Pizza Night

Pizza night. No two words elicited more joy in my home.  I loved being able to answer the familiar “what’s for dinner?” whine with the word “Pizza!!!”.  For my kids it meant a thin crust smothered in a delectable tomato sauce, drizzled with mozzarella cheese, and topped with freshly sliced onions.  For me it meant dinner-in-a-phone-call.

But when I first learned of my daughter’s celiac disease I thought it was all over.  No more thin crusts. No more delectable tomato sauce.  No more mozzarella cheese or freshly sliced onions. I would never find a pizza store that sells gluten-free pizza.

We went weeks without pizza.  The kids were growing weary of chicken cutlets, roast beef, stew, and meatballs with gluten-free spaghetti. Even hot dog night was beginning to lose its charm.  I had never really appreciated the magic of pizza night.  Somehow it managed to make all the other nights of the week more bearable.  It was clear that I needed to find a solution.  And then, one day, on a familiar run to the health food store I spotted the most magnificent sight I had ever beheld: Glutino frozen gluten-free pizza crusts!

I don’t know why I hadn’t spotted them earlier.  Perhaps the store had just begun to stock them. I came home that night and announced to the deafening cheers of my four biggest fans:  “It’s pizza night!!!”

Admittedly I lost the pizza-in-a-phone-call aspect of the night. But the “thin crust smothered in delectable tomato sauce, drizzled in mozzarella cheese, and topped with freshly sliced onion” was restored to its proper place in the center of my kitchen table. I made it myself with my four eager helpers. The gluten-free pizza was the easiest of all the pizzas to make.  I had my nifty frozen crust and all we had to do was add the topping and pop it into the toaster.  The other pizzas required the bread machine, the roller, and a little ingenuity from a mother who never made pizza before in her life.

It was a resounding success.  My good sports were able to overlook the thicker than usual crusts, and the more chunky style sliced onions, and it was all gone in minutes. Celiac disease certainly presents its challenges, but it also has its rewards.  Pizza night is no longer dinner-in-a-phone-call -  now it’s a group effort. It’s a lot more work, but it’s also a lot more fun.

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