Jamie's "Calzones"

I spent some time at Jamie's on Saturday night while John was at his bachelor party (hint, hint...someone's gettin' married....woohoo!!). She made a yummy dinner for us; I managed to get out of the office at a reasonable hour tonight, so decided to stop at the grocery store on the way home and get the ingredients so I could try and repeat her recipe. We really liked it, and I have plenty over for another night's meal. When Jamie said we were having calzones, I was expecting a pastry filled with ham, ricotta and mozzarella....which it totally was not...LOL!! She's not sure where her mom got the name calzone for it, but that's what they have always called it. To me it's more like a meat pie.

Mine was a bit different than hers....she made her own dough (excuuussseee me Betty Crocker...LOL!), I bought the ready made pie shells (I don't do dough from scratch...no reason to when Betty can make it for me...LOL!). It called for 3 eggs, she couldn't use eggs, as Jonathan is allergic to them. I put a crust on the bottom (only because I had two and made it in an 8x8 pan), she didn't. Both ways tasted great!

Recipe:

Brown 1 and a half pounds of ground beef with chopped onions. Season as you wish.

Mix the following in a bowl:
3 eggs
8 oz. grated swiss cheese
1/4-1/2 cup parmesan cheese
parsley

Add cooked ground beef to mixture in the bowl.

Purchase one box Pillsbury ready made pie shells...or you can make your own (Jamie, you can comment with recipe for that if you'd like)

Two choices:

1. Spread mixture in 9x13 pan, cover with dough.
OR
2. Place one pie shell on bottom of 8x8 pan, pour in meat/cheese mixture, cover with second pie shell.
OR
3. Spread mixture in 8x8 pan, pour in meat/cheese mixture, cover with one pie shell. Make an apple pie with second pie shell :)

Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

Serve with a side of cream of celery soup to spoon over top after served. (Kurt wondered what it would taste like with tomato sauce on top)

DELICIOUS!!
Thanks Jamie :)

The Weekend

Alyssa and Sarah came home for the weekend to be able to attend Broadcast, the new young adult worship service that Alyssa is involved with at our church. She has kind of turned herself into the unofficial chef at these services; the Sunday after Christmas she made pork and sauerkraut, last time they had a hot dog bar, and tonight they had chicken noodle soup.

This is Alyssa and Sarah cleaning the chicken (with a wannabe helper):

I made a nice brunch for earlier today....pumpkin muffins:

Breakfast casserole:

Can't remember the events surrounding this picture:

Getting ready to chow down:

(Oh, and BTW, notice the hair cut...finally.....)

He's Baaa......cccckkkkkk!

We almost had a crisis in the office!! I've told you how Dr. G. puts peanuts on the ledge outside his office window to feed Joey the squirrel. Well, Dr. G. was on vacation recently (he was gone about two and a half weeks). When he came back he lined up the peanuts out on the ledge. They sat there for over a week and no one claimed them. He came into me on Monday and told me had a problem and could I help him? I'm thinking he wants me to look up a med for him in the PDR, or help him with one of his patients....noooo....he asks me if I can get in touch with Mr. and Mrs. Joey somehow....LOL!!! He was quite unnerved that Joey hadn't taken his peanuts. I suggested that maybe Joey had been squashed...LOL! (He didn't take that too well!)

I'm happy to report that Joey resurfaced on Friday (see picture) and took his stash of nuts. I informed Dr. G. that he apparently had gotten my certified letter I sent him :)

Annual Choir Open House

Our gracious hosts, Linda and Dave:

Some of their guests:

And more:

Even more:

And still more:

Our yummy meal:

Bethany:

Anyone wanna guess what DVD this group of gals watched!?!?
Alyssa, care to take a stab at it?? It's the tradition:

Kittens

Frodo:

Macy:

Sassy:

State Rivalry

On the eve of her return to Happy Valley:

Reminiscing

As I was putting the Christmas decorations away today, I found these in the bottom of the tote. Alyssa made them at some point for me. I couldn't tell you where, when, why or how, though!! Maybe Alyssa can shed some light on where they came from....

Happy Birthday Auntie Fifi!

Such a lovely cake Uncle Chris made for Auntie Fifi's birthday today!

See Mummy...I'm using my new purse :)

And look at two of my handsome boys!

Marshmallow Creations :)

Michele: Put your heads together please!
Girls: OK!

Michele: Not like that, you goofballs!
Girls: Better?!?!

(This was towards the end of a hot family game of Catch Phrase; they were getting bored, and the marshmallows were just sitting there, all they needed were some toothpicks...LOL!!)