Pizza Night

Fridays are pizza and movie night. This has been our family tradition for awhile - even in the States. The only difference in Kenya is that we have to make our pizza from scratch. We have come to love making pizza with the kids. In fact, most of the missionary families here at Tenwek have Friday pizza nights. We often have had "communal pizza nights", where each family brings their own pizza to someone's home and we all get to try each other's pizza combos.

We start with making the pizza dough. Our favorite recipe is a wheat pizza dough which we have shared with you at the end of this blog. Anna and Leo love rolling out the dough. Of course, flour goes everywhere! Sometimes I just have to look the other way. The mess is worth seeing their smiles. Once we roll out the dough, we like to bake it for a few minutes before topping it. This helps prevent a soggy pizza.


Now the crusts are ready to top. This is the creative part. We use whatever we have in the fridge or ready locally. Some of our favorite combos: spinach, caramelized onions, and a drizzle of barbecue sauce/ pepperoni and pineapple (kids' favorite)/ green olives, roasted cauliflower, and chickpeas/ tomatoes, basil, red pepper/ and the list can go on and on. We then bake the pizza only a few minutes to just melt the mozzarella cheese. Yum!


After a belly full of pizza, we usually watch a movie with the kids on our laptop. It does get cozy with four of us huddled around a 15-inch screen, but I can't think of a better way to spend a Friday night!

Friday Night Pizza dough (makes two 12-inch pizzas or three thin crusts)
-3 tsp yeast
-1 1/2 cups warm water
-3 Tbs. olive oil
-1 tsp salt
-2 1/2 cups white flour
-2 cups whole wheat flour
Dissolve the yeast in warm water. Add oil and salt to that mixture. Mix the flours and knead them into the liquid mixture. (It will be sticky.) Cover with towel. Let dough rise for 30 to 40 minutes.