Be careful taking the pan out of the oven; use oven mitts!
By Sarah Wilson, blogger behind The Wandering Rumpus
In our family, we place a huge focus on food — preparing it, sharing it, celebrating it and trying new things. I often think about what my own girls will cherish as family food traditions. What will they remember about eating and preparing food with the same comfort and fondness?
I recently got into a wonderful conversation with friends about our family food traditions or the best meals we had growing up. The answers brought about smiles and laughter around eating meals as a family, helping parents or grandparents prepare a special dish, and even some family meal failures.
Then, I brought the question up on social media and the responses from friends and family were overwhelming in the best way. Some shared holiday meals and traditions and others shared everyday meals they loved, but ALL memories brought smells, feelings, comfort, and family to mind. Here are just some of the answers:
Sunday Night Pot Roast with Veggies
Christmas Eve Gumbo
Egg Casserole for Easter
Low Country Boil at “the annual beach trip”
PotLuck Holiday Meals wherein everyone brings their best dish to share
Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting to celebrate or to mourn
My mom’s Guay Tiew (Thai: ก๋วยเตี๋ยว) soup or Tom Yum and gathering around the coffee table or on the mat on the floor in front of the TV watching Thai dramas
Picking crabs in Baltimore with cousins
My mother made lemon meringue pie every Sunday for after church lunch. We called it Sunday Pie, of course
Whenever we were sick grandma always made chicken noodle soup from scratch
Tamales, enchiladas, beans, rice, & sopapillas for Christmas Eve
So, of course, when I asked my daughters about their favorite family food traditions, Friday Pizza was top of the list for all three girls. My husband, Brad, has perfected his homemade pizza dough. He mixes it on Friday morning before work and then when he gets home, he loves preparing pizzas for his crew (and our friends sometimes). Often the kids help — roll out the dough, grate the cheese, top the pizza. Simple tasks performed at the end of the week — every Friday — after a long week or work, school, camps or play.
In fact, Friday night pizza has become sacred in our house. My girls do not like to go out to dinner or have evening plans on Fridays because they’ll miss the pizza. All three prefer cheese with garlic salt on the crust. He makes theirs first, and then we make a creative “adult” pizza for us — maybe peach, goat cheese and prosciutto, maybe a traditional margharita or Italian sausage and every cheese we can find…frequently with a fresh egg cracked on top from our chickens out back. Sometimes the girls will sneak a piece of the adult pizza too.
I love our Friday family food tradition and dream that one day the girls will create this tradition with their own families. Or else they’ll bring their families home to us for Pizza Fridays, ha!
What are your family food traditions and memories? Please share with us @TasteQuestHQ!
And if you want to start a homemade pizza Friday tradition, here’s an easy recipe!
Making pizza at home can be messy, but it’s one of the best projects in our experience for getting a kid hooked on cooking. It is a perfect opportunity for a kid to customize their meal and maybe even try some new ingredients.
Enhance the experience by…
There is nothing better than homemade pizza dough, and this recipe can create the most amazing pizza. If you love pizza and want to enjoy it fresh this week, give this a try!
Ingredients:
500g (about 4.25 cups) strong white bread flour (we also use a mixture of wheat sometimes)
7g (about ½ Tablespoon) dried active yeast
325 ml (about 1.25 cups) lukewarm water
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
Preparation:
To start, add the sugar to your lukewarm water and add in yeast. After 5-10 minutes the yeast will be foaming and growing.
Once yeast is ready, pour it into a bowl containing the flour and salt. Mix together with the end of a knife until it begins to come together. Turn out onto a floured work surface.
Set a timer, and knead the bread for 10 minutes. It is important to do this for the whole 10 minutes to gain the strength in the gluten.
Once kneaded, roll into a ball and place in an oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise for 1-2 hours.
Once risen, punch the dough, turn out onto a floured surface and split into 4 pizzas. At this point you can freeze any dough you don’t want to use yet.
Preheat the oven to 450F, and preheat your pizza stone (or pan). Roll out the dough, place on the pizza tray and top with sauce and toppings, and bake until bubbly.