Pizza Party #4: Casual SUCCESS!

I know, I know ... I should really stop posting successful Pizza Party stories. But I've decided I am only going to post when we have reached a new goal. Sunday night we reached the goal of 'casually' lighting the oven, when we didn't have any plans that morning.

I was out of town when Scott sent a text to our friends, "Not many warm days remain. I've started the heater on the pool, come and join us." That afternoon we had a pool full (although the hot tub was equally busy due to the cooler temperatures). Scott said, "Should I start the pizza oven?" I don't do anything last minute. I am am organizer. I plan everything. This kind of question stressed me out. But I said "Yes!" because this was one of my goals ... could we crank up the oven last minute, and use dough from our party the week before to feed a few friends? I learned, yes we can!

Yummy S'More Calzone. Nutella, Graham Crackers and Marshmallows.

She looks miserable, doesn't she?

We set up all the toppings outside again. Nice night!

It only took us a couple hours to heat the oven, which was perfect as we were all hanging outside. Scott experimented with using less wood, which resulted in a cooler oven making the pizzas a little harder to cook. Why he did that neither of us really know. He learned from the guy that sold us our chimney (I will post on that later, once we get it installed) that we should start the fire slowly, and build over time. He did that all night. He was also anxious about using up the remaining four boxes of hardwood we have left. I didn't realize that until the end of the night, in which I told him my dad was bringing six more this weekend!

I was a little anxious we would run out of dough, but by the end of the night we were all stuffed! We even made an apple-mascarpone pizza. Yummy! The night was another success. Have I said yet that this oven rocks?

Things necessary to fire the oven at the last minute:

• Must have dough made. I'm still using Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day. It was still great after sitting in my fridge for one week.
• Must have basic ingredients on hand. Cheese (mozzarella), olives (can), pizza sauce (jar), pesto (frozen), onions, garlic and dessert ingredients. 

We've Got Gas

I'll admit Scott is staying more motivated with continuing the oven than I am. Once this thing was ready for a firing, I was ready to party and put the completion on the 'back burner'. The day following our third Pizza Party Scott got out there and hooked up the gas burner.

As I mentioned previously we purchased a gas burner that sits in the back of the oven for times when we 'need a little extra heat'. Not sure how much we will use it, but for the cost (in comparison to the overall project), it seems like a good idea. Today he got it hooked up!

Pizza Party #3 - Another SUCCESS!

I'm not sure how long I can keep up with these positive posts, but once again we had a very successful Pizza Party. Our friends, Mark and Kari Kyllo, came for the evening with their kids Jane, Rose, Thomas, and Teddy. Our goal for the night: Create some new dough recipes, and focus on new pizza creations. The night exceeded our expectations. In addition to meeting our original two goals, the oven burned much hotter than previously, and we were organized enough to involve our guests. It was my birthday and I have to say, "What a night!"

Mark, Teddy (squished in the middle) and Thomas
with their Pizza Creation!

I purchased the book Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day for my own collection, as I knew I would use it regularly after reading through the author's first book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I made three dough recipes; Naan, Napoletana, and the Kid's Favorite. The naan was delicious! We made that first, and ate it as an appetizer with homemade hummus (Paradis' recipe), baba ganoush (from my CSA's eggplant) and artichoke dip. Not sure we needed anything after that, but we continued ...

The Naan rolled out nicely, and cooked up well.

Next we cooked up the Kids' Favorite recipe. The dough rolled out great - very easy. We got the kids involved, and Thomas was the first one to make a pizza. He made several after that, including one with olives (his favorite) and one with Nutella, graham crackers and marshmallows. I'm sure you aren't surprised that one went fast!

Next we moved on to the Napoletana dough, and it was sticky. I have to admit when I made it the night before I was multi-tasking and could have made a mistake on measuring the flour. Although it was much harder to roll out because it was so sticky, the flavor was good and we enjoyed the crispness since it was thin.

Fresh cherry tomatoes from my garden.

Pesto, from my garden, along with mozzarella.

My favorite .. Onion and Goat Cheese.

We were all stuffed by the end of the night, including the kids that were very satisfied with all the different pizza combinations.

Something we weren't expecting from the evening, was the oven burned so much hotter than the last two firings. The only thing we changed, was burning hardwood all evening. Wow, what a difference! There were times when Scott had to mop down the floor to cool it down, which we never had done before. A couple weeks ago I purchased a full logger's cord of hardwood that will sit at my parents for the next year curing. In the meantime my father is supplying us with the ends of hardwood boards he is collecting from building cabinets.

This video pretty much sums up the evening. Everyone got involved making the pizzas, and we had a ton of fun. Have I said it yet that this pizza oven ROCKS?

Thanks Mark and Kari for a perfect birthday evening ...

Pizza Party #2 - SUCCESS!

Tuesday, July 17, Scott and I hosted our Second Pizza Party. My knitting friends, The Spiderwomen, who I've been knitting with for ten years now were great guests. They were patient with Scott and I, and gave some great feedback. The party was a total success!

Rachelle, Liz, Angie, Alana and Kristin - Thanks Spiderwomen!

The oven worked so much better this time; Scott was able to keep the heat up and the pizzas cooked at a much higher heat. We are assuming it was due to having the box built over the oven, which helped to retain the heat. We can't wait to see how much more the heat will hold once we get the perlite poured inside the cavity, and the roof built on top. Scott improved upon his fire building skills as well.

This photo looks so professional!

I had made a different dough for this party, and it rocked! A friend of mine had mentioned she was into baking bread recently, and was using the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I know the author, Zoe Francois, whose kids went to school with mine in Minneapolis but had forgotten about the book. So I ordered it from the library and made their pizza dough. It was amazing! It rolled out beautifully. I immediately ordered their new Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day from Amazon. I can't wait for it to arrive.

We had purchased additional tools through www.BrickOvenBaker.com since our last firing, and that helped. The 8" Banjo peel rocked! The only complaint Scott had was the metal handles on some of the tools got too hot; we'll have to get that figured out.

In summary ... We had such a fun night, the oven was hotter and the dough was easier to use. Big improvement. Now I need to work on finding some recipes. I'm learning this is a continual learning process.

The Box is On

Over the past two weeks Scott has been busy preparing the 'box' that will go over the oven. Originally we thought we would use metal 2x4's and Durock to build the box. But after researching the weight load of the 2x4's, we didn't feel they would hold up our rock facade and the decorative 'cap' we plan to put on top. Once again we contacted our experts, and researched the internet for solutions. The cheapest fire-proof solution we could find was building another concrete barrier.

Scott spent several evenings after work cutting all the block, and preparing the holes to feed through the gas line. We started the morning covering the oven with a ceramic blanket. It was really easy and went quick. 

We surrounded the oven with a ceramic blanket.
We used high heat tape to hold it down.

After the blanket was on we started building the box out of 16" x 8" x 4" concrete blocks. Bottom line: The job sucked. The 90+ degree temperatures didn't help, but the smaller blocks were much harder to form since you  had such a smaller area of concrete to apply the mortar. But after six hours, we finished. 

I have to admit Scott was the cheerleader through this day. If it wasn't for him, I would have gave up after 2 hours. The heat killed me and the block weren't lining up well. But we finished and that is all that matters. Scott put a temporary Durock top on the box to keep the blanket dry. 

We used three bags of masonry mix. We built the box four blocks high. 

It took extra time to make sure we had the gas line placed properly. After a lot of research, we found a flexible heavy-duty gas line that we used to connect the burner to the valve, that will then go to the tank. We could only find the gas line at Menards. 

Overall I love the look of the oven with the box. The shape is exactly was I was hoping for. As we were building the walls I realized, "This sucker is tall!" A BIG thanks to my husband for getting me through the day. Teamwork is a good thing.

We are planning to fire the oven up Tuesday night for another Pizza Party! I need to get reading about pizza dough ...

The First Firing!

The morning of the 4th of July we woke up dreaming about pizza. It was the day we had been waiting for ... our first firing! I'll begin by saying it was a complete success; we didn't produce our best pizza (at least we hope), but it got ate and we learned a great deal.

Scott had spent the previous day splitting wood. My parents live near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) in Northern Minnesota, and in July of 1999 a huge storm roared across the remote woods leaving behind a large path of fallen trees. My father's passion is trees. Growing them, cutting them, building with them, simply breathing them. He loves trees. So he got a permit to trees that had blown down, and we are fortunate recipients of that wood.

Scott lit the first match in the oven around 2:00. I wish I could say it was ceremonial, but I didn't even know he was doing it! I was inside preparing for our guests.

Around 3:30 I removed the dough from the refrigerator, divided it into balls, and formed each into a tight ball just as the directions said. At about 5:30 we began making the pizza. It was horribly hot outside, so we decided to construct the pizzas in our basement kitchen.

That's when we started having problems! The dough wouldn't 'stretch'. It would just keep bouncing back to its original shape, making the crust thicker than we had hoped. I've never made homemade pizza dough in my life, except from the bag you get at the grocery store where you just add water. I need to do some serious research in this area. Despite the problems with the dough, the pizzas turned out pretty good. 

Everyone kept telling us we would burn our first pizza. But as I imagined, Scott didn't. He did an amazing job at managing the fire. His patience is something I'll never have. At first he had a hard time keeping the heat up, but figured that out as we neared the end of the day by increasing the fire in the back of the oven. Once we get a 'box' built over the oven, we are hoping the temperature won't fall as quickly as it did. 

The best part was seeing the kids so anxious to take a bite of the pizza!

In addition to the dough not 'rolling out' we had major problems with the dough sticking to ... everything! We added so much corn meal we went through my entire CSA supply given to me the week prior, and that wasn't enough. It became a group effort just to get the dough onto the peel.

But overall Scott and I had a great time. We loved making the pizzas, baking them in the oven, and more importantly sharing them with friends. We can't wait to fire the thing up again!

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!

The Oven is ON!

Thursday night Scott placed a one-inch ceramic pad on top of the slab and started placing the firebrick. The firebrick will be the base of the oven - where we cook the pizzas. Once again, we had to do some research about the placement. Nothing is simple with this project. Do we stagger them? Do we set them on their side, or flat? Do we mortar them in place? After reading through my blogs and sending messages to my experts (thanks - again - to all of them), we decided to lay them flat (only 2 1/2" high) and not stagger them. This would minimize the cuts we had to make in the brick.

I forgot to take a picture of the final brick placement.
Here is a view from the oven front.

Scott and I have been talking about moving the 800# oven out of the truck and on to the base. I called my 'friends' at Victoria Repair & Mfg. and asked them if they would drive their forklift over. They said, "Sure!" So today they drove their forklift the 1.7 miles through the big town of Victoria to our house. Within minutes Tim and Chad had that thing off the truck and on the base. Piece of cake! All for $50 .. a steal.

We had to make some adjustments, but it moved easily.

Thanks to my photographer, Ryan Hill.

And there you have it .. the oven is ON!

As I write this, Scott is at Home Depot getting the materials to build the box that will go on top of the oven. We are hoping to fire the thing up July 4th. We'll see ...

A Good Deed

When I picked the oven up from the shipping warehouse, the ceramic pad, door, gas line, etc. were under the oven. I wanted to get that ceramic pad out of there before the guys come to move the oven because we have to stack firebrick on top of the pad, and I don't want them waiting for me to get it done.

So today I drove to a local welding shop in Victoria, called Victoria Repair and Mfg. I walked straight into the welding shop and simply asked, "Could you lift an 800 pound pizza oven out of my truck so I can pull some boards out from under it?" The guy didn't blink when he replied, "Sure, let me get someone for you." Within minutes a nice young gentleman was driving a forklift toward me. It took him all of about 5 minutes to lift the oven while I pulled the boxes, gas line and ceramic boards from underneath. 

Once we were done I walked back into the shop and asked, "How much do I owe you?" He said, "For what?" When I replied, "For lifting my pizza oven out of the truck", he said, "Nothing. Consider it a good deed." I do my friend. Thanks! 

Pouring the Structural Slab

Scott got home from work, finished up the framing, and we poured the slab. By the end of the night Scott said, "This part of the project exceeded my expectations!" In a nutshell, it was a piece of cake.

We used 13 bags of Quickcrete 5000. Quickcrete 5000 consists of a commercial grade blend of Portland cement, sand and gravel, and is used when you need a little extra strength.

Those 80# bags are heavy!

After filling the frame with 13 bags we needed so little to complete the job, but didn't want to mix a whole bag and have left over cement. What would we do with it? So Scott started scrapping out the concrete stuck to the sides of the mixer! We were able to get 'just enough'. We couldn't have planned it better.

I don't think it took us more than 45 minutes to mix all the concrete, pour it and screed it. Simple. Light work. The easiest task pf the project thus far. Although cleaning up the mixer and tools was a pain in the behind.

Now for the next challenge: How do we get the 800# oven out of the back of  my truck and onto the base? Before going to bed, Scott sent an email to our neighbors. The Subject Line was 'Free Beer': 

"Thought that would get your attention ... I have free beer for anyone that can help me out on Friday night.  I only need about 15 minutes of your time. The slab was poured tonight for the oven and the next step is to get the oven out of the back of my pick-up and on top of the slab. Please let me know if you would be available Friday night and what time: 7PM, 8PM or anytime.  After I hear from everyone that can help, I will confirm the time. Looks like Friday will be hot so bring your kids and wife (or girlfriend if you prefer) for a swim in the pool. Thanks."

Building the Slab Frame

Scott spent the weekend building the frame for the Structural Slab. He built the sides out of 1x4's. Our goal is to have a 3 1/2" deep Structural Slab. Many Alan Scott Style ovens build a much deeper structural slab (5 1/2"). But we know the thicker you make your slab, the more time you spend heating your oven because the whole slab (and oven) has to get hot before you cook. We were told by the owner of Artesian Ovens, that 3 1/2" is a good amount, as you don't spend a full day heating your oven and yet it lasts long enough to feed a large crowd. Once again we went back to our goal: Make an oven that we can use to host a Pizza Party. We realize it isn't going to stay hot as long, and that is why we plan to insert a gas burner that we can use to 'crank up the heat' if the temperature begins to fall during events. Once again .. focus on the party.

Placing the rebar right after we poured the walls.

Scott placed plywood on the 'floor' of the slab (in the hole), which was held up with three 2x6 T's underneath. This will be removed once the slab is hard. At least that is our plan!

After the walls were dry Scott started laying the rebar and realized we had too large of a space between a couple sets of rebar. I read that they shouldn't be any closer than the depth of your slab (3 1/2") and max of 12" apart. We originally placed the center two rebars 15" apart, to prepare for our ash slot (so the rebar wouldn't have to run through it). But we were concerned about strength more than convenience.

Laying wax paper over the plywood, so it will remove itself from
the concrete easily. Notice the placement of the Ash
Slot (as far forward as possible).

He put up some braces to hold the frame in place. We are ready to pour!

Pouring the Walls

We knew we would be mixing about 20 - 80# bags of concrete, and the little tub we were using for the masonry mix wouldn't work. We needed a mixer. I was too cheap to pay $70 for four hours worth of rental (Eden Prairie Rental), so I searched Craigslist. I found a guy in Bloomington who would rent me an electric mixer, 6 cubic feet, for only $40 per WEEK (Tom @ 612-237-8821). As I was driving back with the unit attached to my mini-van, I wasn't quite sure I would make it in one piece (the thing was a bit unstable), but the money we saved made it worth the dangerous drive. I'm making Scott return it ...

We placed rebar all the way down in the corners, and into two holes in the middle of the long sides. About one foot apart we put short (18") pieces of rebar; these will be used to tie the rebar across the  structural slab. In the plunge-cut holes Scott cut earlier, we laid two rows of rebar. We tied all the joints together with rebar wire. Fairly easy job.

As for all the remaining holes, we jammed them with paper, plastic bottles, and whatever else we could find. This prevented us from having to fill every hole all the way to the bottom with concrete. If we were to do it again, we would have filled the holes before laying the rebar. But it worked.

Our daughter, Paradis, jamming the holes with paper. 

Scott shimmed a 2x4 in the bottom opening, so concrete wouldn't fall through.

Then we started mixing the concrete. The mixer worked great. We used 3 bags of left-over Masonry Quickcrete (green) and 6 bags of the basic Quickcrete (yellow bag). We simply poured the concrete from the mixer into a wheelbarrow, and then scooped it out with a shovel and poured it into the holes. We used rebar to 'tap' it down into the holes. Pretty simple.

Preparing the Base

Scott was motivated to continue progress on the base, so after work today he created a 'knock out bond beam'. He plunge cut the top row of blocks and knocked out the small wall; this will give room for the rebar.

We are fairly confident his 'mask' doesn't meet OSHA standards. Yep, that is a washcloth tied in the back with a bungee cord. I added a mask to our Home Depot list!

After the slots were cut, he put 3/8" rebar in the four corners (all the way down to the bottom), and one more column of rebar in the middle of the long sides. These six columns will get filled with concrete. He also put small pieces of rebar (18") about 12" apart in-between these columns; these will be used to connect the rebar 'grid' on the top slab.