Pizza Pockets

When John & his dad were busy building the fence, I paid the "help" with warm lunches every weekend. After awhile I needed to get creative. I cam up with these "Pizza Pockets" after remembering Meredith's Taco Puffs.

I sauteed sausage, onions and garlic as the filling.

The outside was just a canned biscuit that I flattened out.

Layer on the filling, sauce and cheese. Make sure to not over fill the biscuit, and leave empty space around the edges.

My canned sauce that I made this summer.

 Fold the biscuit in half and seal the edges with a fork.

 Load onto pan.

Bake and eat! Just bake these until the turn golden.. the meat is already cooked and you are just melting the cheese and browning the biscuit!

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Pizza Cup Things

This recipe was straight up made up. I derived it from a dip recipe of Rachael Ray's that I loved. We were going to a party, so I wanted something portable. Thus, the birth of the Pizza Cup Things.


Pizza Cup Things
Samantha @ The Long Haul

1 medium onion, chopped finely
1 lb bulk sweet Italian sausage
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 .5 bricks of cream cheese (12 oz?), room temperature (I used low-fat)
1/2 cup of shredded parmesan cheese
3/4 cup of tomato sauce
2 cans of refrigerated crescent rolls
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese

1- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2- Saute the sausage over medium heat, breaking it up into pieces as it cooks. Once the sausage is no longer pink and there is a bit of fat in the pan, add the onions and garlic. Continue cooking, stirring periodically, until the onions are translucent.

3- While the meat combination is cooking, spray 2 (24 cup) mini-muffin tins w/baking spray. Pop the crescent rolls cans open and break off pieces of the dough. Press the dough into the muffin tins and push up the sides to make a cup. I found it easiest to roll the dough into a ball first, approximately 1 inch in diameter, before pushing it into the cups.

4- Put the muffin tins into the oven for 3 minutes. The dough should puff up, but not change colors.

5- When you take the tins out of the oven, immediately use your thumb (or a spoon if the dough is too hot) to press the puffed-up dough back into a cup, the put aside. This first bake helps them hold their shape.

6- Put the cream cheese into a large mixing bowl. Add the sausage mixture. Stir to combine well. Once thoroughly combined, add parmesan cheese and tomato sauce. Stir to combine.

7- Scoop the cream cheese mixture into the dough cups (still in the muffin pan). You can mound them a bit on the top, but make sure you have enough for all of the cups first.

8- Garnish each filled cup with a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese.

9- Put the muffin tins back into the oven. Bake for approximately 10 minutes, or until the mozzarella on top gets melty and gooey.

10- Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Once they are cool to the touch, pull the Pizza Cup Things out of the tins. These taste equally delicious warm and room temperature.

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Margherita Pizza

This was wicked good. I pretty much call it Margherita pizza just because it doesn't use tomato sauce- only tomatoes. It should have fresh mozzarella on it, but I didn't feel like spending the money on that, plus we had a couple of opened bags of shredded to use up from the freezer.


Margherita Pizza

Quick, Easy Dough:
1 tbsp active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

-Dissolve the yeast into the water.
-While the yeast is dissolving, mix together the rest of the ingredients.
-After the yeast is dissolved, add it to the flour mixture.
-Combine thoroughly.

I do this in the stand mixer, so I mix the ingredients and then put on the dough hook for a few minutes. Before I got the mixer, I stirred this all by hand and the dough was good, but a little lumpy and not combined as well.

The Pizza:
Dough
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 cups shredded 2% mozzarella
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp garlic powder

-Spread your dough out onto a pizza stone (a cookie sheet works just as well).
-On top of the dough, spread the diced tomatoes. Top with the cheese.
-Sprinkle on the basil, pepper and garlic powder.
-Put the pizza in an oven preheated to 375 degrees. Bake about 15 minutes or until the cheese is melty. I usually go by Rachael's "The nose knows!"


Obviously this pizza utilizes ingredients that we always have on hand, but could be made fresher by using fresh diced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, etc. Too bad. This was good anyway.

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