Thank you! It looks like creamy goodness inside a crunchy crust. This is on my list now...

Chicken enchiladas
homemade guacamole
cheese nachos
raw carrots / celery / cucumber

dessert still tbd, maybe mix of citrus and Girl Scout cookies. I also have a big baklava assortment.

Last night had Spaghetti Amatriciana - haven't had that for years and it's so easy and wonderfully flavoured.

did you use pancetta or another bacon derivative?

It's Beggin'™! ;)

Tonight, bucatini with shrimp and broccolini in an olive oil sauce. My love of garlic continues, and thankfully my wife puts up with it :).

Saturday's project is to clean up the grill, as we're supposed to get into the 60's for a few days next week. It was covered under several feet of snow until a couple days ago. I'll be grilling anything I can find in the house if we get lucky and have 61 with sun!

how was this, esp the peach cobbler?



happy grilling!!!!! So fun
what’s the dessert for tonight?

Caesar salad
roasted potatoes with herbs de provence
grilled chicken thighs with lemon/garlic sauce

Israeli Soul cookbook's Chicken Schnitzel. Well worth the overnight marination.

Homemade home smoked pulled pork sandwiches and coleslaw.
Simple yet oh so good.

Cellarmakers Detroit style pizza - cheese, mexican, Mexican sausage, India paneer
baklava assortment
beer
scotch Nikka
total 10mg

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ca4d219df.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...300961c30.jpeg

Everything tasted fine, but none of it was very memorable. That was #5 of 6 pickup dinners, and probably the least favorite so far. The cobbler was very average. Our final dinner this week is paella, which we're looking forward to.

Desserts are rare in this house, unless we have company or it comes as part of a set, like the pickup dinners. Last night, and most nights, nothing.
Honestly, if you put a fantastic dessert side by side with anything made with garlic, onions, salt, and pepper, or even just a bag of chips, I'd pick the savory item 10 times out of 10. No sweet tooth at all. My mom eats dessert twice a day...not sure how I missed that gene.

Tonight - large cheddar brats with sauerkraut and some type of fried potatoes. We just purchased a mandoline that my wife has been wanting, so her chance to test it out on a couple potatoes!

Were you at a party--I didn't think that you were a drinker. What is Cellarmakers?

Outdoor poker evening
so the pizza felt thick like lou malnattis thick. It’s not deep dish per se but it felt deep. Either I’m not ready to eat deep dish again or my pizza cooking is way too thin for the crust.

cellarmakers was delicious and also enough to impede me from cooking or eating pizza for awhile. Maybe it doesn’t help that I ate 4 big pieces, because it all looked great and why would I eat the salad when the pizza was there to eat.

baklava was a hit and the host told me to take it back home - the 5 of us ate half the box.

Which brand of brats?? Evergood makes them and I’ve only seen Johnsonville brand at Safeway for cheddar brats.
how are you doing the sauerkraut or is it jarred like my Rotkohl?

we were lucky to get the paneer. Here are screen shots of their paneer and sausage pizzas. I’m very thankful for the host having so many pizza choices. Note the honey option.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c7f0d20551.png
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5f291850c0.png

Was there an actual pizza beneath all of those toppings? Sorry, I’m old school 2-3 traditional toppings, max for me.

Yeah, Detroit style is all the rage these days. It's popping up everywhere in Chicago. I have to admit it's not my favorite style, crust is too thick. I love pizza, but Detroit style, kind of like deep dish, is more of a change of pace than a go-to for me. I don't understand why all of a sudden it's so popular, it's existed for quite a while. But I have to think the excitement will fade within a year.

It was the Mariano's store brand from the meat counter. The last ones we had were delicious, better than we expected.
Sauerkraut - Frank's from the can, the gold standard here in the Midwest :). I like it straight from the can and heated. My wife's parents came from a European country that has it's own style of sauerkraut, so she grew up with a "doctored up" version - it's sweeter, has what I believe are brown sugar and some spices (caraway I think), and sometimes a meat/sausage. In that situation, the brat is bun-less and the kraut is a side dish. We'll be having my style tonight. I know it's of German origin, but how do I post an American flag emoji here? :D

Lol...those pics made me want some! But I'm not sure it's pizza...

agreed - the online menu is a bit much yet these were delicious because they were there. When I hosted poker night, I had more traditional round pizzas with 1-2 toppings maximum.
if anything, it’s like comparing classic sushi maki versus modern sushi rolls with multiple toppings.

Ooh sweet.

I know there are other Sf places for Detroit pizza that don’t use homemade paneer or Mexican sausage. when I think of sausage pizza, I picture only italian sausage and no other style of sausage. I know places might offer kielbasa or linguica or chorizo or chicken apple as optional toppings, but not as the default for their “sausage” pizza.
again I am so happy that this was served so now I know cellarmakers pizza!

Aren't you the person who was appalled at having even chicken (such as CPK thai chicken or bbq chicken pizza) on a pie?
If you make Detroit pizza at home all the time ---how is that not a thicker crust? And a different dough and method.

Just got a wood fired pizza oven this week. I did the bake out to cook off any manufacturing residues last night and the dough is currently fermenting to give it a go tonight. Wish me luck on not carbonizing it!

Another lazy dinner last night. I got a tub of fresh hummus and chopped cucumber/tomato/onion salad from the Persian market, put some TJ's falafel and a fresh, cut up Italian sausage in the air fryer, plopped the hot stuff over the hummus, sprinkled aleppo pepper all over, served with some warm corn tortillas.

Tonight will be similarly lazy. I expect it will be a bake at home Costco pizza which I'll doll up with some shar kooturey and maybe a vegetable.

Please keep us updated on the results and post a link to the model if you like it!
I can't help but look them over every time we're somewhere that sells them. But have so far been happy using a pizza stone on my grill (but not wood fired of course).

If I’m a guest in someone’s poker game, I eat and thank them for the amazing catering. Huge difference from going to a restaurant as a paying diner and possibly having to eat CPK bbq chicken as a shared entree.
My Detroit pizza is thinner than what I had last night. I cannot fully explain what happened for my Detroit pizza to be so thin, but it’s thin.
So fun and enjoy!!! Please keep us posted.

Dinner last night was Gnocchi with Spinach and Italian Sausage, recipe here:

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/...icken-sausage/

This was easy to make and really good alongside a glass or 2 of Trader Joe's boxed cabernet :D

Will do. Getting ready to start the first pizza and will grab a photo if it comes out nice.

First attempt at pizza margherita. Looks like the dough might have been a bit too bubbly and the oven a bit too toasty. Will keep at it!
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...bce831b25f.jpg
First attempt at wood oven pizza margherita

Original Joe’s style grilled steak with sautéed red onions and side of spaghetti with Rao’s marinara
original Joe’s meat ravioli, cooked and topped with Rao’s marinara
spaghetti with pecorino cheese and a side of steak
mixed green salad

Thank you for posting!
It looks gorgeous and delicious. How did it taste??

Very nice. Rao's marinara is pretty great! We like to use it for both pasta and pizza.

Crust flavor was good where it wasn't too burnt, but a bit gummy. I think I'll try to let the flame die down a bit for the next iteration; this one was too hot. I also learned there is such thing as too much sliced mozzarella on a pizza, and will put less on next time. We had been doing our pizzas in a Breville toaster oven before, which was a bit easier to be honest :)

How much control do you have over the temp? I love it when the crust gets bubbles . Nice job.

Right now still learning the temp control. It’s a function of airflow using the damper in the chimney, wood to charcoal ratio in the fuel, and timing of the fuel addition to when the pizza is put in. Bubbly crust credit goes to my partner, who makes sourdough breads and now pizza dough. We made enough dough to make six more pizzas this weekend, so hopefully that will help in learning the temperature management. Our neighbors are going to be getting some snacks, haha.

Have you got a pic of the oven? That sort of porn is quite welcome 'round here. ;)

Sort of a strange combo tonight:

King crab legs (boy, those are expensive!), homemade salted caramel/chocolate chip scones, orange slices

I love the bubbly crust. Now that I think about it, It's the main reason I love pizzas from the Round Table pizza chain so much. I think you have the dough perfect.
Not near enough toppings to make it a complete meal for me though.

Wish I was your neighbor ;) Close to perfect IMO. Minimal toppings work the best (for me) as some of the best pizzerias around here do them but of course there are lots of styles and lots of different tastes.

Amount of toppings is the real trick. We prefer Chicago tavern-style pizza (the most popular here for good reason), which is a thin, crispy, almost cracker style crust, typically with lots of toppings. You should be able to hold a slice without it drooping over. But when I try that at home, the crust doesn't get crispy enough. So I cut down on the amount of sauce and cheese we would like. It's still a great pizza, but not really tavern style. I don't know how all the bars and pizza joints around here do it so well.

Me too.

Thank you for the kind input. We like minimal toppings too, especially on the cheese front. This one had a bit too much cheese since it eyeballed the slices from the package without measuring. Nearest good pizza places to us are 1-2 hours drive away, so we make due at home.

Too much cheese? No such thing.

There is when one’s partner is mildly lactose intolerant :eek: but we make due

lactaid tablets?? We use it for our Saturday fondue supper.

Don't say what you make out loud, because without subtitles ......

I am interested in two things:
1- How charred was the bottom?
2- What was your dough recipe and did you adjust it for the heat of your new oven?