Monday, October 15, 2007

Whew...




This will be quite a short post. The bag lady is truly bagged today. She was a very industrious little bag yesterday and put up (canned) a whole whack of pizza sauce.



The bag lady had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year and has been canning like a crazy person. (she figures that counts for something toward saving the environment...re-using the jars...)


The pizza sauce is for use on the pizza we make in our outdoor oven. A couple of years ago the bag lady decided to build an outdoor oven to bake bread and pizza. It took a long time (and a false start), but she finally got the job done. The result is not especially aesthetically pleasing, but it works. There was a minor blip when a very small part fell off (back to the drawing board), but it has now been repaired and works beautifully.



You haven't had pizza 'til you've had it baked in a wood-fired oven! It cooks extremely quickly (perfect pizza in around 2 minutes!) and tastes out-of-this-world. Of course, the home-made pizza sauce might make just a teensy bit of difference, too.

We have enjoyed several pizza parties - we supply the oven, dough, sauce and toppings, and everyone makes their own pizza, and brings their own beer! Fabulous, and great fun.
And yes, the bag lady built the oven in the photo 98% on her own - she had some help one day with mixing the cement for the cladding. (unfortunately, taking full responsibility for building it also means she has to take full responsibility for how ugly it is, and for when things fall off...)




9 comments:

Dawn said...

That pizza and bread oven looks like fun. My hubbie is building a smoker in our wee orchard this summer so I think I might now start selling him on the benefits of a woodfired outdooor oven too.

Reb said...

Honey, if it works, do you care what it looks like?

Where did my spuds get to, by the way? lol

Leah J. Utas said...

Someday I will get up there and take you up on the outdoor pizza.

Hilary said...

Sounds absolutely yummy! And very impressive doing all that by yourself. I'm useless when it comes to building things.. and I wouldn't trust it if I did build it. Good going. What are your own specialty toppings?

the Bag Lady said...

Dawn, you'll never regret it - there's a great site on the internet http://traditionaloven.com
where I got most of the information I used to build my oven. Good luck convincing the hubby! It really is so much fun.
Reb, your spuds are coming just as soon as they get transport.
Leah; anytime, girl, anytime.
Hilary, I love anchovies on my pizza, plus everything else, except pineapple (doesn't agree with me) I love to build stuff - doesn't always look great, but as long as it works, who cares, right?

the Bag Lady said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Terrie Farley Moran said...

Hi Bag lady.

You have been busy. I like how the oven looks. It looks like it belongs right where it is.

Now we all know where to go for a pizza party!

Terrie

Crabby McSlacker said...

Pizza party, I'm so there!

I love pizza even when it's mediocre, so I can't imagine how heavenly is made with your sauce and the special pizza oven.

Be prepared for an onslaught of blogfriends knocking on your door begging for slices!

the Bag Lady said...

Whoo-hoo - don't forget the beer, gals!