Pizza and Gingerbread Men

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Well today Jack and I were babysitting the kids, and Jack wanted to do something with the kids... so he thought it would be fun to bake something. Well, he split us up into two teams, and the one team, (Luke, Molly, Mindy and I) made pizza for lunch, While the other team (Jack, Eli, Anna and Aiden) made gingerbread men! It was very fun. And I thought that I would post the recipes and some of the pictures that we took! Enjoy!

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Pizza:

1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 ½ cups all purpose or whole wheat flour
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Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in remaining ingredients; beat vigorously twenty strokes. Let rise five minutes. Divide dough into halves. Pat each half into 11-inch circle on lightly greased cookie sheet with floured fingers.

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Add tomato sauce. Then add:
Cheese
and any other toppings you might want!
Olives, bacon, onions, peppers, ham, pepperoni, hamburger, and I usually add some Italian seasoning and garlic salt.
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Cook in 425 degree oven until cheese is light brown, 20 to 25 minutes. - makes two pizzas

Molly mixing the pizza dough.

The pizza, warm out of the oven. (we didn't get very many of the pizza making)

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Gingerbread Men
½ cup molasses
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter or shortening
1 tablespoon milk
2 cups flour
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. nutmeg
½ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ground cloves
½ tsp. powdered ginger

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter some cookie sheets. Heat the molasses to the boiling point, then add the sugar, butter or shortening, and milk. Mix the flour with the baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. Add to the first mixture and blend well. Add a few tablespoons of water, enough so that the dough holds together and handles easily. Roll or pat out the dough about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into large or small gingerbread men, (or other shapes) using special cookie cutters or a very sharp knife. (We just used the plastic ones that Anna got for her birthday last year.) Bake 5-7 minutes. When cool, frost with vanilla frosting and decorate with candies, raisins, or any other decorations you might like! :)

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Anna rolling out the gingerbread dough.

Jack helped the kids make it. Which was a good thing!

Gingerbread pieces after being baked.

Of course you have to have frosting and sprinkles! :)

Anna and Aiden busy putting frosting on their cookies!

And last but not least some of the finished projects! :)
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By the way, Jack let the children that did the pizza help decorate the cookies!
I even got to decorate a few! :) Well that's all for now!
-Emily