Pizza, Breadsticks, and Scones

I have now successfully thrown three birthday parties without having to deal with a stack of gifts afterward. How? Tell them we're not doing gifts, then throw a pizza party and let the kids watch a movie. Any time left over is easily consumed by the Wii until parents come to collect their charges. They don't even miss the gifts. Although I do confess, we've been working up to this for a while, and my boys are all in their double-digits now.

I think these parties cost me all of $20--$10 for the pizza dough & toppings and $10 for the ice cream and Betty Crocker cake. The kids also don't need a prize bag to take home if they didn't bring anything. Nice.

Here's my recipe for pizza dough, which I originally found in Family Fun magazine. I always triple the batch though.

1 1/4 c warm water
1 T yeast
1 t sugar
2 t olive or veg. oil
1/2 T salt
3 to 3 1/4 c flour

Combine first three ingredients until yeast begins to proof. Add remaining ingredients. Mix & let bread rise. I usually give each of the kids a tennis ball-sized glob and let them pound it out themselves. That's half the fun. And use tomato paste for the sauce. It isn't runny and has a stronger flavor than tomato or spaghetti sauce. Cook the pizzas @ 350 for 12-15 minutes.

This also reminds me about the chuckle I got from my son telling me how the "proper" way to measure flour is to spoon it into the measuring cup and level it off with a metal spatula (not a knife, as it's not completely flat on one side).

Oh sure.

Grab a cupful and dump it in. If the dough is too sticky, you have to keep adding more flour anyway. Bread is not an exact science. You just keep mixing until it looks right and doesn't stick to your hands.

And I always have leftover dough. Sometimes I'll just roll it out onto a cookie sheet, slather butter across the entire surface, and sprinkle with garlic salt, parmesean cheese, and parsley. Then slice into sticks with a knife.

I don't own a deep-fat fryer, so it's only been recently I realized that a deep stockpot works fine for scones. I dump in about an inch of oil and heat it on medium until it begins to bubble a little. Roll out the dough and use a pizza cutter to cut into 2" squares. The thinner the dough, the less chewey it will be inside. The oil should be hot enough to start browning the dough on contact, but not so hot that it melts your favorite unmeltable Pampered Chef cooking spoon. I tend to learn a few things the hard way.