April 17, 2011

another grand week.

Hello blog friends! I hope your week was as delightful as ours was. What a great week! Lots of rainy restful days,and some gorgeous sunny ones, too. Ice cream was involved, lots of walks were involved, naps were involved, a new vintage pretty was involved, and a scrumptious niece was involved. I loved this week. I did a 5k on Saturday benefiting OASIS Cincinnati called the Aruna 5k. We raised $27.000 to help free sex slaves in India and stormed the streets of Clifton like a swarm of bees. It was chilly and rainy but it was so worth it!

Waiting for us at the finish line was a goody bag full of coupons including free chipotle. YES. I also decided that Chipotle is best consumed with a clementine IZZE.

YUM.

I drove to Oxford this week and spent a few hours with little miss Caraline, and also got to visit my grandparents. I took Cara outside while it wasn't raining and walked her around in the grass with bare feet. She loved it. She's going to be walking around on her own so soon! I can't believe it. She just points at everything and babbles and laughs to herself. I wish I could get in on her little jokes. I bet she's awfully funny.





I also tried a new recipe this week, and it turned out really yummy! It was turkey sausage pizza pockets that I got from Giada's show on the food network. I LOVE Giada. Like, head over heels. She is awesome. I watched the show and then tried to make the pizza pockets a few days later from memory, so I forgot to add a couple minor things and I made 4 pockets instead of 8. Needless to say they turned out a little doughier than intended, but they were still good! Next time I'll remember to cut the dough into 8 pieces! The arugula in them added a really nice peppery flavor, and the turkey sausage was really good. The cream/parm cheese blend was the best part. SO good. I had some of the mixture left over after I spooned it into the dough, and ate it as a dip on tortilla chips while dinner was cooking. Also yummy. I will probably make it as a dip again!



While at my mom's, she gave the me the cutest little vintage pyrex bowl. She found it at a church rummage sale for super cheap. It's so precious!! It's the perfect size for serving a small appetizer in. Anyone who knows me well knows I love a good vintage pyrex. So pretty.


Today the beard is working hard, so Harlem Jones and I are doing a lot of this:




Here's the recipe for the pizza pockets. I definitely recommend them!
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 ounces Italian turkey sausage
1 cup tightly-packed arugula (about 1 ounce)
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup grated Parmesan, plus 1/4 cup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (13.5-ounce) package of store-bought pizza crust (recommended: Pillsbury)
All-purpose flour, for rolling out pizza dough
1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
1 1/2 cups marinara sauce, store-bought or homemade
Directions
Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a medium-sized, heavy skillet. Add the sausage and cook until crumbled and golden, about 5 minutes. Add the arugula and cook until wilted. Turn off the heat and let cool about 10 minutes. Add the cream cheese, 1/3 cup Parmesan, salt, and pepper and stir to combine. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out the pizza dough on a lightly floured surface to a thin 20 by 12-inch rectangle. Cut the rectangle in half lengthwise. The cut each half into 8 equal rectangles.

Spoon topping onto 1 side of each of the rectangles. Using a pastry brush, brush the edges of the rectangle with egg wash. Close the rectangle of pizza dough over the topping. Use a fork to seal and crimp the edges. Place the pizza pockets onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Brush the top of each pizza pocket with egg wash. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan. Bake until golden, about 15 to 17 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the marinara sauce over low heat in a medium saucepan. Serve the hot pizza pockets with the marinara sauce alongside for dipping.

We used Newman's Own marinara and private selection organic arugula and it was yumtastic. Let me know how you like it!

xoxo.

4 comments:

  1. So great and inspiring to hear so much has been raised to fight sex trafficking! congrats on the 5k, that is awesome :) Also, very cute niece! babies are so fun. Also also, fun vintage pyrex :) which reminds me, WE STILL NEED TO GO TO ATOMIC NUMBER TEN! Forreals. I was actually going to try to go today, but the website implied that they may be closed sunday? I don't know. Anyway, we totally need a vintage store date.

    Aaaand I may need to try that recipe. You know, to brush up on my domestic skills.

    In short, I love this post :)

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  2. I so wish I could get into running....I think I might if I had someone to run with. Running alone sucks! And Clementine Izze is THE best! So so yummy and refreshing!

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  3. ABI! FB me your phone number and we WILL make an Atomic Number Ten date!!

    Alaythea, I made myself an epic playlist on my ipod, otherwise I couldn't do it at all!! Clementine Izze forever!!

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