Pizza Fridays:
Favorite Family Food Traditions

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!