Her guys turn kitchen into pizzeria
from Sun-Journal | June 10, 2007With the busy lives that many of us lead, getting a healthy, home-cooked meal on the table can be a challenge. One of my favorite stress-relieving tips is to turn the kitchen over to my husband, Aaron, and our son, Matthew, every Sunday night.
In fact, Sunday night has become family pizza night - with the boys making the pizza from scratch.
I have always had a weakness for pizza, and it was one of my biggest cravings when I was pregnant with my children. So, it’s no coincidence that both of my children love it, too. Our problem is that we like to eat healthy foods and we found that you can’t order a pizza with whole-wheat crust and not a lot of grease. The solution? Make it ourselves.
I make sure that our pantry and refrigerator are always well stocked with pizza ingredients and then I sit back and enjoy the laughter and fun coming from our kitchen. When Aaron tells 3-year-old Matthew it’s time to make the pizza, he immediately stops what he is doing and runs to get his Learning Tower. A great addition to our kitchen furniture,the Learning Tower is an adjustable wooden platform that raises children up to countertop level, so they can get involved in baking and meal preparation. Railings on all four sides guard against slips and falls, unlike my kitchen desk chair that our preschooler always wanted to drag over to the sink.
With Matthew safe in his Learning Tower, he helps Aaron knead the dough. They even flip it up into the air as if they are working in an Italian pizzeria. Then they roll it out together onto the pizza stone and Matthew gets to spread Daddy’s special pizza sauce and all of the toppings onto the dough.
I’ll admit that our kitchen standards might not pass an official food inspection as Matthew has been known to lick a little sauce as he spreads it and to swipe a few black olives before they make it onto the pizza.
While Matthew is finishing up the first pizza, Aaron is often working on the second so we can have plenty of leftovers for lunch. We find that doubling the recipe and saving leftovers helps us eat more meals at home and saves us from running to the nearest fast-food restaurant for weekday lunches.
When I asked Matthew what he likes best about making pizza with Daddy, he said, Olives! I like to eat all the olives that Daddy lets me.”