sandwich bread & Nancy A, calzones

Michael left for golf on Monday morning (5/13) and I hopped on my bike (which he had kindly gotten ready for me by blowing up the tires) and ran my morning errands.  The library (to donate books and to pick up one they were holding for me), CVS (for a prescription) and the grocery store for several items before heading on home.  It only took about an hour and I felt good about being ‘green’ J.  I spent the rest of the morning laying out and cutting out a skirt, and then a good part of the afternoon making calzone, golden pull apart butter buns and sandwich bread dough.  I also dumped 2 pounds of ground beef into the crockpot to get it cooked.  Michael came home around 2 (with an 86) and said he had a good time, but his groups of golfers got separated and no one waited to have lunch L.  I decided it was time to get started on my prep for dinner, so I headed to the kitchen.  The ground beef was all cooked (what an EASY and superior way to do it….no mess on the stove and I didn’t have to even watch it!  I drained and rinsed the ground beef and dumped it into a big bowl.  I grated some cheddar cheese I was trying to use up and dumped that in….grated in some manchego cheese, dumped in a large can of tomatoes, and threw in a bunch of Italian seasoning.  I found a 1/2 onion in the fridge and that went in as well.  I wanted more cheese in the mix, and remembered I had some cottage cheese lurking in the fridge, so I threw that in.  Then I made a bunch of calzones:

 

 

 

This was my first attempt and I definitely learned a few things…I still have LOTS of filling left, so I may make more tomorrow.  Anyway, I got the 2 loaves of bread dough baked and Nancy A swung by for a warm 1/2 loaf:

 

 Then I turned up the oven to bake the calzones.  I was disappointed that they leaked, mostly out of the slits that the recipe told me to cut in the top:

 

But I knew I had achieved success when Michael said “I certainly hope TWO is a serving, because I want another one!”  By the time I was done, my legs were really aching, so my honey cleaned up the kitchen and it was spotless by the time I got back to look at it….heaven!  We spent the evening watching BRAIN GAMES on TV….this is a series on NATGEO TV and it is really cool!