Last Wednesday marked the official start to summer and what better way to make the most of the glorious weather by lighting up our pizza oven and making dinner alfresco! We are so lucky to have the space and equipment to cook our own handmade pizzas and having a pizza oven to then cook them in outside makes the experience fantastic. Our kids love it but in a way it has lost its magic as it is now something totally normal for us to do. Don't get me wrong, it is always nice eating homemade pizza and from a wood burning oven, it is a taste that isn't easily replicated so it is really still special when we light up the oven.
Not to blow our own trumpet but we have got pizza dinners down to a fine art now and what's lovely is that something that used to get me quite stressy due to the mess and clear up has actually become something I totally embrace and don't find difficult at all. Having the space helps but as the kids have grown, they also know what to do and I think that actually makes it quite enjoyable, understanding it from their point of view and letting things just get messy, its all part of the fun!
And getting messy comes hand in hand with pizza making, you are going to get covered in flour no matter how hard you try and you will find yourself using the stuff on everything! If it's not to roll the dough out on, it is also great for getting dough off your hands so the fact is, embrace that everything you touch will have a fine layer of white dust! Once the pizzas are made though, you quickly forget about the mess as you can't think about doing anything other than getting that fresh, hot pizza in your mouth and most likely burning yourself on it!
Pizza is funnily such a huge part of our lives and throwing pizza parties or just doing it for ourselves becomes a regular thing. Its easy enough to set up for and eating outside is always enjoyable so making sure I have a variety of plates and boards means that we can have pizzas cooking and filling up plates all evening. An endless supply is the best way to go at pizza parties so we always make sure there is one cooking while one is eaten. It also offers up great opportunity for everyone to get creative with what they want on each one and for children it is great allowing them to partake in food preparation especially with pizza as it is so hands on.
Giving the kids the chance to have a go offers up so many wonderful learning opportunities and it's something that Raph especially loves to do. Etta can usually be found with her hands in the dough bowl, squishing and stretching it and getting generally messy, but Raph takes it so much more seriously and it is great to watch.
What's more ideal, especially at this time of year is that it just encourages us to eat outside more which is such a good thing. Setting up the picnic table is so easy and not worrying particularly about what falls on the floor makes the clean up job pretty easy. A few good plastic plates and cups are great {especially with the kids} and this wonderfully bright summer collection from Sainsbury's Bright and Colourful range is a lovely addition to our outdoor eating style.
In fact, as soon as I set the table I just loved how colourful it all looked and how inspiring and summery the colours were. Bright and bold and perfect for using for any outdoor occasion.
With a tin can of fresh flowers, and toppings a plenty, we were able to enjoy a simple family tea which to most may actually look quite extravagant. Regardless of how much everything was covered in flour, our bellies were full, our creativity was encouraged and our hearts were full from having dinner time spent together.
What's on my table {the details}:
{Other items available in store}
*This post has been sponsored by Sainsburys.
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