One of our family favorite meals has always been homemade mini-individual size pizzas. Ronnie is the master-mind of this creation, and we have been doing different variations of it for many years now.

As our family has grown, and our kids now have families of their own, we have a family dinner every third Sunday of each month. Normally we use ½ of a thawed loaf of white Rhodes Bread Dough per pizza, and make each one in a pie tin. This takes a lot of dough, and some extra planning to make sure the dough is thawed at just the right time for everyone to arrive and make their own pizza. This past Sunday, we did a new variation of our mini pizzas, and it was so easy, AND yummy!!!

We try to divide the dinner up between families so it’s not so much work for me anymore . . . yes . . . I’m getting old! Steph brought shredded mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, fresh mushrooms and sliced olives. Errin brought Naan Bread, Mini Naan Bread – to make little garlic bread bites from, and plain Prego Marinara Sauce – all from Sam’s Club. Ron and I provided Canadian Bacon, Pineapple Tidbits, my easy Pistachio Jell-O Salad, and all the fixins’ for caramel apples.

Here’s the recipe for our Pistachio Jell-O Salad – it originally came from my Aunt Helen who was an incredible cook!!! It’s quick and easy, pretty much just dump and stir, it doesn’t need any time to set, and you can eat it immediately.

Aunt Helen’s Green Pistachio Jell-O Salad

1 - 24 oz. Container Small Curd Cottage Cheese

1 – 32 oz. Container Vanilla Yogurt

1 – 16 oz. Container Cool Whip

2 – Small Packages Dry Pistachio Jell-O Pudding

1 – 20 oz. Can Crushed Pineapple – drained

4 - Small Cans or 2 - Large Cans Mandarin Oranges – drained

½ Bag Miniature Marshmallows

Stir all ingredients together, adding Crushed Pineapple and Mandarin Oranges last. Fold these in carefully so the oranges don’t break up. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Now back to the pizza. Each person got a large piece of Naan Bread, which makes four nice slices of pizza. They spread it with the Prego Marinara Sauce, sprinkled it with cheese, and whatever toppings they wanted. My favorite is mushrooms and pineapple – I know, a strange combination, but very delicious! Next time we want to add artichoke hearts, fresh spinach, and possibly even some arugula. Some even sprinkled theirs with our favorite Balsamic Vinegar from Redstone.

Ron kept track of whose each pizza belonged to, and then took them out and cooked them on the Traeger Smoker. He cooked them on about 400 degrees for 6-8 minutes with the lid closed, then placed each pizza on a paper plate we had written each person’s name on. Full sized pizzas are cooked at 450 degrees for about 12 minutes with the lid closed.

Because it only takes such a short time to cook them, it’s easy to do these for a larger group. We had eleven people here, and we fixed the youngest kids pizzas first. While they were cooking, the older kids got theirs fixed and they were ready to go on the grill just about the time the first pizzas came off. Then the adults were ready to put theirs on. The men all ate two pizzas each.

So if you’re looking for a fun interactive meal that’s quick, and easy, this is a great one!

I had planned to take pictures of the pizzas on the smoker, and then some of the final product, but things went too quickly, and I had hungry people to get fed.

Family time is so important, and a great way to add LIGHT into your life!!! We LOVE having our kids over, and look forward to it every month!!! We generally end up playing some kind of game after dinner, but this time we each made our own caramel apple to take home. Orson Gygi is the BEST place to get your caramel apple supplies, and they have many recipes on their website as well as in-house classes. The trick to keeping the caramel on the apple? Wash them really good to get the wax off, dry them, put them in the fridge overnight, dip them cold. Drizzle with melted chocolate and roll in your favorite crushed candy bars! Put on freezer paper, and place in the fridge immediately to set for a short time.

How crazy is it that the next time we get together it will be close to Thanksgiving, and then it will be time for our Nativity Dinner in December?!!! What a blessing it is to be immunized against Covid, and gather together as a family once again!!!!

Love Ya, Les ☺