Sweet Sausage Calzones

You need two hands to eat these Sweet Sausage Calzones!  They are so soft, and sturdy; they won't fall apart on you.  I grew up on this bread recipe.  I love it!  I was on a hunt for a new recipe to use up some thawed sausage from the freezer; I am very happy with these.  You can do a different filling like with seasoned hamburger and shredded cabbage, if you'd like.  I have a feeling I'll be making more of these to fill my family for dinner and/or snacks!

Ingredients:

Dough
2 eggs
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup milk
41/2 - 5 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 packages of yeast

Filling
1 roll of ground sausage
1 diced onion
1 large red bell pepper diced
1/2 large green pepper diced
4 cups mozzarella cheese
oil
marinara sauce (optional)


Put wet ingredients into bread machine on dough cycle, followed by the dry.  Follow bread machine instructions, for order.  (I had to kinda help mix mine together at first, with all the flour involved.)  Let it rest only for 30 minutes, not for the full cycle duration, once the kneading is done.  Or the dough may explode on you! (Oh, no!)

Brown your sausage, onion, and peppers until fully cooked and browned.  Drain grease.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Once your dough is done, portion into 8 sections.  Roll out a section at a time, on a floured wax paper, for each calzone to fill.

Portion 1/3 cup of filling on 1/2 side of rolled-out dough.

Top with 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese.

Fold other half of dough over the toppings.  Fold ends up, and then crease with a fork.  Place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Prick each calzone to ventilate.  With a tablespoon, smear some oil over the top of each calzone.  

Bake in oven for about 9-10 minutes, until nice and brown.

Serve with your favorite marinara sauce or plain.

Hash Brown Sausage Casserole

Wanted to bring something different to a brunch meeting with some friends.   The Hash Brown Sausage Casserole recipe is adapted from this Easy Potato and Bacon Breakfast Casserole.  It was intended for me to take in the morning.  But, it smelled so good, that we ate it for dinner, instead.  Now, I have another one to make for tomorrow.  I was so proud of myself for being all prepared for tomorrow... It's alright, I've got plenty of potatoes to shred in my stash to use.

Ingredients:

1/2 diced onion

1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
1/3 cup diced green chilies

1 lb sausage (use 1 cup)

4 cups thawed hash browns or homemade
3 cups shredded cheese
3 eggs beaten
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt

Saute onions, peppers, and green chilies until cooked.  Then, cook the sausage with the veggies & drain the grease.  Toss the hash browns and shredded cheese with the sausage mix in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, milk, and salt, and then combine with the hash brown, cheese, and sausage.  Stir well.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Coat 9x13 pan with a non-stick cooking spray.  Pour mix into pan.  Cover and bake for 40-45 minutes, careful to not burn.

*I only used 1 cup of the sausage mix for this recipe to stretch it further.  But, other recipes use the full 2 cups.
*To make the homemade hash browns, just put 4-5 small potatoes through the shredder of a food processor.  Let soak in some lemon juice, to keep from turning brown.  Steam in microwave on "Baked Potato" button, about 7-10 minutes.
*To stretch my milk in baking/cooking, I'll dilute my 2% milk in half with water, 50:50.

Kid Tested & Approved