Book 15: Easy Kids' Party Food - Woman's Day

I think the funniest thing we do in my household is to cook together.  I say funniest and not fun because its only afterwards that I can look at it in a funny way.  The problem with anyone cooking with me, is my territorial control freak comes rearing to the surface.  Don't get me wrong its never far from the surface but when ever anyone steps into my kitchen it rears its ugly head more than usual.  I try really hard not to be a control freak (so lying!), but when it comes to my kitchen (and most other things) I'm like a crocodile in a pond, I come out snapping!  Its really not intentional, I do like having people in my kitchen, feel free to come and watch me cook anytime (although I do get distracted) just don't give me advise and don't try to help!  If you ask if you can help me and I say no, I seriously mean no (in the nicest possible way)!  I'm not just trying to be nice, I have everything under control and even if the stove is on fire, I've got it.  So when the kids step into the kitchen (metaphorically, they are on stools on the other side of the bench) it tends to go down hill quickly.  I love cooking with my children, they are the biggest joy in my life (queue the violins) and such brilliant kids that doing anything with them is fun (except going to the supermarket, don't do that!).  The problem is I'm set in my ways, what ever I'm cooking I have it in my head how we are going to make it and what its going to look like.  Unfortunately children in their 2's and 4's have their own ideas on how its going to go down, these don't always mesh with mine.  Our biggest issue seems to lie with the quantity of ingredients, I want to use it in the recipe, Sam and Charli on the other hand think it should be eaten now.  Today's recipe is a great example, we had twice the amount of ingredients required, in some cases like cheese we had four times the required amount.  Still, at the end of the cooking process we had no cheese left, noses missing on most pizzas and the hair had disappeared.  I think its hilarious that Sam yells at Charli for eating anything, apparently its for the cooking, whilst managing to shovel handfuls of cheese into his gob.  Poor Charli loves cooking, she gets so excited whenever she gets to help and generally she is quite helpful.  She can crack eggs like its nobodies business and its very good at cutting things up.  But she also likes to do everything and know exactly what we are doing every step of the way, sometimes I can only say I'm folding the ingredients so many times before my head rotates 360c and explodes...  One awesome thing with cooking with kids is that if something doesn't turn out right or is a bit messy I just explain that the kids helped...  even if they haven't!!  :)


I found my camera, YAY!!

Recipe - Pizza Faces
makes 4

2 small prepared pizza bases
1/2 cup tomato pasta sauce
1 cup grated pizza cheese
8 stuffed olives (for eyes)
4 slices kabana (for noses)
4 slices of red capsicum (for mouths)
8 slices button mushrooms (for ears)
1/3 cup chopped rindless bacon (for hair)

Preheat oven to hot, 200c.  Line an oven tray with baking paper.  Cut 2 x 12cm rounds for each   pizza bases.
Spread each round with pasta sauce.  Place on prepared tray.  Sprinkle with cheese.
Arrange ingredients on bases to make faces.  Bake for 5-10 minutes until golden and the bases are crisp.

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Charli making her first pizza

This is a fun little book, as the title suggests its full of kids party food ideas and some of them are brilliant.  There are so many kids party books around now, that you tend to find duplicate recipes in all of them.  This book is quite original and the recipes are easy to follow and make.


This recipe is ok, we used WAY to much cheese on ours (I was trying to beat Sam) and some of the topping slid off the sides.  But they are very cute and when they weren't eating the ingredients the kids had a great time putting them together.  I would recommend cooking them longer than suggested as they were still a bit soft.  But otherwise, we will make them again, although I'll make my own bases next time as paying $6.99 for 2 medium bases annoyed me (I've been living with Matt to long).  All in all this is the simplest thing I've cooked so far in my challenge and its been kinda nice...... now on to something a little more complicated :P
Thanks
Kate
xx

If you are having trouble commenting, make sure you preview your comment before posting otherwise it doesn't seem to work.... feel free to comment when ever you like, bad, good I'm happy to hear from you and would love to know if making any sense cos have no idea what I'm doing :)

Not much pizza making going on!