This summer has been chock full of great trips which feels novel after having kids in diapers the past 10 years. But visiting my best friend in Buffalo for her birthday along with our besties Laurie, Meg & Mike has to be up there at the top of the list. Not only is she adorable, she is a NICU doctor and saves babies lives for a living. She also just bought the cutest house.

Buffalonians just have good food in their veins/water supply. Or it could be the long cold winters with nothing to do but dream up good, smart food. I mean, they invented the BUFFALO WING. I could leave it at that. The buffalo wing plus the fact that my best friend lives there means it is officially my favorite food town.

But they also have this hipster food vibe that yields original, amazing food. The first dinner we had was at a restaurant called Marble & Rye.

It was so dark in the restaurant I didn’t take any pics, so I’ll just have to walk you through the drool-worthy meal. I am still dreaming of it, it was so good. We started with eggplant Bolognese with cinnamon in the velvety sauce and homemade noodles, a smoky grilled chicken wing with pomegranate seeds and creamy dressing drizzled over it, and ended with a burger that was quite possibly the best thing I have ever eaten.

For breakfast the next morning, we went to Betty’s. There was a wait out the door so you knew it was going to be good. And it was also dark inside so I got no pictures, but the turkey sausage hash was amazing, as was Megan’s dish that can only be described as a mexican breakfast lasagna, with layers of tortilla and a mixture of sweet potatoes, corn and black beans and an enchilada sauce with cumin and cayenne, all with creamy queso fresco, guac, and cilantro in the mix. Recipe on this one coming soon, I promise, since I must recreate it.

After we stuffed ourselves, we said goodbye to Meg & Mike who had to return to Conneticut and headed over to my favorite grocery store EVER – Wegmans – to get the makings for a housewarming BBQ at Megan’s.

Fun fact: I learned to cook because when we were first married I lived across the street from a Wegmans, with tons of gorgeous ingredients and tons of time.

This time the yummy food was up to us. I can think of nothing better then hanging out in Megan’s new kitchen cooking for her party and listening to good music with a beer. I marinated 3 flank steaks using Tyler Florence’s Carne Asada recipe. The citrus juices totally tenderize the meat and the flavors from the lime and orange along with garlic, jalapeño, and cilantro make it so tasty. I also made a ton of burgers, since I was still dreaming about the one from Marble & Rye. I make burgers with Worcestershire and minced onion, salt and pepper. Easy and delicious. (See end for recipe for both). I also made Ina Garten’s Panzanella Salad and the Zucchini tart I posted last week.

On Sunday afternoon, as the weekend came to an end, we went to Lloyd’s. Lloyd’s started as a food truck and became so popular due to their delicious food (and from what I gather a really fun social media spin that involved finding the food truck under the guise of a “Where’s Lloyd?” marketing shtick). Knowing how good the food is, I would want to know ‘Where’s Lloyd?’ too.  They soon opened up an eatery complete with a killer cocktail list. They make their own tortillas and rumor has it, the man they were ordering them from in the beginning came out from California to show them how to make their own and never left. 

This is Anthony, a great example of how people in Buffalo just hang out and talk to each other. He steered me towards this Sunset cocktail which I was not sad about and made us belly laugh because he was hilarious (hi Anthony – still think you should become a stand up comedian).

We ordered the Breakfast BLT, the cheesy Shrimp and Grits, and the Huevos Rancheros. I can. not. even. tell you how good the shrimp and grits were. They are not what I think of when I think of taco truck, and I have not really had many good grits (usually they are runny and flavorless). But Lloyd’s did them right. Think all the creaminess of a good mashed potato casserole that has been cooking all day in a pool of butter and salt and creamy cheese, so that the edges get chewy, and you are approximating the dish. And that spice infused concoction on top with onions and tomatoes should just have it’s own name, as in ‘flavor bomb tomato onion cumin sauce’ or something.

Hueveos rancheros is always a favorite, and with all these fresh toppings it has to be good.And the BLT (sorry, ate it before I snapped a pic) was deceptively simple – just pork belly, cooked until it was chewy and crispy, fresh tomatoes, lettuce and scrambled egg on a fresh tortilla. Did I mention it only costs .99? (Any New Englander would just do a happy dance at Buffalo food prices.)

We tried so many new places that I had to wait until the airport to visit my very favorite restaurant, home of the Buffalo Wing, The Anchor Bar.

I even brought some home for Rob, because he loves them too. While I ate my way through Buffalo he held down the fort with the kids, so he deserved something.

Ok, off to have a Super Sunday. Happy Eating! xoxo Katie

Carne Asada (recipe from Tyler Florence):

Tyler Florence has you making the marinade (what he calls the mojo) in a mortar and pestle, but I just threw them all in to a blender the first time, and used an immersion blender the second, and I love how it distributed the ingredients well so the meat was coated evenly with all that flavor.

Ingredients
2 pounds flank or skirt steak, trimmed of excess fat
1 recipe Mojo, recipe follows
Olive oil, for coating the grill
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Mojo:
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno, minced
1 large handful fresh cilantro leaves, finely chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 limes, juiced
1 orange, juiced
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil

Directions:

Mojo:
In a mortar and pestle or bowl, mash together the garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, salt, and pepper to make a paste. Put the paste in a glass jar or plastic container. Add the lime juice, orange juice, vinegar, and oil. Shake it up really well to combine. Use as a marinade for chicken or beef or as a table condiment.
Yield: approximately 1 1/4 cups

Lay the flank steak in a large baking dish and pour the mojo over it. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or up to 8 hours, so the flavors can sink into the meat. Don’t marinate the steak for more than 8 hours though, or the fibers break down too much and the meat gets mushy.
Preheat an outdoor grill or a ridged grill pan over medium-high flame (you can also use a broiler). Brush the grates with a little oil to prevent the meat from sticking. Pull the steak out of the mojo marinade and season the steak on both sides with salt and pepper. Grill (or broil) the steak for 7 to 10 minutes per side, turning once, until medium-rare. Remove the steak to a cutting board and let it rest for 5 minutes to allow the juices to settle. Thinly slice the steak across the grain on a diagonal.
See his post on the Food Network website for a great Pico De Gallo recipe and other ideas for toppings. 

***********

Ok, these are so simple I am reluctant to post but so many people this summer have asked me how I made my burgers. They are flavorful and moist and the easiest way to entertain. I easily triple or quadruple this recipe, and for parties I serve caramelized onions (just found this great post about them) and sautéed mushrooms along with the usual burger toppings.

Curtis Burgers:

1 lb. grass fed ground beef

2 T. Worcestershire sauce

2 T. minced onion

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

Directions:

Mix the ground beef with the seasonings and form into 4 patties. Be sure to push a thumb print down in the middle to ensure they will cook flat, otherwise they will puff up in the middle.

Cook in a pre-heated pan or grill, about 5 minutes per side.

^Dinner a few weeks ago. Techniques used: breading, pan frying, and doing a finishing roast in the oven. 

If you heard me last week on the Jen Fulwiler show on Sirius XM talking about making dinner easier, you know that my goal is to make cooking easier and more fun. Since we are getting into the busy season of life again after the lovely slowness of summer, I thought I would recap my pointers for anyone who found me from her show (hi new readers!). I can’t tell you how much I agree with this Julia Child quote:

“To the new generation of cooks who have not grown up in the old traditions: learn the basics and understand what you are doing so cooking can be easier, faster, and more enjoyable. To the more experienced cook: have fun improvising and creating your own versions of traditional dishes.” 

I think a lot of people battle with perfectionism in the kitchen and if they aren’t Martha Stewart or Ina Garten, they throw in the towel and think, well I don’t have time to learn so why bother trying? Ergo, it is not on my radar. But the problem with this is any time you have to cook, for your kids or a holiday, it stays a giant chore. Big huge mountain to climb, every time.

No one is born a great cook. You learn one dish at a time. And if you love to learn, it becomes a bright spot in your day because you are learning every time. So I hope you find ways to learn new techniques and grow, little by little, in the kitchen. Here are some things that help me get dinner on. I hope they inspire you!

Note: Before we get into my tips, go to this site and become familiar with these cooking techniques. That way when you spot them in recipes, you can understand them and own them a little bit more.

1. Get a freezer and buy a half or quarter cow of grass fed cow or local half pig. – This is what got me started food blogging, because I wanted to learn how to cook all the cuts of meat.  It is so fun to have a Prime Rib in your freezer for Christmas, beef cubes for kebabs in the summer or beef stew in the winter. It gets you connected to seasonal living and celebrations. And I always have tacos or grass fed burgers that I can make in 10-15 minutes. Don’t sweat the cost of the freezer it will pay for itself since ALL the cuts are around /lb.

Living in New England there are lots of opportunities to get other locally raised meat. My husbands cousin lives 20 minutes from us in Southern Maine and his family just decided to raise pigs. So now we have a half pig in the freezer too with ham and the best bacon.

Also – one large piece of meat can stretch into 2-3 meals. Capitalize on that.

2. Have a list of 6-8 dinners you know almost everyone will eat, and keep those ingredients on hand. For me, these flow and change seasonally but our pantry always has the makings for tacos or fajitas, tomato pasta dishes, creamy pasta dishes, slow cooker rice bowls, hamburgers, beef stroganoff, beef stew, a few different soups and chili. They all take between 15-30 minutes. I try to make them early if we have sports.

3. Keep your pantry well stocked. Once you keep these 6-8 meals in mind, it is easier to keep the makings for them in their own place in your pantry or cabinet. If you find you have more time, you can do twists on these, like making enchiladas instead of tacos, or chicken tortilla soup instead of rice bowls.

4. Only try new dishes when you have time on a slow day or on weekends. New recipes keep you connected to learning and novelty. You can add the ones that you love into your rotation of meals. A lot of the recipes on my blog are the ones that we loved during weekends or experiment days and are adding to the regular rotation. But it is stress inducing to have to put dinner on the table and know that what the recipe said would take 20 minutes is taking 40 and everyone is hungry and grabbing marshmallows from the pantry. Don’t put yourself through it.

5.  Find stores that will do curb side pick up for groceries or better yet deliver. BJ’s just started doing this. And in our region we have Peapod. We even have a local milk delivery service.

6. Let the grocery store be your sous – chef.  I learned this tip from Jacques Pepin is one of my heros, he cooked on Julia Child’s show and is an amazing chef from France. But it is a great tip – look for meat or veggies that are already sliced or marinated, or pick up a rotisserie chicken or produce that has been grilled or prepared. Get a lot of veggies frozen that are ready to cook quickly. They are cheaper and frozen at the hight of their freshness.

Sometimes it can be a bit more expensive but if it saves you 10 minutes at 5 o’clock maybe the 50 cents is worth it? Yesterday I got char-grilled corn that was packaged as kernels for 90 cents. Do you know how much effort and time it would take me to peel, cook, grill, and cut 5 ears of corn?

7. Do what works for you to capitalize on fresh produce. Maybe a CSA makes you happy because its hard to get out of the house then do that. Some seasons I found that much produce stressful to manage and it was going to waste. Maybe you want to get out of the house and do Farmers Markets. I never can because we are so busy on Saturday mornings now. Right now we love having a garden but maybe that is not realistic. But find one way to connect with the seasonal produce and just feel good about doing that.

8. Give yourself a break when you are feeling burnt out without feeling guilty. Ordering pizza costs . We order pizza almost every Friday night for movie night. And we are play/experimenting like grilling or trying a new slow cooked meal one or two nights. So that only leaves 3 nights a week where dinner feels like ‘work’ and then it is not so bad.

9. Think like a kid in the kitchen.  If you can look at cooking as playing or having fun, it totally transforms the daily chore into something you might even look forward to. Not every day,  To quote her a second time, Julia Childhood said:

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.”

Kids don’t analyze PlayDoh. They pick it up and start touching it. So pick one recipe that looks good to you and try it. Or try one technique – say making a béchamel or braising fennel. I am amazed at how much you can learn from trying 1 thing, and once you know it, you know it. Cooking becomes easier. And it can really ignite the passion for cooking when you try something new. Even if you make a mistake you learn something. Google how to fix it and you will have acquired a skill.

10. Turn on music when you cook. Everything is more fun when you dance.

First, let me start out by saying I am NOT a wine expert. This post is meant to share that as a decidedly NON-wine expert, I have found a few good wines that I am loving and a few reasons why, so I am sharing them in the hopes that you can take it and make it work for you in your (perhaps) non-expert wine drinking moments. (Julie and Henri, this excludes you if you are reading this since you both know more then I ever will).

I wanted to share this because I feel like I found a treasure trove by accident. It is the French wine section at our New Hampshire Liquor Stores.

Wherever you live, find a place that sells good wine, and head on over to the area marked ‘French’ or is broken down by French regions, like ours is. Once you are there, please note the prices.

They are not that bad! Right? Price points from .99 to .99. So this leads us to the first myth about French wines that I want to overturn.

Myth #1: French wines are expensive. 

Ok, maybe some are, but I think the anxiety about them comes from the fact that some bottles are sold for a gazillion dollars because they are rare. For 99% percent of us, we will never be faced with the decision to open a ,000 bottle of a 1957 Bordeaux.

But guess what? The 2014 Bordeaux is only .

French people drink wine everyday and still somehow manage to give half of their income to taxes (little joke there) and pay for their homes and food and clothes.They care ALOT about quality and the time-honored traditions of terroir and flavor and cultivation. And they have figured out economical ways to make them.

Myth #2: French Wines are complicated.

I thought they were. Until I realized you can just fall in love with a region – or even a town – and every bottle from there will be delicious. French people care so much about the soil grapes were grown in that they got very specific about it, and started naming their wines after each town or region it was grown in. But start small and just pick one region and try some to and see if you like it.

My current favorite is Médoc. I learned about it from the (much better) food blog  Manger.

Two quick travel stories from this year that I will share with you about Médoc wines:

First, When my husband took me to the AMAZING restaurant Primo in Maine for my 40th birthday dinner, we looked at a menu by a James Beard awarding chef, and an equally impressive wine list. I was overwhelmed by everything, of course. When I looked down the list of wines, I saw one from Médoc that was the cheapest one on the menu (!) at around . We were willing to splurge, but I knew from shopping at my local wine store that all the Médoc wines were delicious, and I wanted to do justice to the amazing food we were about to eat. So we ordered it and it was Heaven. Such a relief at such a big moment to love the wine you chose.

Second, when we went out to eat with a huge group to a steak house in the Outer Banks with my husband’s college friends, I spotted a Médoc wine that was again the cheapest bottle on the list, I think it was (hello dirt cheap for a steak house). I went to order it for our end of the table. The rest of the table followed suit and they ordered 3 bottles for everyone.

No pressure.

When it came, it was delicious. Sigh of relief and happy people all around.

Myth #3:  All wines contain natural sugar.

When we traveled in France last summer, you might recall that I was reading a ton of food memoirs throughout our trip. I learned from Ruth Reichl’s book Comfort Me with Apples that Americans prefer sweet wine, so some wine makers dump extra sugar into the wine that sells in the US.

This little factoid is what made me turn to the French wines. I don’t believe in being a wine snob, or a food snob, but now that I taste a lot of the grocery store wines, all I can taste is the sugar.

Myth #4: A Sauvignon Blanc from France tastes the same as one from California.

Nope. The best thing my wine-savvy sister taught me is to take a wine, such as a Sauvignon Blanc or Cabernet Sauvignon, and buy one from a few different places. Italy, France, California, New Zealand, South America. Then taste them to see where you like them grown the best.  Throw a wine party and taste them to see which ones you (and your friends) like.  

Turns out a Sauvignon Blanc grown in France has many names. There is the Pouilly-Fumé, which Julia Child wrote about in My Life in France (favorite food memoir of all time). She also demystified the Pouilly-Fusse, since it is the French name for Chardonnay.  Along with the Pouilly-Fumé however there is the Sancerre.

I love it. Not all of them are created equal though – since we have returned from France I have tried all of them and this one is my favorite bottle, ringing in at .99 but is a whole lot of goodness for that price. I just brought over a bottle today for lunch with my mom and sister and we all loved it.

To learn more about the Sancerre check out this (far more knowledgeable) wine person.

I have to mention one other winemaker from Médoc that have truly made some special evenings with friends and other celebrations. It is the Michael Lynch winery, and their reds and their white Graves have been so outstanding.

To learn more (and memorize their labels my friend! If you see them you are in good hands), check out this website.

Favorite Wine Recipes 

I really love cooking with wine. Here are some of my favorite recipes – try them on your next adventurous cooking night.

1. Ina Garten’s Beef Bourguigon – Ina loves using Cote du Rhone in her cooking.
2. Chicken Fricasse – this recipe has me over the moon. I love it so.
3. Jacques Pepin’s Red Wine Beef Stew – favorite Christmas Eve dish ever.
4. Red Wine Braised Short Ribs – I love these so. Honorable mention for Pale Ale Braised Short Ribs.

Ok, happy eating (and drinking!) friends.

xoxo Katie

Is there anything better to eat on a hot summer night then ceviche?

The first time I ever tasted ceviche was on my Honeymoon in Aruba, and I have been in love ever since (both with the dish and my husband).

I went to a tapas party last night, and decided to make ceviche because holy humidity. When I got there, it was the most amazing spread, filled with families from all over the globe, and the best food I have ever eaten. Rice and beans with octopus and mussels, garbanzo beans with spinach and buttered bread crumbs, stuffed fried sardines, manchego and olives and dates, spicy cheese fondu-type dips with cubes of bread, something amazing and creamy with chicken and mushrooms that was supposed to go into a tortilla but I ate it without and it was delicious, and flan for dessert. Plus there was plenty of Spanish wine and sangria. Can we discuss the amazing flavor of peach sangria? It tastes like a glass full of sunshine and fresh sweet peach flavor. There are a ton of recipes for this (this one looks amazing with rasperries), but what made it was the peaches were diced very fine, so they swirled in your mouth and infused flavor into every sip.

It was such a magical night, and as I left and went to my car, the stars were so bright, and the half moon echoed their glow, the heat of the day had turned into one of those sweet summer breezes that feel like a kiss from summer.

Usually, ceviche is made with raw fish that gets cooked in the acids of the citrus juices it is tossed with. (Mind blown, right?) I love it too, but I also love shrimp which can sit around in my freezer until I am ready to make this, unlike fresh fish ceviche. It also uses a lot of the same ingredients as gazpacho, my other favorite summer heat buster (there was so many amazing gazpachos last night too.)

I actually just ordered this on vacation and I was so excited to eat it when it came to the table. And it turned out just…meh. So when I went to make it for tapas, I turned to the recipe at Simply Recipes since I trust everything Elise makes, though I tweaked it with my own touches, like using the less spicy jalapeño rather then serrano chili so my kids could eat it, adding garlic (which I loved) and since I only had parsley I substituted that for cilantro and it tasted great, very fresh. Often at parties there are people who don’t love cilantro, so it is good to know you can make it with either herb.

Hope you are staying cool, having a lovely summer, and plenty of delicious summer dishes. Or just some cucs and cheese and bread, which is the best kind of summer eating.

xoxo Katie

Shrimp Ceviche Recipe (printer version found here):

Adapted from Simply Recipes.

I can’t believe this is the first time I am posting the recipe for freeze & bake calzones on THO! It might be my longest running favorite in real life, and the recipe I get asked for the most.

This is my go-to dish whenever anyone has a baby, surgery, or funeral and you want to send a meal. I love this tradition so much, and I know how it feels to get them. You feel so loved!

Because you use store bought pizza dough, it is so easy to make and easy to re-freeze. You just wrap them up in little cling-wrap pockets, freeze on a cookie sheet, and then once frozen you can throw them into zip lock bags. I write the cooking directions (bake 35-40 at 400) on the bag to make is super easy for the family to cook. I love how this dish gives them zero clean up or the need to add sides since it is a meal in itself.

I found the broccoli & cheese calzone recipe in an old Martha Stewart Everyday Magazine, and it gave me the idea to make them ahead and freeze them. Back then I only had one baby who wasn’t eating real food. I made it with the red pepper flakes so there is a kick! But ever since my kids have been at the table I leave it out or just sprinkle it on my own.

The only problem with this recipe is my meat loving husband wasn’t crazy about them. So I started to just make a turkey, spinach and cheese one along side it. He looovvves them. I usually make them with turkey sausage and spinach, but you could also use ground turkey or ground beef as well.  I use whatever veggies I have on hand – zucchini, summer squash, or peppers.  It was delicious with orange peppers and the color makes it pop too.

The veggies get mixed with creamy ricotta, salty parmesan and gooey mozzarella. No wonder everyone loves them. And I always send this calzones with a jar of Rao’s Tomato Sauce – it is so good, I rarely make my own sauce anymore because it is amazing. It is just the cutest to see kids eagerly dipping it into a ramekin of sauce like eager beavers.

Broccoli & Cheese Calzones (printer version here):

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 packages (10 ounces each) frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes (SO good but I leave out for kids)
• Flour, for rolling dough
• 2 packages (1 pound each) balls fresh or frozen pizza dough, thawed if frozen
• 1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 1/2 cups shredded (6 ounces) part-skim mozzarella cheese
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• Prepared tomato sauce (optional)
• 1 medium red onion, finely chopped

Directions:

1. In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium. Add onion; cook until softened, 4 to 5 minutes. Add broccoli, garlic, and pepper flakes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid has evaporated, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl; set aside to cool.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Form calzones: Divide dough into 8 equal pieces. On a lightly floured surface, stretch each piece out, first to a 3-by-4-inch oval, then stretch again, this time to a 6-by-8-inch oval. (Let dough rest a few minutes if too elastic to work with.)
3. Stir cheeses into cooled broccoli mixture; season generously with salt and pepper. Assemble calzones: Spread a rounded 1/2 cup broccoli mixture over half of each piece of dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border; fold over to form a half-moon. Press edges to seal. With a paring knife, cut 2 slits in the top of each calzone.
4. Using a wide metal spatula with a thin blade, transfer calzones to 2 baking sheets lined with parchment or waxed paper; reshape if needed.
5. Bake until golden, about 25 minutes. Serve with tomato sauce, if desired.

To Freeze:

Prepare recipe through step 3. Tightly wrap each calzone in plastic; freeze until firm. Transfer calzones to resealable plastic bags; label and date. Freeze up to 2 months. To serve, unwrap calzones, and place on parchment-lined baking sheets; bake without thawing until golden, 35 to 40 minutes.

Turkey, Spinach and Cheese Calzones (printer version here):

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium red onion, finely chopped (can substitute yellow onion)
• 1 lb. turkey sausage or ground turkey
• 1 orange or red pepper, chopped (can substitute zucchini or summer squash)
• 1 10 oz. container of spinach
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• Flour, for rolling dough
• 2 packages (1 pound each) balls fresh or frozen pizza dough, thawed if frozen
• 1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 1/2 cups shredded (6 ounces) part-skim mozzarella cheese
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• Prepared tomato sauce (optional)

Directions:

1. In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium. Add onion; cook until softened, 4 to 5 minutes. Add garlic, peppers or squash, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add turkey and cook until browned. Add spinach, 1 t. salt and ½ t. pepper and stir to combine. Transfer to a medium bowl; set aside to cool.
2. If freezing, see note at the end. If cooking immediately preheat oven to 400 degrees. Form calzones: Divide dough into 8 equal pieces. On a lightly floured surface, stretch each piece out, first to a 3-by-4-inch oval, then stretch again, this time to a 6-by-8-inch oval. (Let dough rest a few minutes if too elastic to work with.)
3. Stir cheeses into cooled turkey and veggie mixture; season generously with salt and pepper (about another 1 t. salt and ½ t. pepper.) Assemble calzones: Spread a rounded 1/2 cup mixture over half of each piece of dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border; fold over to form a half-moon. Press edges to seal. With a paring knife, cut 2 slits in the top of each calzone.
4. Using a wide metal spatula with a thin blade, transfer calzones to 2 baking sheets lined with parchment or waxed paper; reshape if needed.
5. Bake until golden, about 25 minutes. Serve with tomato sauce, if desired.

To Freeze:

Prepare recipe through step 3. Tightly wrap each calzone in plastic; freeze until firm. Transfer calzones to resealable plastic bags; label and date. Freeze up to 2 months. To serve, unwrap calzones, and place on parchment-lined baking sheets; bake without thawing until golden, 35 to 40 minutes.