Pizza Night!

Before food allergies entered our world homemade pizza was a treat we enjoyed as a family fairly regularly. When we have had it in the last year or so I have given Katherine some alternate meal, since there is a lot about pizza that Katherine can't eat (milk, soy, wheat, egg and peanut are our allergy set). As she's gotten older she's obviously more aware of what we are eating and is ever desirous of our food. I often try to cook so that her foods are similar to ours, if not the exact same as ours. A cute thing she says lately: "We have to buy(or make) some ____________ for me," (with big expectant eyebrows raised) as if there is a readily available milk/soy/wheat/egg/nut free version of everything.

In particular she has shown some interest in pizza lately so this week I decided that I would attempt homemade pizza for all! I made our usual crust (in the bread machine with wheat flour) for the non-allergics and made a special crust for Katherine out of rice flour, potato flour, and tapioca starch (and obviously oil, water, yeast, sugar, salt). I found this recipe from a website for parents of kids with food allergies. (In fact, I've gotten lots of recipes there.) I must admit to quite a bit of skepticism as I assembled her 'dough'... it didn't look or feel like any yeast dough I've ever made! And despite the fact that yeast was an ingredient the instructions called for cooking it right away, with no rising time.

Well, in the end, as always, it is not how I perceive the food, but how Katherine does that matters. I have to constantly remind myself that she does not have the food history I do and therefore isn't missing the yummy crust and mozzarella cheese! I topped her crust with tomato sauce, Canadian bacon, pineapple, mushrooms and her special rice cheese.


Then I presented it to her...















She loved it!! She was so cute eating it. About halfway through the second piece (of three!) she said, "Dis is so yummy."

Truthfully I'll probably experiment with another recipe for the crust but for today I was happy to see her enjoying pizza with the rest of us!
















In the meantime, big sister helped roll out her dough ball and assemble the toppings (heavy on the cheese - ha!) for her pizza. Here she is enjoying hers too: