A Trip to Hockenbergs, Groceries and A Dough Making Party

The evening of Friday, June 29 Scott and I decided to fire up the Pizza Oven for a Fourth of July celebration we were hosting the following Wednesday. We never planned to have the oven ready this early, and therefore found ourselves unprepared. Unprepared for what you ask? We hadn't yet purchased all the 'fun baking supplies'.  The Pizza Peels. The Professional Pizza Cutter. How about that apron? We didn't have a thing!

So on Sunday night I went to www.fgpizza.com to purchase supplies. Yes, I realize it was only two days until our party but I had hopes I could get it shipped overnight. I put $326 worth of items in my shopping cart, and calculated the overnight shipping costs - $322. Yes, you read that right, it cost nearly as much to deliver our items. I could have purchased a round-trip airline ticket for that price! So we decided to wait until after our first firing, and pick up a few items at Hockenbergs Tuesday morning.

Outside Hockenbergs after spending $xx on supplies!

Scott and I woke up early Tuesday, July 3 and made the trek to Hockenbergs in Eagan. We had a great time and could have spent the entire day browsing the shop. We spent $308.71 on supplies. The Pizza Peel selection wasn't great, but we had to buy at least one! After Hockenbergs we hit the grocery store for supplies.

I bought an infrared thermometer (Kintrex IRT0421) through Amazon, as we decided not to bury thermo-sensors through our slab and oven. After researching this in depth, we learned that they can go bad, not get placed properly, and the infrared thermometers are reliable.


We have a pool in our backyard, and the temperature was crazy hot the night before the 4th. So several of the neighborhood kids found their way to our pool, along with their parents. I had to get the dough made, and many parents were enjoying the evening, so Scott and I ended the evening making dough in our kitchen with all our friends surrounding us. There were a few Gin & Tonics shared that evening as well. It was perfect.

I made five batches of the 'Classic Pizza Dough, Neo-Neapolitan Style' from Forno Bravo's website while Scott made two batches of the 'Crushed Tomato Pizza Sauce' from the same site. We hit the pillow dreaming about pizzas ...

OK, the dough on my face is not accidental!