Pantry Raid

The girls and I did some casual early-morning Saturday television viewing today and enjoyed Pantry Raid, a cooking show that we hadn't seen before. The host is a chef who comes to a mere mortal's home, raids the pantry and refrigerator, and, from whatever he can find, whips up a relatively easy-to-make, wonderful meal, thus proving to the homeowner that, yes, he/she can cook, too, without a lot of training, extra time, or special ingredients. Valuable lesson.

Anyway, by late morning Suzanna and Hillary were off at their friends' house for a play date (Suzanna's friend has a younger sister Hillary's age), leaving Abigail alone with the 'rents. (Note: By midafternoon, Abigail had a friend of her own over for a play date here. The next-door neighbor and her own playmate spent much of the afternoon here, too.) Abigail wondered if I'd like to "play" Pantry Raid with her. I agreed and, before I got to the kitchen, she had already removed various cans and boxes from the pantry and decided on a basic menu: pepperoni pizza with a side dish of kidney beans.

I cocked my head at the kidney beans and prodded her to explain that selection. She was thinking of pork 'n' beans, actually . . . but still. With pizza?! We returned together to the pantry followed by the fridge and looked for more items, finding these:

• package of pizza dough mix
• package of pepperoni
• can of pizza sauce
• can of sliced black olives
• package of shredded cheddar cheeze ("I know; there's no mozarella, Dad")
• heads of romaine lettuce
• flavored croutons
• a tomato
• baby carrots
• a cucumber
• container of grated parmesan cheese
• block of fresh parmesan cheese
• container of bacon-flavored salad toppings
• bottle of Caesar salad dressing
• can of cream of chicken soup
• can of chunked chicken breast
• can of mandarin oranges
• package of candied cashews
• bottle of peach fruit smoothie mix

We got permission from Susan to use whatever we could find (if it turned out to be something she had been saving for a recipe, she would just go buy more, she said). We decided to make a pepperoni calzone (we had just had pizza for supper last night), a Caesar salad, and creamy chicken soup. I made the dough and set it aside to rise, and Abigail lined up everything to start chopping vegetables for the salad. While she chopped . . . and chopped . . . and chopped, I preheated the oven, made the canned soup, spread the dough on a baking stone, loaded it with pepperoni and pizza sauce and black olives and shredded cheese, folded the dough over and sealed it, popped the calzone in the oven, added the chunked chicken to the soup, put the mandarin oranges in cups on saucers with the cashews sprinkled around them, blended a pitcher of fruit smoothies, and set the table. By that time, Abigail had all the ingredients in the bowl and was ready to toss the salad.

We used a vegetable peeler to create strips of parmesan cheese for the salad and put the large bowl of salad on the table. We dished up each bowl of soup and topped it with a few strips of parmesan, a handful of croutons, and a sprinkle of bacon bits. We poured the peach smoothies and set them at each plate. We cut the calzone and plated it to serve at the table. I think Mommy was duly impressed, and Abigail was very proud. Bonus: it was all delicious, too! Good job, Abigail! (And thank you, television, for the inspiration!)