Notes: Thanks to Mari and Sammy for being their always awesome selves. You're the best, ladies! Special thanks to Mari for help with the Danny scene.

Readers and REAL McRollers - Thank you for your amazing support! It is always appreciated.

Hope you enjoy (and it doesn't make you too hungry)!

Cheese and Tomato Sauce (A McRoll on the REAL World Story)

"This cauliflower pizza crust turned out really well, Mom," Catherine said after wiping a bit of sauce from the corner of her mouth. The family was sitting around the table at the condo finishing up a homemade pizza dinner.

Elizabeth smiled. "Thanks, honey. I've been meaning to try it for a while."

"It's good, Grandma," DJ agreed.

"Yeah, it's very very good," Angie echoed, pizza sauce on both cheeks.

"Thank you both," Elizabeth said with a special smile for her grandchildren. "The hardest part was deciding what toppings to do. I know DJ and Angie like pepperoni the best."

Both kids nodded eagerly at the mention of their favorite pizza topping.

"Grandma Ang likes sausage and mushroom," Elizabeth continued.

"Just like our favorite place back in Chicago," Ang put in.

"Grandpa likes sausage along with a lot of veggies."

"Makes it healthier," Joseph said with a wink.

Elizabeth shook her head in amusement. "Your mommy likes–"

"Sausage," Angie filled in. She grinned. "And pepperomi for breakfast."

Catherine chuckled, kissing her head. "That's right, baby girl."

"And Daddy will eat anything," DJ said seriously, causing Steve to grin and tousle his hair.

Elizabeth chuckled lightly. "True, but his favorite pizza topping is sausage."

Steve inclined his head, smiling.

"What's your favorite, Grandma?" Angie asked.

"I actually like green peppers best."

"It's cool how many pizza toppings there are," DJ said. "That way everyone can have a favorite."

"I think so, too," Elizabeth agreed.

"Do you have a list of everyone's favorites to help you decide what to put on the pizza?" DJ asked.

"I don't, but you know … that's a very good idea."

"We could make a list!" DJ said excitedly, and Angie immediately nodded, drawn in by his enthusiasm. He looked over at his parents. "It'd be good for when we have parties, too. If we're having pizza, we'd know which kinds to get because we'd know what everyone's favorite is."

"Sweet boy," Catherine said, kissing his head. "I love how you want to make sure everyone has something they'd like to eat."

"But what if everyone likes different toppings?" Ang asked. "You can't get everyone their own pizza. Unless they're really small."

DJ bit his lip, thinking. "If it's a big party, we'd have to get the toppings that the most people would like." His eyes widened suddenly. "We could make bar graphs to keep track! Right, Grandma?"

Elizabeth beamed. "Excellent idea, honey."

"What's that?" Angie asked.

"We learned them in school," he told her. "You color a square for each thing you're counting, and the highest is the one the most people like."

Angie tilted her head quizzically and DJ paused, trying to think of another way to explain it.

"Pretend we have LEGOs. You take one red LEGO for everyone who likes pepperoni best and make them into a stack," he said, motioning as if building a tower of red LEGOs. "And you take one blue LEGO for everyone who likes sausage. And another color for the other toppings. Except you can draw the stacks on paper instead." When she still looked confused, he said, "I'll show you," and she smiled, immediately reassured, knowing he wouldn't give up until she understood.

"This is starting to sound like one of Grandma's sneaky math lessons," Catherine said with a wry smile.

"What can I say? Math is everywhere," Elizabeth said with a shrug. She grinned and motioned to what remained of their dinner. "Including in pizza toppings."

"Jacob said his favorite is pepperoni, too," DJ said the next day, looking down at his trusty notebook where he and Angie had started a list of their family and friends' favorite pizza toppings. "And Kaitlyn used to just have cheese pizza when she first decided to be a vegetarian, but now her favorite topping is mushrooms because Grandma Ang told her to try it."

Steve grinned from the armchair where he was sitting with Angie. "I thought you were going to the Allens' to play games, not conduct a pizza survey," he teased.

"We did play games," DJ said, sitting next to Catherine on the couch.

"Yeah!" Angie echoed. "We played Jenga and the blocks fell and we made it again and they fell again. So many times!" She beamed, leaving little doubt what her favorite part of the game was.

DJ laughed. "Yeah, it was so fun! But when we had snack, we asked what everyone's favorite pizza topping was so we could write them down."

"That's my boy, multi-tasking," Catherine said, giving him a side-armed hug. "Who else's favorite did you learn?"

"Aunt Jenna likes ham and pineapple," DJ reported, referring back to his list. "Casey likes white pizza with bacon. It doesn't even have tomato sauce! It uses …" His voice trailed off as he tried to remember. "Some kind of cheese …" He looked up at his mother for help.

"Probably ricotta cheese," she said. "A lot of white pizza recipes use ricotta."

"Yeah, that's it! Ricotta cheese. That's why it's called white pizza 'cause it doesn't have red sauce. Casey said she never had it before she went to school in L.A."

"Can we have it, Mommy?" Angie asked.

"Sure, honey. Next time we have pizza."

"Tonight?"

Catherine chuckled. "Not tonight, baby girl. We just had pizza last night, remember?"

"Tomorrow?" Angie tried again.

Catherine shook her head in amusement. "Maybe next week."

Angie pursed her lips and held out a pinkie, which Catherine dutifully hooked with her own in a pinkie promise. Satisfied, Angie settled back against Steve so DJ could continue.

"Cody likes sausage best, and Jess likes …" He leaned closer but shook his head, holding his notebook up to Catherine and shaking his head. "How do you say this, Mommy?"

She looked at what he'd written and smiled. "Pizza Margherita. That's the classic Italian pizza, Nonna would approve."

DJ's eyes widened. "We should call Nonna and ask her favorite, too!"

"Yes!" Angie agreed, instantly excited at the thought of calling one of her favorite people in the world.

Steve smiled. "That's a great idea, I'm sure she'd love to hear about your project."

"I'll add her to the list," DJ said, carefully writing Nonna's name in his notepad. After he finished he said, "We know Dylan's favorite, too. Jacob said it's pepperoni and sausage and ham and bacon, but he only has it when he's not at home because he doesn't want to make Kaitlyn upset."

"Ohh, that's very thoughtful of him," Catherine said.

"Yeah, Kaitlyn said she knows that's his favorite, and she thinks it's sweet he doesn't eat it around her even though she said it's okay if he does."

Catherine smiled. "That's because she's very thoughtful, too."

DJ nodded.

"Well, you two made quite a bit of progress on your pizza list," Catherine said. "Are you going to start your graph now or wait until you have all the information?"

DJ and Angie looked at each other and smiled slowly. "Now!" they said together, and jumped from their seats, racing toward the playroom.

Steve looked after them, chuckling. "Who would've thought learning everyone's favorite pizza topping would be so much fun for them?"

"Are you really surprised?" Catherine asked. "Kids and pizza. They go together like … cheese and tomato sauce."

"… and this… is an abomination. Bacon and eggs on pizza?" Danny clutched his heart after looking at a list DJ had printed of the many different pizza toppings. "There aren't words for how wrong that is."

"What's a 'bomb-i-nation'?" Angie asked her uncle.

"It's something that's so crazy wrong no one should do it." He pointed to the list. "Like some of these toppings. Kale? Kale is a vile weed. Why deface a perfectly good pie like that?"

"It's actually not bad," Gabby said with a smirk.

"Only because you have so many great qualities and nobody's perfect will I let you get away with that statement," Danny teased, kissing her temple. Turning back to the list, he said, "Did your father ever tell you he ate snake pizza? Because if anybody is going to truly ruin pizza that's the way to do it."

"Snake pizza?!" DJ's head swiveled to look at his dad. "Did you really eat that, Daddy? Or is Uncle Danny being silly?"

"It was eel. Eel pizza is very popular in Japan," Steve said. "And as I told him once, eel tastes very different than snake."

"I'm sure it tastes very different than grasshoppers too, you animal, but that doesn't mean they belong on a pizza." He pointed. "Look see that, Nonna's favorite pizza is margherita which back in our neighborhood in New Jersey they call tomato pie. Simple. Simple and perfect."

"Hey, Uncle Danno?" Angie looked up at him. "What's your favorite again?"

"See that, you went on such a tangent she forgot," Steve busted.

"My favorite is plain cheese pizza. Once in a while I get pepperoni. That's it."

"Cheese is good," Angie said. "That's Ashae's favorite."

"Oh, your bestie," Gabby said, smiling. "What about your best friend, DJ? What's Michael's favorite pizza topping?"

"He likes pepperoni, same as me."

"I bet there are a lot of people who've said pepperoni when you asked, aren't there?"

DJ nodded. "Pepperoni and sausage are the top toppings so far." He giggled at the phrase. "But you're the only person who's said olives, Aunt Gabby."

She smiled. "I kinda like being unique."

Steve nudged Angie. "If you really want to gross Uncle Danno out, tell him what Uncle Chin and Aunt Kono's favorite is."

Danny waved a hand. "Don't, don't even bother, I already know," he said, rolling his eyes. "Speaking of abominations."

"Do you remember?" Steve asked Angie.

She grinned. "SPAM and pineapple!"

"That's just wrong," Danny said, shaking his head.

DJ made a little face. "I don't like SPAM either."

"Very sensible," Danny said approvingly.

Gabby rolled her eyes and smiled at the kids. "Who's next on your list to ask?"

"We're going to have dinner at Kamekona's and Esther's so we're going to ask them," DJ said.

"I can already tell you the big guy's choice," Danny said. "Shrimp. Mark my words."

DJ grinned. "I think so, too."

"I love shrimp, don't get me wrong," Danny added, "but it does not belong on a pizza any more than SPAM or kale does. Now Esther, she's also very sensible. She'll probably have a nice normal topping choice." He made a face. "Then again, she married Kamekona so … I guess we'll see."

"Esther likes green peppers and onions best, and me and Uncle Danny were right and Kamekona said shrimp is his favorite, but SPAM was a close second," DJ said as they looked into the computer screen at their L.A. family later that evening.

Aaron made a face. "SPAM on a pizza. I can't even imagine."

"It's not that bad," Steve said. "You should try it next time you come to the island."

"Don't trust anything he says," Mary countered. "My brother would eat anything and say, 'It's not that bad.' "

Aaron grinned. "Maybe, but I'm willing to try it. If he tries jalapeños on a pizza."

"Deal," Steve said easily.

"Is that your favorite topping, Uncle Aaron?" DJ asked, picking up his pencil to write another entry on his list.

"It is, but I don't have it a lot with these two around," he teased, nudging his wife and daughter. Joan made a face, shaking her head at the thought of the spicy peppers. "When my dad and I have pizza together, that's what we have."

"What's you' favorite, Aunt Mary?" Angie asked.

"Anchovies," Mary said with a smirk.

"It is not," Steve immediately countered.

"What's that?" Angie asked.

"Little fish," Joan told her, making another face.

"There are people who like anchovies on pizza," Steve said, "but you're not one of them."

"Okay, okay," Mary admitted. "I'm not. Though Aunt Deb is. I don't know if it's her favorite, but I've definitely seen her eat it. My real favorite is a little unorthodox, but not totally out there. I really like barbecue chicken pizza."

"Ooh, that is good," Catherine said.

DJ and Angie looked surprised. "You can make barbecue chicken pizza?"

"You sure can," Mary said. "With barbecue sauce instead of pizza sauce. It's delicious."

Angie looked at Catherine, opening her mouth to ask, and Catherine smiled. "Yes, we can try barbecue chicken pizza soon, too."

"Next time you come to visit we'll have a pizza party!" DJ said. "And we'll have cheese pizza for Joan, jalapeño pizza for Uncle Aaron, and barbecue chicken pizza for Aunt Mary."

"Sounds good, but what about everyone else?" Mary asked.

DJ's eyes widened suddenly. "We could make a table with everyone's favorite toppings and they could put them on a little pizza! Like a build-your-own sundae, but for pizza!"

Angie gasped at the thought. "Can we, Mommy?"

"I love that idea," Catherine said. "We did something like that years ago on Thanksgiving when there was a power outage. Everyone loved it."

Steve nodded. "They did."

"I remember that," Aaron said. "It was my first trip to the island."

"Was I there, Mama?" Joan asked.

"You were, but you were pretty little." She smiled. "You like cheese pizza then, too."

"What about me?" Angie asked.

"You weren't even born yet, baby girl," Catherine said, tickling her.

"So I wasn't there either," DJ reasoned. Catherine smiled softly, running a hand over his hair.

"That settles it, we'll definitely do a build-your-own pizza party next time you all are on the island," Steve said with a definitive nod.

"That'll be sooner than you think," Mary said. "We just got our tickets to come in July."

"My birthday's in July!" Angie said excitedly.

Mary feigned ignorance. "Are you sure? I thought you already had a birthday this year."

"I didn't!" Angie said, shaking her head seriously.

"Are you really coming for Angie's birthday?" DJ asked, smiling his own excitement at the prospect.

"We are!" Joan said, bouncing in her seat.

"Pretty handy of you to be born in July so we don't have to worry about school or anything in the summer, munchkin," Mary teased.

Angie beamed.

"So start stocking up on all those toppings," Aaron said.

"You mean start clearing out the refrigerator," Steve replied with a grin. He nodded to DJ's notebook. "They've still got a couple pages of people to ask."

"That way everyone can have their favorite," DJ said. "Or they can try something new."

"That's a great idea, honey," Catherine said.

"We can make invitations that look like pizzas!" Joan said.

"Yeah!" DJ immediately replied.

"I'll make the pepperomis!" Angie said.

As the kids continued discussing pizza party details, Mary grinned at their enthusiasm. "Kids and pizza."

Catherine grinned back. "Just like cheese and tomato sauce."

Hope you enjoyed!

Note: The pizza Thanksgiving story is A Savory Change in Plans by Sammy.

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