Spicy Italian Beef Sandwiches

3 lbs. Top round sirloin roast

3 Bell peppers diced, (1 green, 1 yellow, 1 red)

1 medium sweet onion, diced
2 fresh jalapenos, diced (according to taste)
2 Tablespoons Shirley J Pizza Spice
2 Tablespoons Shirley J Beef Broth
2 Tablespoons Shirley J. Onion Seasoning
1 cup water
Salt and pepper to taste


Soft rolls or buns
Provolone cheese

Directions:

Place first 9 ingredients in a crock pot.
Add water to make a broth in the crock pot and turn on Hi for 1 hour and then on low for 10 hours. With 2 forks shred meat.
Place a serving on the roll, top it with cheese and melt a bit. I added extra peppers and jalapenos to make it look more colorful.

We actually put the meat on the grill to warm it, moistening with a little water, if needed, placed the cheese on top and let it melt, then added whatever veggies people preferred. (This picture shows peppers, onions and mushrooms.)

They were a huge hit and very tasty.
The key is knowing that you must cook your meat the day before as it takes so long. You can even freeze it if you want and thaw the day of your party.
This sandwich is to be served piping hot.

Macey's has a great sandwich, "Italian Beef Sandwiches" and I wanted to modify it, using Shirley J Products. If you like the "Italian Place" you will love this sandwich.

Manicotti

1 pkg. Manicotti noodles

Filling:
1 (15oz. container) fat-free cottage cheese
2 cups shredded mozarella cheese
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
2 Tablespoons parsley
1/3 cup bread crumbs
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
Stir gently, to combine

1 (28.oz) jar spaghetti sauce

Cook pasta. Cool. Take filling and spoon into noodles. (This can be done with a regular dinner spoon.)
Spread a thin layer of spaghetti sauce on the bottom of pan. Arrange pasta in a 13x9 inch pan. Pour remaining sauce over pasta.
You may sprinkle additional mozarella cheese, and Parmesan over the top of pasta sauce.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Remove foil for an additional 5 minutes to melt cheese on top.

Saturday morning is a great time to get your Sunday dinner going. Your kids are all working and so are you, only in the kitchen, not the play room. I usually under cook my pasta by a few minutes, because it can be hard to work with if your pasta is too soft.

I use cottage cheese instead of ricotta because I found the ricotta was too strong for my family. Manicotti is a great dish, because it looks fancy and tastes so much better than spaghetti.
 

Calzones

3 Tablespoons active dry yeast

3 cups warm water
3 Tablespoons sugar

Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water in a stand mixer using dough hooks (Bosch or KitchenAid).
When you see action and yeast has bubbled then...

Add:
2 Tablespoons honey
6 Tablespoons oil
1 Tablespoon salt
3 cups flour (plus additional flour, up to 3 cups)

After you have stirred in honey, oil, and salt, add 3 cups flour (pluse additional flour if necessary) and beat until smooth, 5 minutes.
Mix in enough flour to make dough easy to handle and watch to see it begin to pull away from sides.  When dough starts to pull away from bowl and you hear your mixer gear down, you are ready.

Place in a greased bowl then rotate greased side up. Cover and let rise until double in bulk, about 30 minutes.  Punch dough down, then let rise again for another 30 minutes to make a light and fluffy dough.


dough rolled out

Prepare dough:
Punch down dough and divide into 8-10 equal parts.
Place on a lightly floured surface.
Roll each part into a 7" circle.

On one half of the dough place:
Toppings of your choice:



yummy example

Here's an example:
1 can tomato sauce mixed with 1 Tablespoon Shirley J pizza seasoning
mozarella cheese
peppers
ham
pineapple
olives
Fold empty half over top of toppings.  Pinch edges to seal.

Place calzones on cookie sheet sprayed with Pam.



ready for egg wash

Brush calzones with egg wash.
(egg wash is an egg beaten in a small bowl)
A neighbor just called to say that without a pastry
brush the egg wash is impossible to place. So do
get one of these handy tools.



ready to eat



Let dough rest for 15 minutes.
Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.



This will make 8-10 big calzones.

The original recipe is from Laura Sparks from the good ol' Idaho cookbook.  I have tripled the recipe as it never makes enough for our family of six.  We just had these for our special Valentines dinner tonight. I usually make extra and freeze for later occasions. This is a family favorite.

I basically just added honey to her recipe.  Her original is for 4 calzones and looks like this.

1 pkg. dry yeast

1 cup warm water

1 Tablespoon sugar

2 Tablespoons oil

1 tsp. salt

2 3/4 cup flour to 3 1/4 cup flour.

Putting in too much flour will make your Calzones tough and hard to work with.  I put the three cups of flour in the mixer, then add flour until I see it pull away from the sides and start to look like dough.  I do not measure this but I make sure it is not more than an additional three cups, if that makes sense.  It's usually one to two cups.

Calzones are  a lot of work.  If I were making them tonight, I would start my dough at 3:00 p.m.  Punch down twice and by 4:00 I am ready to start rolling out dough and getting them ready.  They rest for 15 minutes on the cookie sheet and I'm usually ready to start baking at 5:00p.m.  They do take time, but I think they are worth it.