Hawaiian Pizza Pockets

On Valentine's Day I helped make friendship pizza with Kenya's class. The idea of making friendship pizzas are similar to making Quilt Pizza. Kenya's teachers loved the idea of expressing the spirt of the holiday to the kids by having them work together to make their lunch -- allowing each child to individually express himself but as part of a group.

The kids were so excited and it was hilarious to watch how intensely they got into the activity. They worked together as a team, hitting, beating, tearing, whacking and (occasionally) mangling the pizza dough. They topped it with plenty of sauce and cheese before each child finally got to personalize his or her section with the toppings of their choice.

Among the various toppings I brought was pineapple chunks. The kids looked confused as to why there was a bowl of fruit sitting alongside the sliced the mushrooms, peppers, olives and other toppings they were more used to seeing on pizza. I explained that when you put ham and pineapple on a pizza it's called Hawaiian Pizza. That made them roar with laughter. I'm not exactly sure why they found that so funny, but their laughter was so infectious I couldn't help but join in with them.

When I returned to work that day, I was inspired to make this recipe which, in addition to it's apparently highly amusing name, is really fun to make with kids….and even better to eat!