Even before our granddaughter Julia was able to walk; her love for all animals was evident. We have pictures of her when she was less than 6 months old, sitting in a box with her grandma Bubbie’s dog who was giving birth to a litter of puppies at the time. The look on her face was one of pure love – she was at one with those pups! In addition to the family pets, a German wire-haired dog named Ophelia and a really fat cat named Smithers, she is the proud “mother” of 5 chickens, 5 ducks, 2 guinea pigs and 2 rabbits, all of which she lovingly cares for and feeds. She takes after her grandma Bubbie who loves all animals and has taught Julia about the responsibility of having pets. I still cringe when I think of the day that Julia, who was about three years old, was showing me how she feeds her guinea pigs. Before I knew what she was doing, she had the cage open; guinea pig cradled in both her hands and was stretching her arms up toward me, asking me if I wanted to hold him. Well, my daughter-in-law Kim probably noticed the blood drain from my face as I fumbled for a reason to say no. “Ammie Lin can see him better if I hold him,” Kim said. We laugh about it now, but I didn’t think it was funny at the time. I love dogs, but I keep any other creatures at arm’s length, not really understanding my unrealistic fears. I read stories to Julia about animals, we sing songs together about animals, but that’s as far as I can go with it. She is 5 years old now and I can still see her as a little bit of a thing singing “Old MacDonald”….she knew every animal sound before she could even put a sentence together. While you are preparing this pizza with your children, encourage them to sing a few verses of that wonderful old song being sure to sing about the toppings - with an oink, oink here and a cluck, cluck there.....E-I-E-I-O!!!
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| Julia's Barnyard Pizza |
Julia’s Barnyard Pizza is easy to make and great fun to eat. The ‘big kid’ in our household, Charlie, loves having an entire breakfast on one piece of pizza. I tested this pizza a while ago and decided to write about it when I received the picture of Julia and one of her chickens that was taken this Easter. If you notice, in the story I said she was 5 years old and now she is nearly 7….time is passing way too quickly and I have been working on this book way too long!
To make this pizza, simply cut some breakfast sausage links into small pieces, sauté about two cups of frozen shredded potatoes until nearly done, stretch and shape your pizza dough and you are ready to assemble the pizza. Spread the dough with a thin layer of tomato sauce (Hunt’s works well). Sprinkle on some shredded cheddar cheese and, using tongs, make four ‘haystacks’ out of the pre-cooked potatoes and, using the back of a spoon, make a well in the top of each haystack. Scatter sausages around the potatoes and bake in a very hot oven for about 5 minutes; remove from oven and carefully slide one egg into the well on each of the four haystacks. Top with more cheddar and bake for about 7 minutes longer or until eggs are set and crust is golden. Another option is to cook the eggs separately and place on pizza after it is baked.
The first time I tested this pizza, I placed the raw eggs into the potato ‘haystack’ wells before placing it on the hot stone in my gas grill. It looked quite beautiful and I was so proud thinking that this was a winner and I would not even have to revise the recipe. Well, that was a short lived dream. I opened the grill and deftly jerked my pizza peel to position the pizza on the hot stone and to my horror – thunk, thunk, thunk, and thunk! Each of the four eggs kept going after the dough stopped in its place on the stone. Oh yes, now I remember something I learned long ago about an object in motion. What a mess – eggs everywhere. I quickly scooped them back into their wells, which were clearly not deep enough and baked the pizza for which I had already lost my appetite. Of course, that didn’t stop me from eating it. After finishing it with a nice squirt of ketchup, salt and pepper, I cut it into four pieces and the real fun began. We folded the crust around the sausage, potatoes, egg and cheese and we experienced a taste more remarkable than any breakfast sandwich we had ever eaten.
The second testing of the pizza was considerably more successful. Pre-baking the pizza for 5 minutes helps the crust to firm up so you can just slide it off the pizza peel when placing it back onto the stone for the remaining baking time. So, not to worry about flying eggs if you try this pizza, just remember to pre-bake and enjoy the process.
You will find the complete recipe for Julia's Barnyard Pizza in Pizza Memoirs.
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