BUT, Jack still lives here! Why wasn't I surprised?

Anyhoo...here is a picture of Benjamin with the "new" Jack then...

AND with Jack........now!

He still thinks he's a lapdog!!

Hey, thanks for stopping by today!

Dawn