Pizza Oven Saga & recipe

The long awaited pizza oven on our property was about 5 years in the making (thought, design, research and then actually getting around to it.)

Collecting materials for the big day

Well and truly under way with the help of some friends

With the help of friends (and beer) we are getting somewhere...

Finally on last layer

Cooking!

Yeah baby..

So I'm happy to share resources or do's and don'ts on the building but for now lets just get a pizza dough recipe.

To make life easier for everyone (including myself) i use instant dried yeast but where possible fresh yeast is heaps better.

Pizza Dough

4 cups flour

1 tsp salt (maldon or good quality)

big sprig of fresh rosemary and/or thyme

1 Tbsp sugar

1.5 tsp dry yeast

about 3 quarters of a cup of tepid H20

Method:

Put flour and salt into bowl

mix yeast, sugar and water in another bowl

when yeast activated add wet to dry

mix  into dough and knead for 8-10 minutes

put into oiled bowl and cover with oiled clingwrap

rest in warm place till doubled in size (varies on temp.)

Punch back, add herbs, knead lightly,

cut dough into fist size balls

knead lightly and let rise slightly (about 1/2 size again)

roll out and your ready to let imagination run wild with toppings

Masterpiece of writing from Heckler(SMH)

I HATE vegetarians, with their sanctimonious, prissy, holier than-thou-attitude and determination to be as big a pain in the arse as they can be.

Take the dinner party. Out comes the food and out comes the wail: "Oh, but I'm a vegetarian." Oh, brilliant. A bucketload of guilt for your host, and even if you warned them it's still a bloody nuisance to have to prepare something special for you. Would it kill you to eat meat just this once?

Vegetarianism has until recently been the sole realm of the food crank.

Suddenly it's all the fashion, another symptom of the affluenza sweeping the developed world. Young women make the lives of restaurateurs and dinner hosts a misery; earnest environmental worthies tell us on breakfast TV that they have become vegetarians to save the planet. Apparently all the farting cattle are contributing to global warming and using up too much water. Try living in the Third World - citizens there are grateful for every bit of protein they can get.

Vegetarianism is gluttony, the gluttony of delicacy to have your food and drink served to you just the way you want it, no matter what inconvenience it causes others. Not eating meat or fish or eggs because of the cruelty or slaughter or factory farming is not going to make one iota of difference to those animals' lives. Buying food that is not factory farmed and pressuring politicians to legislate for the more humane treatment of livestock will.

In any case, livestock and domestic animals have made a pretty good bargain with us. They are fed better than they would be in the wild, they are protected from predators and parasites and they have medical support and treatment that they would never get in the wild. Yes they have to lay down their lives for us and we regularly steal their offspring from them, but this would happen in the wild too. Not eating meat because you can't bear the thought of dead flesh indicates psychological issues.

To me, it seems to be mainly young women who fall for the vegetarian (or worse) vegan claptrap. Is this the same reason that anorexia and other eating disorders seem to be the preserve of this demographic? In that case vegetarianism could be seen as just another mental illness. So stop being so prissy about your food and sink your teeth into a nice juicy steak. After all you have nothing to lose but your hang-ups.

First post on my new bloggie thang

thought this pic was great representing my blog and a thankyou to my wife for helping me set this up, our two favourite things united meat (mine) and sewing (hers)

photo from elemental stitches