Special Agent Elli and the Bubble Pizza

Parenthood by nature includes a groundswell of advice and tips from others. Most of the tips and advice I don't mind because I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing.

The other day a newsletter on toddler rearing landed in my inbox from Johnson and Johnson. One of the headlines caught my eye. It had to do with playing a game with your toddler involving simple, repeatable steps. I would have read the article had not my iPhone lost service in the elevator on the way to my office. In the 2-minute elevator ride, which included silly jabber with co-workers about the weather and weekend plans, I lost track of what I was doing and was on to something far less interesting to you. But, my mind did retain the memory of the headline, and later it got me thinking about ways I could make a cooking adventure into more of a game for Elli.

The key was to find the right recipe. My Trusty Taste of Home cookbook came through for me. Allow me to introduce you to...

Bubble Pizza (an adapted version)

1 pound pork sausage

1 can pizza sauce

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

1/2 cup chopped red pepper

1/2 cup chopped yellow pepper

1/4 cup red onion cut into small strips

2 tubes refrigerated jumbo biscuits

1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

In a skillet, brown sausage; drain. In mixing bowl, stir together veggies and pizza sauce; set aside. Quarter biscuits and place in greased 13x9x2 backing dish. Top with veggie mixture and sausage. Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Sprinkle with cheeses. Bake 5-10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Let stand for 5-10 minutes before serving.

I call this an adapted version because 1) Daddy read "biscuits" on the shopping list and brought home the jumbo version, which, as it turns out, make a wonderful thick crust; and 2) I added the veggies to make the pizza more supreme like.

The game was also an adaptation, from one of Elli's favorite television shows, Special Agent Oso. For those of you unfamiliar, here's a rundown: Disney Channel, James Bond-ish bear, completes assignments in "three special steps, that's all you need, three special steps, and you'll succeed" (oh yes, the lyrics are seared into my brain; ask me to recite them if you ever find yourself in an elevator with me). To create the game, I first broke the recipe into levels. Then, each level I broke into three steps.

Level one: Prep the Peppers

Step one: Find the peppers - I stationed Elli next to me at the sink, with her on her "steps."

"Elli, we need a yellow pepper, a green pepper and a red pepper. Can you find the yellow pepper?"

She scanned the counter. "There it is!" she exclaimed, pointing her little finger at the yellow pepper.

"Very good. We'll put that in the sink so we can wash it. Now can you find the red pepper?" She did, and she easily found the green pepper.

Step two: Wash the peppers - She tried her best to squeeze the trigger of the veggie wash bottle, but her hands were just too small. Her hands were big enough to hold each pepper under the water to rinse them off, though. Step three: Chop the peppers - We moved over to the counter where I had the cutting board set up. To keep her fingers out of the red zone of the knife, I first cut some strips of each pepper for her to taste. You may remember her love-at-first-sight moment with the green pepper in the "Colors of the Mexican Chip Casserole" adventure. The passion has not yet cooled. She ate so much of the peppers, I had to move the pile of chopped peppers away from her outstretched arm.

Level two: Saucy

Step one: Put veggies in bowl - "Special Agent Elli, there are just so many veggies in this big pile," I said with the faux drama Oso uses. "Do you think we can move alllll of them into the bowl?"

"Yes," Elli said confidently.

"Let's do it!"

"Do it," she echoed as she scooped up her first handful and plopped it in the bowl.

"Eddi moof veddies," she told me.

"Yes, Elli is moving the veggies, and she is doing a terrific job." She really was. Not a single one hit the floor. Meanwhile, I started the meat to browning. Though the original recipe calls for ground beef, I used pork sausage because I'm still working through The Gift of a Fourth of a Pig. For those keeping tabs, I'm down to seven pounds of the sausage.

Step two: Add pizza sauce - "Now we take this can and we pour the sauce all over the veggies. Are you ready?" She answered by grabbing the can. I helped her move the can over the bowl and tilt it for the sauce to run out. "Beautiful. Now what do you think we should do?"

"Do?" she asked back.

"Do you think we should sniff it?"

Elli paused, then answered, "No."

"Do you think we should kick it?"

She smiled. "Nnnoooo."

"Do you think we should stir it?"

"Yes!" Step three: Stir - I handed her the spoon and she dug in, with a little help from me.

Level three: It's dough time

Step one: Tear and place the dough - She only thought she loved to stir. That's because she had yet to meet the dough. I opened each can of biscuits and formed four small stacks of dough on the cutting board. I replaced the bowl of saucy veggies with the greased baking pan. The recipe says to quarter the biscuits. Toddlers don't do neat quarters. Toddlers do random tearing very well, however. So, I decided to just let Elli go at it and hope the dough, regardless of size, baked well all the same. I showed her how to peel one biscuit off the stack and "tear, put in the pan; tear, put in the pan." It was a nice, rhythmic task. While I finished browning the meat, she went to town.

We leveled the small mountain of dough she had formed on one side of the pan and then moved on to step two: Scoop on the saucy veggies - "We take our spoon, we dip it into the sauce like this, and we pour it like this," I said, and repeated the process a few times for her. Then I let her take over. Right away I realized I should have specified where to pour the sauce. Thank goodness for wipeable cookbook pages. "Pour the sauce on the dough like Mommy did," I told her, and that simple clarification was all she needed.

While she continued on with the scooping, I removed the meat from the heat to cool. Did you know that the amount of time it takes a toddler to scoop out a bowl of saucy veggies is equivalent to the amount of time it takes for a pound of sausage to cool?

Step three: Add the meat - Elli was not interested in step three. She instead wanted to play with the "puzzoos" on my iPhone. I set her up at the kitchen table with the puzzles app and added the sausage myself. Later I made sure she was fully distracted when it came time to add the cheese. She would have loved to help sprinkle the cheese, but Mommy would not have loved nursing burns on her hands from contact with a hot pan. There was no distracting her when it was time to serve up the pizza. She positioned herself at the table and called for "Eddi's supper."

She inhaled the pizza...except for the "icky" peppers. What a creature.

Things Elli Could Do:
Everything that did not involve a hot pan or knife

Overall Bubble Pizza Ratings (5 being the best):

Elli-friendly cooking: 5

Elli-friendly eating: 4

Simple: 5

Fast: 4

Frugal: 5

Question of the Week: How would you modify this recipe?