Our family made a tradition some time back. It's been so long ago I don't even remember how it got started. Of course, my memory isn't great - it never has been, so that doesn't mean much. lol I do know that we were in Emporia, Kansas when it became an every week thing. My husband was the youth director there and our teens knew that it was "Pizza Night" at the Martin's one night a week.
If something interferes with the particular night we've chosen, we just change the day. It's really not a big deal, but our kids sure do think it is. Of all the years we've been doing it I don't think we've missed a handful of times because the children remind us that "we haven't had pizza night yet" by Saturday.
When we first started I don't recall us making everything from scratch. It was probably a store bought crust and even pizza sauce in a can. (gasp! I forgot to photograph the pizza sauce being made - that's a family secret of seasonings anyway, so I guess it's okay that I didn't turn around and get any images of it.). Now we purchase dry yeast and flour in bulk because all the dough is hand made. It takes time to let it rise. The first image here is just the tepid water mixed with sugar and yeast. That's the first step in our dough. After that we add the salt, olive oil, and flour. That sits for awhile and when we're ready to start the whole ordeal, the convection oven gets set to 400˚, and the process begins.
Now that the kids are older, they get to help with all the cogs. It used to be that my hubby was the dough boy (if he ever reads this, he's going to ask me to change it) and I was the everything else goddess (it's good to be the writer). These days I am the dough goddess and the teens takes on the sauce, cooking the sausage, getting out mozzarella and other ingredients. The pans get sprayed and the flour gets tossed on the counter.
The last pizza night had me standing on a step stool in between rolling dough balls. My sweet daughter had to photograph momma from above and beside. Thanks to my sister-in-law, Crystal, btw, for the monogrammed apron! It will wear out before I ever give it up. Back to my tale; and so I had to make composition instructions about not showing the clean dishes in the dish drain and things. lol Because who has time to do everything?
The interesting thing about pizza night is that it takes an hour to an hour and a half from the pre-heating stage. Often times our day gets away from us and that dough doesn't get touched till 7:30 p.m. Why does it take so long? I don't really know. The average restaurant gets it out in thirty minutes or less - to your door. So, maybe we need to rethink the process. Hmmmm
And your family, do they have any traditions you've started?
PS that baked pizza looks delish, right?! it didn't have any natural light to bask in - that hour and a half later saw the sun go down.
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