Jamie and Poppy's Pizzeria

As regular readers of my little blog will know, around Easter time I realised that I needed to make some huge changes to ensure that I spent more time with my family.  Yesterday was one of the days I dreamed of, when I embarked on my Grand Plan, it was brilliant.  I use to make homemade Pizza's all the time, but again this was something that I simply stopped doing and shop bought ones had become the norm.   Jamie in particular has been wanting to have a go a cooking for ages, earlier this year, he watched Paul Hollywood (swoon...sign) series called Bread and was desperate to have a go, so Pizza's I thought, would be a great idea.

We followed a simple recipe that I had been given at a Bread making evening a few years ago:

500g strong white flour
5ml sea salt
7ml dried yeast
45ml olive oil
330ml water

and you simply mix the flour and salt together, make a well and add the yeast followed by the water and then mix together to form a dough adding the olive oil and if necessary extra flour or water.

The children loved this bit, getting really sticky fingers and then seeing the sticky mixture forming a dough.  We gave Poppy a little help, but Jamie did 99% of the process all by himself, he had clearly been paying attention the the 'Hollywood's' kneading action!  What was even more fabulous, without even realising because they were having so much fun, the children did a bit of maths and science too.

Whilst the dough was left to rise, Andy and Poppy went into town to buy a new paddling pool.  Our old excuse for one had seen better days and the new one is a huge improvement.  Jamie and I meanwhile made the tomato sauce.  I have a set of very sharp knives, so I must admit I was slightly nervous watching him, but he listened and together we chopped up the onion and garlic and with lots of supervision cooked the sauce.

The pizza's were a massive success and pudding, freshly picked raspberries....delicious!!  What a great way to spend quality time as a family, we're definitely going to do it again soon.