Movie night and pizza

Every Friday since we moved in to our new house (in our new town in our new province) we have had movie night on Friday night.  We choose a very docile, kid-friendly movie and we all gather together on the couch (we have a couch in our new house!) and watch a movie. 

Mmmmmmmmmmmm

My Man has fond memories of his Papa making an enormous bowl of popcorn and sitting down with it to watch a movie and everyone was welcome to dig into his bowl.  So now My Man, also known as Papa, makes a big bowl of popcorn every Friday night and each of the kids gets their own container to eat from.  He makes it in a pot on the stove, the way his Papa did and the way my family has always made it as well.  Here's how: heat some oil in a big pot on almost-high heat, throw in three kernels.  When those begin to pop pour in about 1/4 - 1/3 cup of kernels and put the cover on.  Keep the pot moving so as to not burn the already popped popcorn.  When popping slows nearly to a stop (a couple of seconds between pops) immediately dump the popcorn into a big bowl.  You can melt some butter and shake on some salt if you want.  If you have ideas to flavour popcorn, please feel free to share them with me below in the comments section.  I have tried cinnamon and it was not well received.

Tonight, we watched Ice Age and I cried.  I'm such a baby.

Twin 1 (aka Thing 1) helped me out cutting "wif the big, sharp knife" before his sisters awoke from their nap.

We also made PIZZA.  Individual pizzas!  They each had their own that they dressed as they pleased.  The toppings were pizza sauce, red peppers, green peppers, crushed pineapple, ham, ground beef with a bit of taco seasoning (homemade with this recipe) and mozzarella cheese.  Miam.  The crust was also homemade and such a pleasure to work with. 



4 kids' pizzas before going in the oven - they topped them themselves.

Close-up of kids' pizzas before baking.

Pizza crust
adapted from Canadian Living
1-1/4 cups hot (120 F/50 C) water
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp traditional or instant dry yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3 cups all purpose flour (I used whole wheat)
- pour water into mixong bowl, add sugar and sprinkle yeast on top.  Let proof until slightly foamy on top
- add salt and oil
- add flour while mixing, adding a Tbsp at a time more until it is no longer sticky.  In my Kitchen Aid mixer, I let it knead about 8 minutes on speed 2
- grease a bowl and the top of your dough, let rise in a warm place 1 hour (Make-ahead: Refrigerate unrisen dough and let rise for 24 hours. Or freeze in plastic bag for up to 1 month; let thaw and rise in refrigerator overnight.)
- grease baking sheet and spread your dough out (it's a dream to work with!), top as desired and bake at 400F for about 25 minutes. 

 

Kids' pizzas after baking and before devouring.

 

The "adult" pizza.  The Big Kid ate almost half of ours as his wasn't big enough
(and he's not nearly a teenager yet!).

What kind of family traditions did you have?  Not necessarily around holidays, but the weekly or monthly ones.