Celebrating an Italian-American Heritage Dinner on Columbus Day with Your Children

On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus, an explorer from Genoa, Italy landed in the New World discovering America that became a federal holiday in the 1930s known as Columbus Day, which celebrates his achievements and the Italian-American heritage. A majority of schools will be open and in session on the Columbus Day holiday, so dinner time is a great time to celebrate Columbus Day with your children and have them participate in making the Italian-American meal. Making homemade pizza with your family is a great fun way to celebrate Christopher Columbus and the Italian-American heritage.

Besides pizza, your Columbus Day Italian-American heritage dinner can consist of an antipasto salad, grapes, and homemade Italian Ice for desert. To make your dinner process easier with the children, prepare some of the food during the day while they are at school so that the evening can be simple, fast, and fun. First, prepare the Italian Ice by following the recipe on Cooks.com. This is a wonderful homemade Italian Ice recipe by using water, sugar, and fresh lemon and then freezing them in ice cube trays.

Next, clean and chop the ingredients necessary for the antipasto salad and the vinaigrette. Giada De Laurentiis has a wonderful Italian Antipasto Salad Recipe on the Food Network website that your children will love. Having these items already washed and chopped will make it easier to toss with the children prior to serving. Wash a variety of green and red grapes, or any other fresh fruit in season that your family will enjoy and add them to a bowl ready to serve for your Columbus Day dinner.

For the pizza, you can purchase pizza dough from your local Italian deli or you can make it by scratch following the directions and simple illustrations on Italy-pizza.com. The ingredients are warm water, eggs, sugar, yeast, and olive oil. After the pizza dough is ready, drizzle the olive oil over the dough and have the children help by spreading their favorite pizza sauce over the pizza dough or you may use the Italy's Pizza's basic pizza sauce recipe that has ingredients of tomato sauce, oregano, basil leaves, and garlic powder. Next, let the children add some mozzarella cheese and their favorite toppings, including Italian sausage, pepperoni, peppers, mushroom, or whatever they like. Cook the pizza according to the Italy-Pizza's website of 500 degrees on a cookie sheet in a pre-heated oven for 8 - 14 minutes.

While the pizza is cooking, have the children help you toss the antipasto salad, set the table, along with the grapes so that when the pizza is done, you are ready to eat. After dinner, mash up the Italian ice to complete your Columbus Day Italian-American heritage dinner with your children.