Pizza Pockets

Oh my oh my. So, as some of you may already know, when I get on a pizza kick, I get a little nuts. Like, "hmmm, i want pizza for dinner. Which means left overs for second dinner, and brekkie!" Then there's usually some left over at lunch too. Which turns into a vicious cycle of pizza for 5-6 meals in a row. You never know what could happen after that.... Sometimething like 5-10 lbs gained in two weeks I'm sure. At any rate, I've dedcided it's much better to make my own nasty pizza in a pocket, than eating those that come with their own "crisping sleeve" from the Grocery Outlet.  I have a quick and nasty recipe for y'all. 

Ingredients:

For the sauce...

Tomato paste (1 6oz can)

White Distilled Vinegar (some)

Sugar (1 tbs) 

Herbs de provence (or a bunch of oregano, thyme, basil, etc)

For the crust...

1 can of nasty Pilsbury biscuits or pizza dough or whatever else nasty dough comes in a can

OR

Make ur own dough; there are a lot of super simple pizza dough recipes online

For the guts... Obviously anything you want; I like the following...

Sausage

Red pepper flakes

Roasted garlic

Broccoli

Mozzarella cheese

Put it all together and what do you get? A pizza pocket for kitty and me!

• Simmer the tomato paste in a saucepan on medium heat and stir in the vinegar, sugar, and herbs to taste. I like to start this about twenty minutes before everything else because the longer it simmers, the better the taste comes out.
• Sautee your choice of nasty meat if you are using any. Browning nicely so as not to contract any sort of e.coli 0157:H7 or whatever the super cool foodborne illness of the day tends to be.
• Preheat oven to 425F.
• Roll out your nasty dough (or really nice homemade dough if you don't have a job and that sort of time is what you have (Rachel)). I like to roll mine out in a nice long rectangle, so when it curls in like dough does, it will end up sort of rounded and then the pocket really does look like a pocket in the end.
• Smear some sauciness onto one half of ur dough, sprinkle with various things - onion powder, garlic flakes, red pepper flakes, boogers, etc - then start stacking on your ingredients. 
• When you're done addings things, smear some more sauciness on the top and sprinkle with cheeziness. Then, carefully fold over the other half of your dough.
• Pinch the sides together all the way around, or make the edges real pretty by smashing with a fork. Stab a few holes in the top so the damn thing doesn't explode. Bake on a cornmeal covered cookie sheet for ~ 20 minutes give or take, at 400F (you preheated to 425F, so the dough will get a super nice hotflash, which I believe seals it very nicely, then bakes it slower so all the insides get hot too, but what do I know.)
  
• Remove from oven when top is golden brown and delicious looking - or when you're so hungry or drunk you can't stand it anymore. Be very very careful, as nasty meat and sauce ingredients inside are explosively hot.

Pastries

The other day, something happened to my parents' fridge and everything ended up defrosted. So it was up to me to forage through the remains and make edible products (my dad and my sister would never be up for that task). For some unknown reason, my mom was storing enough puff pastry in the freezer to make a puff pastry castle. I made spanakopita last night, and then made pastries this morning. It was super easy! I popped the puff pastry cups in the oven according to directions on the package. Meanwhile I cooked down some blueberries (also defrosted from the broken fridge) on the stove. I just put them on low heat and added absolutely nothing. When the pastry cups emerged from the oven, I spooned pastry cream (made in the microwave yesterday- again, super easy) and blueberry into the cups. There you go! Pastries.

I've also been on a cupcake binge, as you can tell from the picture. On Wednesday, I made blueberry cupcakes and on Thursday chocolate cupcakes. Now I am contemplating buying one of those ridiculous cupcake-carrier-thingies just so I can spread cupcakes to the world (and get less fat by feeding my creations to other people instead of eating them ALL). For the greater good :)