How My Secret Santa Helped Me Make Dinner

Every year at Christmas, our family does Secret Santa between the "kids". I say "kids" because we're not really "kids" anymore. Most of us are out of college, some are married, and some even have kids of their own! But the tradition stands.

However, the tradition is totally rigged. There are six girls and two boys on my dad's side, and the two boys have always traded until they get each other. They never wanted to buy presents for girls. Then there were the two "older girls" who traded to get each other because "they were in the same stages of life" at that point. Which left Brittany and I to get our twin cousins, Lauren and Alison. It was probably the best deal ever.

I don't know how, but somewhere along the course of our lives, Alison and I both decided to go into dietetics. This was great news to me, because now I not only get to be totally geeky at school, but I can also talk Biochem and Food Science at family gatherings with my cousin. Since we currently have this food obsession, and we are "lucky" enough to get each other as Secret Santas, we both got each other food-related gifts for Christmas.

Which leads me to how I was able to use my present to make dinner.


I was relieved when Josh sent me a text from work (naughty, naughty!) saying that he wanted calzones for dinner. We were planning on having pasta or something, which we have had probably five times since we moved to Iowa. It also meant that I got to use my calzone mold!

To make the dough, I always use the same recipe. By using the bread machine, it allows this process to be pretty mindless, although I am sure you can use the same ingredients and knead it yourself.

Meanwhile, I got busy chopping up veggies and preheating the oven to 425 degrees.

When the dough is all ready, use a rolling pin to flatten a few circles of dough. Place the dough on top of the calzone mold, and fill with all of the toppings you would want on your pizza. Here is what we used:

• Pizza sauce
• Shredded mozzarella cheese
• Green pepper, chopped
• Asparagus, chopped
• Eggplant, thinly sliced

Next, fold it in half and press around the edges to make sure everything will stay in there. You can scrape off the excess dough and roll it into a breadstick!

Arrange it on a cookie sheet, and place in the oven. Let them bake for 20-25 minutes. 

These suckers were huge! I think I ate half of mine and didn't even get to the breadstick. The good thing is, leftover calzones are equally as delicious as their fresh counterparts. Eat up!