Vegetarian Calzones

A Calzone is an Italian creation. The word in Italian has the meaning "stocking", among a few others. Calzone is very similar to Stromboli. It is made of pizza dough and is stuffed with various filling, usually meat, but as the title reveals, not this time :( That's okay though.

• 1 1/2 tablespoons cornmeal
• one large onion, cut however you like it
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 8 packed cups of baby spinach, (8oz.)
• 1 cup bottled roasted red peppers, we just roasted fresh ones ourselves
  
• 12 pitted, oil cured, black olives, coarsely chopped
  
• 1 pound pizza dough, if you want a recipe for this, leave a comment
  
• 1/2 pound of your favorite cheese, chopped up, if you can't decide, go with mozzarella
  

Alright! In a large skillet over medium heat, start browning the onions with 2 tablespoons of the oil. After no more then 10 minutes, add the garlic and let that sizzle for a minute. Then add the spinach. Stir frequently until the spinach wilts. And finally add the red peppers and olives. Feel free to salt and pepper this and make sure to remove the pan form the heat source at this point.

Next, roll the dough out onto a floured surface. If you don't flour the surface, the dough will probably stick. Divide it into 4 portions and form those into squares. To make one Calzone, have one square of dough with a corner pointing at you. On the bottom half, place some of the sauteed veggies and 1/4 of the cheese. Fold the top half of the dough over the bottom half and pinch the
sides so all the filling is locked in. Repeat this for the other four squares of dough.

The last step is baking. The only thing that really needs to be cooked is the dough, so this won't take long. Use the rest of the oil to grease a baking sheet and shake the cornmeal on the oil. If you want your calzone to be puffy, take the time for the dough to rise. Place the Calzone on the baking sheet and poke it with a knife so it has vents for steam. Then bake at 500 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. I got this recipe form Gourmet Magazine. Thanks!

Cornish Hens Stuffed with Haroseth

Greetings world,

Today I would like to tell you about a recipe for Cornish Hens stuffed with haroseth. Before we get into the details, lets talk about what exactly a "Cornish Hen" and "Haroseth" is.

A Cornish Hen, fully known as Cornish Game Hens, are chickens slaughtered while they are still young. They are therefore of smaller size, and are made to serve one, although half of one would fill my stomach up. The word Haroseth comes from the Hebrew word for clay. It is a Jewish concoction mainly made of nuts and dried fruit ground to a paste. It is traditionally eaten during the Passover celebration in order to remind them of the mortar they used to connect bricks during the time in bondage under Pharaoh, the ruler of the Ancient Egyptians. Haroseth is commonly eaten by itself or on matza, which is basically a type of cracker.

Here is the recipe for the Haroseth:

• 2/3 cup almonds, toasted
• 2/3 cup unsalted shelled pistachios
• 1 cup dried apricots
• 2/3 cup pitted dried dates
• 1/2 cup cream sherry
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 1/4 tsp of cinnamon, ground cardamom, and cayenne each

Chop the nuts in a food processor if you have one, if you don't, use a blender, that's what we did. Add the dried fruit to the processor/blender. Add everything else and mix till it is completely incorporated. Haroseth can be made 2 days ahead of time, just store it in a airtight container at room temperature.

Here is the recipe for the Cornish Hens:

• 1 Tbsp ground allspice
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 4 Cornish hens1 1/3 cup cup haroseth

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix all the spices and some salt and pepper with the oil in a small bowl. Pat each hen dry and stuff with 1/3 cup Haroseth each, (If I ever did this again, I would stuff it with more, maybe a half cup, or 3/4 cup, whatever would fit). Place stuffed hens in a flameproof roasting pan and massage with oily spice rub, make sure to rub it really good, try to get under the skin of the breast meat especially. Tuck the wings underneath the body and secure the legs together with some roasting string or a wooden toothpick. Roast for 20 minutes and then brush the hens with the sauce collected in the bottom of the pan. Continue roasting, using a baster to drench hens with the collected sauce in the bottom of the pan every ten minutes, take it out of the oven to do this. Roasting should take maybe half and hour longer, you will know that the hen is done if you pierce its thigh and the juices from it are clear. Once it is done, remove from the oven one last time. You can deglaze any flavorful residue on the roasting pan with some leftover sherry by placing the roasting pan on two stove top burners and sloshing the sherry around while using a spatula to rub of the residue. Use that as a gravy if you feel like it, if not, just serve them like they our or cut in half. In our picture, we topped it off with a green salsa, but the salsa didn't do too much for us. I got all these recipes from the Food and Wine Magazine. Happy Cooking!