The BBQ Paradox

It's June, it must be summer! A time for your caveman to come out of his cave, light the fire and declare "I am cooking dinner Saturday night". Heaven. He's cooking dinner. Maybe we can even entertain? Yes. So here's how it goes in my house:

What I do:
Call the friends and invite them over. "It's a BBQ. Hubby is doing the cooking, lucky us". I then plan the meal (which does need a salad or two), go food shopping, shlep it all home and put it all away. On the day I wash the salad, chop the veggies, make a pasta/potato salad, put out chips and dips, count out the plates and the cutlery, set out table mats and napkins, fill the salt and pepper for the table, slice the bread, chill the wine, set out the glasses, slice some lemon, put out any condiments, make a marinade, unwrap all the meat, locate the BBQ tools, (don't you just love how a spatula, tongs and an oversized fork are called tools?), tidy up, get out the frisbees and suntan lotion, pop the potatoes in the oven and do a quick hairbrush/lipstick check before the doorbell rings.

What he does:
Opens a pack of charcoal, lights said charcoal, opens a beer an watches as charcoal very very slowly turns white (it takes an hour), calls for the meat, then cooks/burns the meat.

Yeeha.

So with all that labour in mind, I will propose a super easy kids dinner here:

Fake Pizza

My kids worship at the alter of Ask Pizza, and it's the one place where every morsel of food is eaten up, no tears or tantrums. So sometimes at home, I make "fake pizza". You need toasted english muffins (I use wholemeal to make them a touch healthy), smear them with some tomato pizza or pasta sauce from a jar, and top with cheese (I just use cheddar). If your kids stretch beyond marguerita pizzas, then add some ham or tuna before the cheese - whatever your kids are happy to eat. Pop them under a grill to melt the cheese, and call them mini pizzas.