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Why not both?

Thelma was gone this evening and had Emma with her, so it was the perfect opportunity to let the boys eat food that is normally quite low on Thelma's list of approved dining options. Before driving to the high school to pick up Braeden from play practice, I asked Mark, "Would you rather have Chinese food or stop at Little Caesar's to get pizza?" Then, inspiration struck me while he was agonizing over the choice.

"What about both?" I asked.

 His eyes lit up and I could see he knew where I was going with this.

"How about we make a Chinese pizza?"

Mark started to rattle off a list of ingredients. That kid knows how to build. Usually, it's Legos. Tonight it was pizza.

The original idea for a Chinese pizza came during a recent in-the-van-driving-somewhere conversation. I challenged everyone to come up with a strange pizza combination. Between Braeden and I, we imagined a combination that included General Tso chicken in some form. Braeden dubbed it the Red Star.

With Thelma gone, tonight was the perfect night to give it a try. We stopped off at Safeway and bought the Express Special—General Tso chicken, chicken teriyaki, fried rice, chow mein and two pot stickers—some mozzarella cheese and a bag of pizza dough. (The Safeway dough isn't that good, but I didn't care. I wasn't planning on eating it. It's not on my diet.) I thought some shredded carrots would be a nice touch. The boys didn't agree. Mark wanted to use the chow mein as one of the toppings. (Again, I wasn't eating it.) Braeden was willing as long as we kept back the fried rice, just to be sure there was something good to eat if the pie turned out to be a disaster.

So, was it a disaster or was it, as the Chinese would say, 鮮美?  You be the judge. (I didn't have have any.) There's no recipe, but if you are brave enough, you can follow Braeden's photographic essay and try your own variation.

The "raw" ingredients.


Mark wanted the noodles. I'm trying to think of a joke that involves Marco Polo.


This was the maiden voyage for my "new" pizza stone. Thelma bought it a year ago to replace my broken stone, but it's hard to give up a stone that works so well even if I do have to piece it together each time I use it.

The final product.

It must have been decent, because the boys ate all but one piece that they saved for Emma.  Then again, they are growing boys.  Downing one pizza between the two of them is going easy.


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Marianne said…
Wow, Adam. You guys are so creative. I guess it's easier to be creatively brave when you don't have to eat it. Braeden and Mark--now that's brave!
November 7, 2011 at 10:49 AM
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