Mandy's Bytes: Homemade Pizza Rolls

Anybody who likes those frozen Pizza Rolls as much as I do will love today's recipe. Sure, it does take a little more time and effort than microwaving a plate of frozen goods, but I think it's worth the quality difference. There's not really a strict ingredient list for these but you'll need:

Pizza Rolls:
- Pillsbury or any generic brand pizza dough,the kind in a can
- Pizza or marinara sauce
- Your choice of shredded cheese and "toppings"
- Egg white for glaze (optional)
We used some cheddar and Monterrey jack, Canadian bacon and pepperoni.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and get your bakeware ready, you can spread them out on a cookie sheet if you like, but I prefer using a glass pie dish, you could probably also use a standard round cake pan.

Spraying the dish with cooking spray and sprinkling bread crumbs or corn meal on the bottom makes it a lot easier to get them out when they are done baking.

Cami's cat Calypso was particularity interested in the piles of pepperoni...

Unroll the can of pizza dough and cut it into squares, three by four ways works pretty well to make 12 good sized rolls from each can of dough. Spread about a half a spoonful of sauce onto the square of dough, then sprinkle cheese on top, add toppings, and finish it off with more cheese. Bring together the corners of the dough and pinch them shut.

Once you have the contents well contained in the dough, line them up on your baking sheet or pie dish. At this point there's lots of options for additional seasoning or decoration. We used egg white to glaze the rolls and sprinkled some basil on top, you can also top with cheese or other spices.

When you bake them just follow the baking instructions on your dough. We baked these at 400 degrees for 15 minutes and they came out nice and golden brown.

Serve them up with the extra pizza sauce, marinara, ranch, or whatever your favorite pizza dipping sauce is. These are quick and easy, and do not survive uneaten for very long once they've cooled.

Organization and Inspiration

To celebrate the end of Cami's perpetual busyness (Pharmacy rotations) we spent some time cleaning out our workspace and re-organizing our fabric stash to get some inspiration. Here are a few of the sets of fabric we paired together.

 

Vintage Floral Linens, Sage Polka Dot, and Yellow Floral Print

Violet Floral Print, Lavender and Yellow Up-Cycled Linens

Up-Cycled Linens in Circle Print, Yellow and Green

Vintage Floral Fabric, Yellow and Green Up-Cycled Linens

Green and Red Floral, Cream Linen-look Cotton, and Green Up-Cycled Linens

Jenny, who runs the Etsy shop A Bird in the Hand Art, has also used this fabric in some beautiful fabric decoupage jewelry. I guess great minds think alike at the fabric store.

Striped Canvas, Sage Polka Dot, and Up-Cycled Aqua Linens

Our Black and White Collection

Up-cycled Aqua and Lime Linens, and Yarn Skein Print Cotton

The last is what really caught our eye as the project to take on for the day. So we set to work with the help of Cami's cats Kermit, who watched over the work table, keeping us on task.

Kermit, Productivity Manager

We also had the assistance of Calypso, who makes sure our scraps and thread clippings are properly disposed of.

Calypso, Head of Waste Management

I managed to get photographs of the finished product today in a tiny window of good weather, before the rain started up again.

Knitter's Dream in Aqua and Green

We hope you enjoyed the sneak peak into our stash, which combination is your favorite?

Philosophical Felines

Anyone else out there who runs an Etsy shop knows that it's not always an easy task. Sometimes life doesn't allow the extra time required to keep up with our creative duties. Along with that comes that sneaking sense of artistic guilt. Are we letting our followers down by not posting new aprons this week? How can they go on without another recipe to try? But the ones who really understand the situation best, are our pets, cats specifically.

Anyone who owns a cat knows, that they really have the right view of life. Wake up, eat, play, nap, lounge in the sun, eat, nap, and so forth. They really keep you grounded, and teach you to not get be so hard on yourself. So to make up for the lack of blog posts this last week, and to give due diligence to my own kitty counterparts, this post is to introduce my wonderful kitties.

 First in order of ownership is Lily, she is a sassy no nonsense tuxedo cat. As you can see here one of her favorite hobbies is applying a hefty layer of fresh fur to any newly washed clothes, and anything left out in the open. Her favorite napping spot is this shelf on my bookcase where I keep clean (at least before she gets to them) towels. Lily's other activities include absconding with any hair ties she can find, and chasing Jupiter around the apartment like a bat out of hell. Which brings us to my other awesome kitty, Jupiter.

Jupiter is a total stud muffin, I adopted him from a local shelter called Animal Talk, and when I saw him I instantly fell in love with his no-tail and clipped ear. He likes to pretend that he's a tough kitty but really he's a teddy bear and loves to spoon with Lily. These two are my moral support and my non-pharmaceutical blood pressure medication.

Along with kitty cuddles, one of my other relaxation techniques recently has been making treasuries, including my submission for this weeks Treasury NonTeam Challenge. My treasury this week is titled "Sunrise, Sunset" and features the bold warm colors of the spring sun.