Family Meal Plan: Mug-nificent Microwave Pizza + Cool Caesar Salad for One + Italian Peachy-Keen Cream Soda

Mug-nificent Microwave Pizza

Happy & Healthy Cooking,

Fun-Da-Mentals Kitchen Skills

• chop :

  to cut something into small, rough pieces using a blade.

• dice :

  to cut foods into small pieces of equal size so that the food is cooked evenly or looks uniform and pleasant when used in the recipe.

• drizzle :

  to trickle a thin stream of a liquid ingredient, like icing or sauce, over food.

• dust :

  to lightly cover food with a powdered or granulated ingredient, like flour or sugar.

• knead :

  to work dough by pushing, pulling, and folding it by hand or with a stand mixer.

• knife skills :

  Bear Claw (growl), Pinch, Plank, and Bridge (look out for trolls). 

• layer :

  to arrange foods in layers, such as sliced fruit in a pie or tart, or sliced potatoes in a potato gratin; or to build flavors by adding seasonings or foods that may be dissimilar but complement the overall dish.

• mash :

  to reduce food, like potatoes or bananas, to a soft, pulpy state by beating or pressure.

• measure :

  to calculate the specific amount of an ingredient required using a measuring tool (like measuring cups or spoons).

• microwave :

  to heat or cook food or liquid quickly in a microwave oven, which uses high-frequency electromagnetic waves to generate heat in the food's water molecules.

• mix :

  to thoroughly combine two or more ingredients until uniform in texture.

• roll :

  to use a rolling pin to flatten dough; use your hands to form a roll or ball shape; or move a round food, like a grape or a meatball, through another food, like sugar or breadcrumbs, to coat it.

• snip :

  to use scissors to cut something with quick, sharp strokes.

• tear :

  to pull or rip apart a food, like basil leaves, into pieces instead of cutting with a knife; cutting breaks cell walls more, so herbs can discolor faster.

• whisk :

  to beat or stir ingredients vigorously with a fork or whisk to mix, blend, or incorporate air.

History of Pizza!

• Pizza-like flatbreads have been baked and eaten by people around the world for a long time; since the neolithic age, to be somewhat specific (the neolithic age dates as far back as 10,200 BCE!). One of the forerunners to pizza may have been Italian focaccia bread, a flatbread baked by Ancient Romans. The modern pizza was developed from these breads in Naples, Italy, sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century.
• A well-known story credits the Neapolitan pizza maker Raffaele Esposito for creating the first Pizza Margherita for Queen Margherita of Savoy’s visit to Naples in 1889. Tasked with cooking something suitable for the queen, Esposito retreated to his kitchen to prepare three different pizzas. The last pizza was a simple combination of tomato sauce, mozzarella, and basil, inspired by the Italian flag and its colors of red, white, and green. Queen Margherita enjoyed the pizza so much that she wrote Esposito a letter to tell him, which he used to promote his restaurant. It was the queen’s enthusiasm that jump-started the popularity of Pizza Margherita. 
• Pizza came to the United States in the late 19th century, arriving with Italian immigrants. Since then, regional favorites have emerged. For example, there is Chicago-style deep-dish pizza with toppings typically added in reverse order: mozzarella cheese lines the crust, followed by other toppings, and then tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes, with a sprinkle of parmesan on top. New York pizza has large, thin, foldable slices. Detroit-style is a thick, square pizza. St. Louis pizza has a cracker-like crust, made without yeast, and its round shape is cut into 3 to 4-inch squares. And California pizza is known for its healthy and unusual toppings.
• The largest pizza ever produced was 13,580 square feet! It was completely gluten-free and made in Rome, Italy, in 2012.

Let's Learn About Italy!

• Italy became a unified country in 1861, only 150 years ago. It is sometimes called "bel paese" or "beautiful country."  
• Italians invented the piano and the thermometer! 
• In ancient Roman mythology, two twin brothers named Romulus and Remus founded Rome, Italy's capital city. The myth says the twins were abandoned and then discovered by a she-wolf before being found and raised by a shepherd and his wife. Eventually (and after many exciting adventures), they found themselves at the location of Palatine Hill, where Romulus built "Roma." The Italian wolf became Italy's unofficial national animal. 
• In the 1930s and 40s, Mussolini, Italy's prime minister, and dictator tried to eliminate all foreign words from the Italian language. How did he do that? He just changed them! For example, in soccer, "goal" became "meta." Disney character names changed, too: Donald Duck became "Paperino;" Mickey Mouse became "Topolino;" and Goofy became "Pippo." Although they're not banned anymore, these words and names have stuck. So now if you go to the Italian Disneyland, called Gardaland Park, you will see Topolino and Pippo! 
• About 60 million people call Italy home, and it is 116,350 square miles, slightly larger than the US state of Arizona. If you compare that to the United Kingdom, 67 million people live there, and it is about 94,350 square miles. So, the UK is smaller than Italy but has a bigger population! 
• The Italian flag is green, white, and red. These colors represent hope, faith, and charity.
• The average Italian eats close to 55 pounds of pasta annually. If you think about how light pasta is, that is a considerable amount! There are more than 500 different types of pasta eaten in Italy today. 

What's It Like to Be a Kid in Italy?

• Kids begin school at 6 years old. They grow up speaking Italian, but they learn English in school, so many become bilingual in Italian and English.
• The most popular sport for kids is football (soccer). The Italian word for soccer is "calcio," the same word they use for "kick." A favorite of younger kids is "Rody, the bouncing horse," a plastic horse that a small child can hop onto and bounce around the room. Rody was invented in Italy in 1984.  
• The family ("la famiglia") is a central characteristic of Italian life. Children have great respect for their older relatives. It is traditional to name the first male child after the grandfather and the first female child after the grandmother.
• If kids live close to school, they can go home and have lunch with their families! Lunch at school might be pasta, meat with vegetables, a sandwich, or a salad with lots of ingredients. Families typically eat dinner later (7 to 8 pm), so kids end up staying up later, too!
• Between lunch and dinner, kids often enjoy "merenda," which is an afternoon snack that translates to "something that is deserved." It is really a mini-meal that can include both savory and sweet foods. Examples of savory foods are a salami or mortadella sandwich, a slice of rustic bread rubbed with a cut, raw tomato, or "pizza bianca" (white pizza without tomato sauce). Types of sweet foods eaten during merenda are "gelato" (a lower-fat type of ice cream), any kind of cake, or biscotti dipped in warm milk.