I Cook It!

"I cook it!" have become the words most used in our home. Little hands grab bowls, spoons, shovels, cups, anything that looks like they could cook with it and they pretend to make food. Their current favorite is to make "birday cake."

Just a hint: If Gracie or Luke ever offer you "birthday cake," never pretend to eat it unless you are prepared to have sand, dirt, or rocks shoved in your face so that you can have another taste.

The other day, a friend of mine, let her daughters make pizza! It got me thinking. Could Gracie and Luke make their own dinner? Can they "cook it"?

So, we decided to try it. Tuesday night, Gracie and Luke made dinner. First, we decided to try and see how well they could follow directions. I pulled out some Pillsbury sugar cookies and we practiced following Papa's instructions about how to put the cookie dough on the cookie sheet. Some of the cookie dough ended up under the couch, but what's cookie making without a little dirt thrown in?

After we stuck our first batch of cookies in the oven, we got started on making pizza. I used some foccacia dough we bought at Fresh N Easy and attempted to spread it as thinly as possible. I put two round pieces on a cookie sheet and delivered it to the Twinsies. One at a time, I brought out the ingredients. I've learned from other projects not to put too many things in front of Gracie and Luke at once. Papa taught them how to spread the sauce with their spoons. Lukie loved the sauce. I think he ate more than he spread on his pizza!

Luckily, I made sure we stripped them of their clothes before I gave them the sauce. About a minute after they finished spreading the sauce on their pizza, Lukie grabbed the bowl and dumped the rest of the sauce on top of both pizzas!

Next came the shredded cheese. I was out of mozzarella, so I improvised with a Colby Jack shredded mix. Gracie and Luke loved grabbing bits of cheese and making a mess with it. Finally, I gave them chunks of chicken and let them spread the pieces all over their pizza. Lukie kept sneaking pieces of chicken. It was kind of a "one for you, two for me" kind of relationship between the pizza and Lukie's mouth!

When they were done making their individual pizzas, I gave them the rest of the dough to make a pizza for Mommy and Daddy.

Pretty soon, Gracie and Luke's pizzas were ready. They did not look very appetizing coming out of the oven.

Papa had to blow them off a bit before handing them over to Gracie and Luke.

But, once I handed them over, they did not last very long!

Picking the chicken and cheese off of the pizza.

Using his tummy as a napkin.

Pizza makes me happy!

They loved their pizza. We are definitely going to have to experiment again!