Buffalo Chicken Calzone

Wow! This was deeeelicious. You have to try making this. My husband got the idea of making this probably more than a year ago from a coworker. They had a potluck and she brought in "pizza bread." Her version had the regular marinara, cheesy goodness, and pepperoni.  When Doug tried to replicate the pizza bread about a year ago, it came out too doughy in the middle, but we still liked the concept. We just now tried it again, but buffalo style. I was inspired by this recipe on pinterest. It comes from Finding a New life Through Food blogsite. You should check out her original blog on her Buffalo Chicken Garbage Bread.

I had frozen shredded chicken in the freezer that I portion out an use in different recipes. This may not be the healthiest way to use shredded chicken, but it certainly may be the yummiest. Check out the original recipe for her cooking instructions etc. I include mine below.

We used:
Publix makes a great fresh pizza dough in whole wheat and regular. Doug told me he was secretly glad they had run out of whole wheat. (Yeah, right!)
Aldi makes a Light and Fit buffalo ranch dressing. So we used that as our sauce. Probably about 1/2 cup. You could make your own by mixing Franks Hot Sauce into light ranch dressing.
Shredded Chicken
Red Onions (sauteed first to make them nice and sweet)
Blue Cheese Crumbles 
Mozzarella Cheese
more Franks Hot Sauce
Olive Oil for brushing on top of Calzone

We pretty much followed all of the directions in the original reciped but adjusted the ingredients to what we have and what we liked. Personally, I wouldn't use cubed chicken, I think the shredded chicken works better in this application.

Follow directions on pizza dough package and spread out into a rectangle. Spread on buffalo ranch dressing. Don't spread it out all the way to the edges so you can close off the calzone.

Add the ingredients. When you are satisfied, just roll it up and tuck the ends under a bit. We poked a couple of small holes on top to allow the steam a place to vent. We found that the middle stays doughy when the oven temp is too high and it overcooks the rest of it. All ovens are different, mind you, but we tried 400 for 25 minutes. We checked on it at 15 minutes and then 10 minutes later. I cut into it and it seemed possibly doughy. I think it may have just been gooey goodness, but I lowered the oven to 375 for 5 more minutes. Then, took it out to rest so it wouldn't just ooze out all over the place.

Then, Doug and I devoured it. If you are very nice, we will make it for you sometime. ;)

The lighting wasn't that great in the living room, but if I asked Doug if I could take more pictures of this before he could eat it, I would have been in trouble. Trust me, the final product looks and tastes delicious too! 

HJ's haircut

The little baby mullet is gone in 60 seconds... We took Henry to get his first haircut just shy of his first birthday. He has been growing a cute little baby mullet for a couple of months, but we decided to even out his hair. The $5 Snip-its coupon also hurried us up a bit too! ;) We didn't need much trimmed, so we were in and out and he did a great job.

Spring cleaning: The S#@ty fireplace

The Sooty Fireplace

When we moved in here, we thought there could have been a fire. There seemed to be so much soot on the fireplace and walls. We had a home inspector come in, of course, and he assured us that it wasn't smoke from a fire.However, it still looked like it. Get the idea, yet??? Well, we have been here for quite awhile and have done a ton of DIY projects, believe me, but since we have lived here I have finished a master's degree program, worked full-time, and have had two kids all with my husbands love and support. So, when some of my well-meaning relatives have asked if I have tried any cleaners on my sooty fireplace, I kinda shrug and hurriedly move on to another topic. Yes, it has not been the prettiest, but I sure don't have the coin it would take to get it commercially cleaned and haven't really wanted to spend the time I had off, scrubbing a fireplace...But, I kinda wish I had tried it before today.

It was pretty easy! Sure I can barely type now because my hand is so tired from scrubbing, but without spending any additional money, my fireplace hearth is pretty clean. No, it is not completely free from soot, but it is significantly cleaner and I would recommend this to anyone who was dying to spend a couple of hours cleaning, or have well-meaning relatives dropping hints.... ;)

Pretty significant difference I think, and it didn't cost me anything in extra materials. I had everything in my kitchen and garage.

Materials:

Dish soap
Kosher Salt
Wire brush (small one for cleaning grout and big one) I took the wire brush my hubbie uses for the grill.
Baster (the same one you use in the kitchen)
Water
Towels
a couple of rags

How I did it: 

I used dish soap (like Dawn) and Kosher salt and made a paste. It doesn't really matter how thick or thin. The salt is to help clean in the same way you might use an exfoliant on your face. Go ahead and spread it on the area that needs to be clean. Some of it will fall off, that's okay. Place a towel underneath to catch the mess. I used a dark beach towel.

Use your wire brushes to scrub the rock or bricks. Rinse with water. Use the baster to squirt it on. The towel will catch the water and soap/salt mixture. You will need to rinse/repeat scrubbing until you are satisfied. I probably did this for close to an hour. I went back and forth with the two sized brushes and rinsing/repeat combo. Wow! After the rocks dried, I could really see a difference. Hope this inspires you to try it on your sooty brick or stone hearth. :)