Fire truck!

Elias loves anything related to fire fighting: fire trucks, fire fighters, hydrants, helmets... When the flatiron fire was taking place- the first thing said when I told him there was a fire was "yay, I love fire!". We had to chat about good and bad fires and why this wasn't a good one.

Anyways, yesterday we were running some errands, and ended up having lunch outside the grocery store. A fire engine pulled up and Elias said hello to them, gave them high-fives and talked about his fire engine shirt he was wearing. The people close by started telling Elias that he should ask to see their truck. When the fire fighters came back out that is just what he did. Along with a few other kids, Elias got to sit in the drivers seat, check out the back, wear a helmet and learn about their masks and air tanks. I think it made his day :)

Later as we were laying down for naps, Elias told me he was going to dream about fire trucks, helping people and putting out fires. Too cute.





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Pesto Pizza Recipe

I combined three four recipes to make this pizza and really liked how it turned out. You could easily leave out the chicken for a vegetarian recipe, use gluten-free dough, leave out the parmesan cheese in the pesto, or whatever you need to do!


I used the following recipes to create this pizza:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pizza-with-Pesto-Fresh-Tomatoes-and-Mozzarella-101994
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/garden-tomato-basil-pesto-pizza-10000001087068/
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/classic_baked_chicken/
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/fresh_basil_pesto/


Here is my recipe - enjoy!

Pesto Pizza w/Tomatoes, Fresh Mozzarella and Chicken

YIELD

 Makes one 12-14" pizza, feeds 3-4

ACTIVE TIME

 1 hour +

INGREDIENTS

• • 6 ounces thinly sliced fresh mozzarella (I used ciliegine)
  • 2 med/lg (heirloom) tomatoes
  • 1 pound pizza dough (Whole Foods pre-made dough was really good), (thawed if frozen)
  • all-purpose whole wheat flour for dusting
  • 3 tablespoons basil pesto (Simply Recipes)
  • 1/4 Cup thinly sliced fresh basil
  • Optional: 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

• Special equipment

  • a large pizza stone (at least 14 inches across)
  • a baker's peel or parchment paper

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INSTRUCTIONS

• 1. Bake chicken (Simply Recipes)
  2. If making homemade, make pesto (Simply Recipes).
  3. At least 1 hour before baking pizza, set stone on lowest rack of oven (if you have a gas stove, stone can go directly on oven floor) and preheat oven to 500°F.
  4. Thinly slice fresh mozzarella, basil, chicken and cut tomatoes crosswise into 1/8-inch-thick slices (or chop).
  5. On a floured surface with your hands pat out and stretch dough evenly into a 12-inch round, keeping hands flat. (Do not handle dough more than necessary. If dough is sticky, dust it lightly with flour.)
  6. Dust parchment paper with flour and carefully transfer dough onto it. Jerk peel once or twice and, if dough is sticking, lift dough and sprinkle flour underneath it, reshaping dough if necessary.
  7. Spread pesto over dough leaving a 1-inch border and place cheese.
  8. Arrange tomato over cheese.
  9. Add chicken slices and season with salt and pepper.
  10. Line up far edge of peel with far edge of stone and tilt peel, jerking it gently to start pizza moving. Once edge of pizza touches stone, quickly pull back peel to completely transfer pizza to stone. (I used parchment paper and accidentally baked it on the paper - turned out fine).
  11. Bake pizza until dough is crisp and brown, about 10 to 12 minutes, and transfer with peel to a cutting board.
  12. At about 5 minutes, sprinkle with fresh basil slices.
  13. Cut pizza into slices and serve immediately.

Elias and his bike

Elias loves riding his strider bike. He recently borrowed and temporarily lost my bike gloves, so we decided to get him his own pair. Tom found the smallest pair of kids gloves at U. Bikes and Elias loves them. Even this xxs pair is a little big but they work themselves down over his fingers over time and end up perfect.


Lately Tom has been taking Elias to the Valmont bike park where apparently he does pretty well. I haven't been myself but Tom says he loves to zoom around the tot track, have Tom push him around the pump track and do something they call "dropping in the hole".


We've taken a few walks with Elias on his strider and he does really well. He starts out with more of a walk or leaning to one side but by the end of the ride has more of a paddle that is well balanced and has a little of a glide in there. Tom keeps telling me that Elias will be tearing up by the end of the summer- yikes!


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Best 30 seconds...for a 2 year old

Took this video for Elias while he was napping one afternoon. He loves it! and will watch it over and over and over...

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