Stromboli

My mom has always been good at feeding a lot of mouths with bottomless pits as stomaches.  An individual stromboli for 7 people could become time consuming, don't ya think? So, why not just make one gigantic one? Hence, this recipe.

I've watched my mom make this stromboli probably a hundred times, and I've made it at least 20 times. Never has it been difficult. Until I watched her do it today. The dough was impossible to work with, but we managed. She blames the fact that I was taking pictures. It was too much pressure, she said. I blame the humidity. When something doesn't turn out, I always blame the weather/environment. If my cookies are flat..it's the humidity. If my dough doesn't rise, it's the humidity. It would never have anything to do with my abilities. No, never.

What you need: cheese and lots of it (mozzarella, brick and provolone), ham, sandwich pepperoni, green peppers, onions and betty crocker pizza crust

Prepare the dough as stated on package (just add water) and let rise. Once it has at least doubled in size you want to take 1 package of the dough and stretch and pull until it is about the size of a cookie sheet.

Add lots and lots of cheese, Id say about 3 cups, mixing the different kinds. Then add green peppers and onions, as you can see not all of us like them, so it's only on half. Then add sliced ham and the pepperoni.

Add more cheese, roughly another 3 cups of the mixtures. I know, it's a lot of cheese. Honestly, add as much or as little as you want.

Here is where things got a little 'sticky' for us today. You want to roll out the remaining dough (the second package) to the same size as the bottom layer. Roll it out on wax paper so you can lay it on top to judge and easily transfer it to the stromboli. Normally this works very well. You roll it out, lay it on top and just pull the wax paper off. Today it wouldn't roll out as large as needed. We struggled and struggled. Eventually got it there, laid it on top and tried pulling it off the wax paper. It was a no go. It ripped into pieces. We left the remaining pieces on top, made another package of the dough and then layered it on top in patches. Just like if you were patching a pair of pants. Luckily the dough was very sticky and it worked rather well.

TADA! Yeah, not the prettiest. It is tasty though.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 mins or until crust is golden brown. After removing, let cool for 10 mins before cutting so the cheese has a chance to set. Then cut into pieces. Makes roughly 10 pieces.

Stromboli

2 c brick cheese, grated

2 c provolone cheese, grated

2 c mozzarella cheese, grated

1 green pepper

1 medium onion

6-10 slices of sliced ham

15 slices sandwich pepperoni

2-3 packages betty crocker pizza crust