Saturday 1 October 2016

A Recipe for Disaster


 

I have rather a love-hate relationship with pizzas. A little like the Marmite conundrum. I love the fact that it can be all things to all people and, really, anything goes. (Not pineapple, though, in my opinion.) It can be as healthy or as indulgent as you like. (I recently came across a rather luxurious recipe which included white truffles.) Most importantly, though, it is a food which most, if not all, children like mainly because of its versatility. I have always made pizzas with the little ones as it is both sensorial and productive at the same time. I adore the extremely proud faces stood in the doorway as I remove them from the oven and the excited:-


“That’s mine…..I made that……all by myself!”


So why the love-hate thing?
I have had a few sticky (pardon the pun) situations with pizza dough. I mentioned its versatility and how much children get out of playing with it. (In fact, I regularly use pizza dough for children to use with as they wish as it has a great elasticity and is fantastic for practicing stretching and pulling.)

Have you seen the expert Italian chefs and how they make bases? Lots of twirling and throwing up in the air. We watched a video demonstrating this quite recently.  I can honestly say the throwing-it-up-in-the-air bit was the highlight.  The first thing the 3 year old did was lob a large piece upwards with all she could muster. So hard was it thrown, in fact, that a large particularly sticky piece caught on the ceiling and then began slowly reaching down determined to comply with gravity. In fact it became a bit of a celebrity.  My own children were treated to a guided tour of my ceiling where we also spotted a cobweb and a couple of spiders thrown in as an added attraction. Before taking the decision to start charging for this new site of not-so-historical interest, I did actually remove it.  This was much to the annoyance of the children one of whom stood beneath it, dish in hand, at several intervals during the course of the day, hoping it would eventually drop. (And you thought this sort of thing only happened on Pancake Day.)

Pizza dough also took centre stage at my last Ofsted inspection when, stifling chuckles, the inspector watched as one of my then 2 year olds began using it for racket ball practice and flung it at all 4 corners of my garden.  She, later, worriedly asked me what I was “now going to do with the dough?”

“I am not making it into pizza, if that’s what you’re thinking,”

I hurriedly replied whilst thinking; I bet Jamie Oliver never has this problem.

It has also caused a local MP to leave my home a little earlier than anticipated when he posed for a photo with 2 of the children and one of them used his trousers as a towel after dusting the dough with flour.

I went shopping earlier and looked at the pizza displays in the local supermarket with their humongous amounts of cheese, meagre doses of vegetables and thin, sickly coloured bases.  These are the pizzas I really don’t like.  I left them well alone and proceeded to the aisle with the bread flour and the yeast wondering what the children would conjure up at my next pizza fest…..and whether I should contact Jamie Oliver to uncover his pizza etiquette.






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7 comments:

  1. Food on the ceiling is a nightmare. In a newborn fog I put some eggs on to boil and promptly forgot about them. I remembered when it sounded like world war three was breaking out in the kitchen. The eggs exploded over every surface including the ceiling! Thanks for linking up to #FridayFrolics

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    1. Eggs are dangerous! Still have a scar after an egg exploded on leaving the microwave.

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  2. My son loves making homemade pizzas, I have to admit though I've never been brave enough to hand the dough over, he's just in charge of the toppings. Dough has to be one of the worst things to clean up ever!
    #PoCoLo

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  3. Oh we have tried making pizza but like you it ended up being flung into the far corners of the room. Now I cheat and buy ready made pizza bases ;-) #FridayFrolics

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  4. Still love dough despite previous problems. Very therapeutic to work with.

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  5. Cannot do pizza dough drives me nuts! We buy the pre-made bases and then 'make' home made pizzas #cheat #stayclassymama

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  6. Haha - pizza dough is building up quite the professional contacts list round your way! Haven't braved pizza making with two toddlers yet (done it with just one), but probably will one day!

    Thanks so much for joining us on #FridayFrolics. Hope to see you next time.

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