Halloween-ing Begins: Pizza Dough

I do my very best to hold off on all things Halloween until after Thatkid's birthday.  But after that?  All bets are off.  By the following weekend the house was decorated and we were on our way to our first Halloween event of the month- Brick or Treat at Legoland.

It's become an annual tradition here, although this year, since we're so busy with soccer games and art classes on Saturdays, we decided to not spend the whole day there.  Especially since I'm currently dealing with a sprained ankle which makes a full day at the amusement park seem less than ideal.  So we headed over right before the evening event started and got into our costumes.

Thatbaby has been killing me this year with his costume selection.  It's almost like he's, I dunno, 3?  First he wanted to be Olaf, then Spiderman, then a zombie, then a dinosaur, and then the week of the event he settled on a "baby egg."  No, I have no idea what a baby egg is or where he came up with the idea.  Or how I was going to pull it off.  He volunteered the baby egg was a red egg, and Thatboy might have steered him a little into a baby dinosaur egg.  Which still didn't give me a great sense of how to pull it off.  A couple of sketches for possible designs later and some approval from the creative team, and I was off buying some red felt and cutting it into an oval shape.  I used the scraps to create a hat so that it looked like his little head was poking out of a hatching egg.  A little face paint magic, and voila!

I was actually kind of please with how it turned out, and he was beyond thrilled with his costume (despite no one knowing what he was).

I put my face painting skills to further use to help Thatkid with his vision of a zombie costume. 

We ended up pairing off again - with Thatboy going the zombie route while I got roped into a mama dinosaur.

Once dressed the kids immediately started their brick-or-treating.

Despite being frequent visitors to Legoland, we've never visited the aquarium, so we thought this would be a good time to give that a whirl.

And Thatkid requested a familr ride on the fairy-tale boats.

After that it was one treat station after the next, a couple rides, and a break for dinner - at the Pizza Buffet, which has also become part of our annual tradition.

As we went to hit up the last few treat stations, Thatkid convinced his brother to try Beatle Bounce with him.  Thatbaby has historically refused to go on this ride, or any incarnation if it.   But, buoyed on by his big brother he agreed to give it a shot.  AND HE LOVED IT.  It had been raining that morning and so crowds were few, which meant no lines and the boys rode it over and over and over until we had to peel them away. 

On our way out, we discovered the new submarine ride, with barely a wait at all and decided to check that out too.  It was similar to the Finding Nemo ride at Disney, but much brighter and roomier, which led to much happier kids  (Thatbaby was terrified of the dark Nemo ride).  We also ran across this station where the kids could make weird monster music by moving their hands around the metal antenna.

Our only fail of the evening was forgetting to bring their pajamas, as both kids were asleep before we left the parking lot.

Pizza is a weird Halloween tradition, but it really carries us through the month.  Thatkid always picks a pizza place for his birthday dinner.  We always eat at the pizza buffet at Brick or Treat.  And pizza is always our Halloween dinner.  It's just easy.  It's easy enough that a child can do it.  Although my child likes to make things harder.  Last month he decided he wanted to make pizza, with homemade pizza dough.  Which was a whole weekend activity.  He also wanted to color the dough green.  The upside to this labor intensive meal is that the dough actually makes 4 pizzas.  Which means we could make some that weekend, and have leftover pizza crust in the freezer.  And that made for a very easy meal for us this past weekend.  Because the dough was already green, I decided to go all out and make them Halloween pizzas, mummies made from mozzarella and red bell pepper.  But you can top yours however you like!

Pizza Dough (From Alton Brown)

1 1/4 cups water

1 Tbsp salt

1 tsp sugar

8 cups flour

1 envelope instant yeast

1. Combine the ingredients in an electric stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Mix for 2 minutes on low, or until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Rest the dough for 15 minutes. 
2. Continue mixing at medium-low for 5 minutes.  Remove the dough from the mixer bowl and knead by hand for about 30 seconds, then work into a ball.  Place the ball in large metal bowl with a little olive oil.  Toss the ball around to coat.  Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and set aside for an hour or until the dough ball nearly doubles in size. 
3. Fold down the dough, patting it into a disk and place it back in the bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
4. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and cut into four equal pieces.  Shape each into a disk, folding it on to itself.   Cover the disks with a clean kitchen towel and leave for an hour to bench proof. While the dough is proofing, preheat your oven to its highest possible temperature.  
5. Work the disk in your hands, creating a lip with your thumbs.  
6. Toss the disk back and forth between your palm.
7. Use the back of your hands to stretch the dough while rotating.
8.  If you are using the dough right away, top it with your preferred toppings, then bake for 4-5 minutes.  If you are freezing it for later use, bake it untopped.  Thaw the frozen crusts before topping and cooking them.