yeast rising...

So I'm not a bad cook, and I can follow a recipe but there are things I've never done.

One of them is make bread. I don't know why. I was afraid of yeast. It sounds so mysterious and it needs so much skill.

My 10yo, who never reads anything voluntarily, except for cook books, wants to be able to cook, unsupervised. My compromise is that he can make dinner once a week, but I have to be in the kitchen, even if all I am doing is reading a (non-cook) book.

What does he do for his first effort? Make pizza. Which sounds like a good idea, after all he eats pizza, but all of sudden, there it is... yeast.

I've never made a yeast recipe in my life. How do I know if he is doing it wrong? How can I assist him when I haven't been on the journey myself?

What I do know about cooking, is that having the right tools help immeasurably. Our very detailed (and quite wonderful) cookbook - The New Best Recipe - recommends a baking stone. I'd never even heard of one before, and am suddenly sure that the recipe won't work without it. Thank goodness for Bed, Bath and Beyond in the next block from home, because for $14.99 I get all the pizza making equipment you could want - the stone, the rack, the pizza peel (another thing I'd never heard of - basically a large wooden spatula that eases the pizza onto the very hot stone) My son is thrilled when he comes home and sees it.

Then we squabble over the cookbook.
"Can I read it?"
"No, mummy, I'm looking at it!"
Finally, I get to read it and find out all sorts of things - it needs two hours to rise and then 30 minutes for a second rise (who knew about a second rise? Not me, that's for sure)

The first pizza is made while I'm on the phone, and of course, he forgets something - to put corn meal on the pizza peel. The pizza sticks to the peel and won't slide off into the very hot oven. I kind of scrape it off, and it rolls over, spilling half the topping. DS is distraught.

Now for the life lessons of cooking - the first one, or even the several early versions - they don't always work. You don't make an immaculate cake the very first time. These are skills that develop. He listens to me, distrustingly. It's okay to make mistakes, and learn. No one gets it right all the time. Don't give up. (You don't have to play sports to get these life lessons, the kitchen will do it just fine)

The second one, is better and the third one looks professional as it glides off the peel and into the swelteringly hot oven, and then glides back onto the spatula and onto a plate.

And you know something... following the instructions, you mix flour, water, salt and yeast and you get... pretty delicious bread! The pizzas, even the misshapen first one, taste delicious. We all eat happily.

DS is already planning his next dinner.