Here Comes The Rain Again

As I stated in my blog of 9-24-12 that I don't predict the weather, but based on my observation of nature I made an assumption that this would be an early winter, since the leaves started turning in mid August. I also know that what we call winter in the Bay Area is a rainy season, not winter as I knew it growing up. So, hang in there back East with hurricane Sandy.

Sandy is my mother-in-law's name, and if this storm is anything like here it will be a real bitch for sure.

I spent last weekend getting ready for this storm covering up wood stacks, putting a tarp on the  teardrop trailer, a little painting, etc. I went up on the roof to do my annual inspection.

The weather reports turned out to be correct for a change. The National Weather Service was accurate for a change and we got 3 inches of rain before the weekend, and two foot of show in the Sierra mountains, and that translates into 1/8 of the rainfall California needs for the entire year of 2013.

I hope an early winter translates into an early spring. In other words, let's get the friggin rainy season over quickly.  So, the best summer weather I can remember in my 40 plus years of living out west comes to an end. It was a beauty. Change is a constant. I do like the crisp winter weather, and the sunrise and sunsets in the spring, winter and fall are incredible.

So, my recipe for this week is another dish from Geraldine, my beautiful wife, created for a party we had two weeks ago. About 6 or 7 weeks ago we got the latest addition of Saveur magazine, and Geri and I have been making recipes from it since it arrived in our mailbox. This is the 101 classic recipe issue. Each page you turn makes your mouth water. Page 76 has a recipe that caught Geri's eye for Lamingtons.

Lamington's is named for a 19th century governor of Queensland, Australia. Since Geraldine is Irish and her kin were banished to Australia, most likely because they were criminals, at least in the eyes of the British monarchy, it's a classic paring for her. Lamingtons are cubes of buttercake dipped in chocolate and rolled in coconut flakes. It's a dense cake, but when baked correctly comes out moist, and Geri rocked this one.

I know I say this all the time but Savuer rules when it comes to cooking magazines. Bon Appetite can't even come close.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

Lamingtons

Ingredients:
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted plus more for pan
1 cup flour, plus more for pan
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2  tsp. kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs separated
1 tsp. vanilla extract
8 oz. milk chocolate chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
8 oz. unsweetened shredded coconut

Directions:
1) Heat oven to 450 degrees. Grease and flour an 8" X 8" baking pan, set aside. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl, set aside. In a large bowl whisk sugar and egg whites until soft peaks form. Add butter, egg yolks, and vanilla. Fold until combined. Add dry ingredients and fold until smooth. Pour into the greased pan and smooth out the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool for 20 minutes, and and then invert the cake onto a rack and cool completely. Cut into 16 squares, and set aside.

2) In a bowl place the chopped milk chocolate. Boil the cream in a 2 qt. saucepan on high heat, and pour over the chocolate, and let sit for 1 minute. Stir slowly until smooth. Place coconut on a sheet pan. Roll the square cakes in the chocolate and then roll them in the coconut. Chill in the fridge until the chocolate sets, about an hour.

Geraldine..not my best shot for sure

Lamingtons

Fried Bologna and Jerry Garcia

Bologna comes from Italy of course, and it's really called mortadella. Mortadella often has flecks of fat, pimento, and pistachio in it. FDA regulations make it illegal to produce Italian style bologna/mortadella here in the USA, and call it bologna.

American style fried bologna sandwiches were a staple when I was growing up. Mom would buy bologna in chunks, not pre-cut slices,  cut it by hand, and fry it up in a cast iron skillet on her electric stove. She only bought kosher Oscar Mayer bologna. It was in a red tubular plastic package with their logo and writing on it, and it was about three and a half inches in diameter, and about a foot long. The grocer would cut off the size chunk you desired, and you were good to go. The grocer gave the end pieces away because no one wanted them, and of course they were the best part. My moto is and will remain; "If it's free, it's for me." The plastic casing made it easy to cut the exact size slices you wanted, and then you just peeled off the plastic, and fried it up.  I can't find that product anywhere in the east bay, and when I go to grocery stores I look for it on the off chance that they might have it.  Oscar Mayer is owned by Kraft Foods, and almost every OM product that they have now is pre-cut, and a lot of those products are "light" bologna.

I'm a purist when it comes to fried bologna sandwiches. I'm talking beef here, not turkey or chicken, and definitely not light beef bologna. I've seen a bunch of videos on You Tube for this sandwich, and I'm always disappointed. For me a fried bologna sandwich is beef bologna inside two slices of white bread, that's it. There's no mayo, mustard, ketchup, melted cheese, celery salt, or thousand friggin' island dressing. Just white bread and bologna, bologna and white bread,  got it.  It has to be fried in a hot cast iron skillet, or it won't get blackened around the edges or in the center.  If it doesn't blacken, or bubble in the middle, and if it's doesn't hiss when you poke the raised middle with a fork, you got yourself a defective product.

I won't eat balloon bread by Wonder any more. When we were kids that was the bread du jour for fried bologna. If you look at the ingredients on Wonder bread it's not a pretty sight.  I use Rudi's organic white bread, out of Boulder Colorado. It is a diversion from the classic fried bologna sandwich, but a good diversion for sure. Anyhow, check out Rudi's, it is delicious. The best white bread going. A nice Pilsner or India Pale Ale goes well with this sandwich, some potato chips, and maybe a kosher pickle on the side. I always eat two sandwiches. One sandwich alone will not satisfy my craving, which thank the gods is only once or twice a year, or if I need subject matter for this stupid blog.

So how did I weave Jerry Garcia in with fried bologna. Well, I got this email from someone saying that all my recipes were about meat, and more meat, and aren't hippies supposed to be nut sprout eating Mother Nature's children, and why aren't I promoting a more healthy gastronomic sustainable image for the planet? Good question, and please go fuck yourself, and that's with the middle finger righteously extended. The planet will take care of itself when we're gone Jewl. In the hear and now I teach, not preach, moderation, that's my mantra. You want to be a vegan cool, good for you. A macrobiotic, please, by all means. A breatharian, yoga, second coming of Jesus, delicate genius using all the politically correct terminology bullshit you can sling, I don't eat anything that has a parent bullshit rap, do it, be it. Not nice to throw stones Baby.

I was playing a music benefit show in 1989 in San Francisco with this band that I had been in for the previous 2 years. Two years is a good run for a band. We were called the Steaming Seaman with alternative spellings of "semen" depending on the intended crowd. It was a benefit concert for Brian Wilson who was an anti nuclear activist, and this was definitively a semen crowd.  Ed Asner was the MC, we opened the show, and Jackson Brown, Nick Gravenities from Electric Flag, and Jerry Garcia were headliners. There were a bunch of other bands as well, and the place was filled with hippies of course, waiting to see, Jerry of course. It was held at the Mission Cultural center,  which holds a couple of thousand people.

We did our thing, played our set, and I was hanging around outside back stage drinking beers and smoking reefer when this beat up early 70's white Econoline Van pulls in, and Jerry Garcia is in the passenger seat with this wasted old hippie driving. The driver looked like I do presently.  Now this is Jerry Garcia of the Greatful Dead, King of the Deadheads himself. The grande hippie of the universe. He's smoking a cigarette, and the dashboard of the van is littered with fast food wrappers from Jack in the Box, slurpy containers from 7 Eleven,  you name it. After he and his driver went inside I had to investigate the van more closely, and the whole engine cover was piled high with candy wrappers, empty crumpled Camel cigarette packages and the like, spilling onto the floor of the van, and into the back of the van itself, which was also a total mess.

This is your natural born organic American hippie. Compared to him I am a health nut, and that's my point for the week. Moderation didn't work for Jerry, or many others of my generation. It was full speed ahead for Jerry. We lost one of the great ones when he died. Instead of playing a show with Jerry I would have loved to have cooked for him, and I'll bet he would have requested something that had a parent, but I'm glad I got to do the show.

Preaching is not my profession as I mentioned earlier. Everyone should be able to live their life the was they choose as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. Many times the choices we make do affect the people around us, especially the ones who love us the most.  I don't know how that might relate to celebrities who are idolized by others. Do they have a responsibility to lead a more exemplary lifestyle? I don't think so, but that's just me. He lived a full life in only 53 years.

Jerry left us plenty of great music to listen to, and hopefully I'll leave a couple of good recipes for people to use, and fried bologna is one of the them, in moderation.

So, this is sandwich number three of my top ten best sandwiches of all time. Notice that I said this is was MY list.  The first on this illustrious list, if you one of the four people who have to much damn time on their hands, and are following my blog will remember, was Croque Monsieur. The second is pulled pork.

It's very tough to narrow great sandwiches down to just ten, but again they're my ten best.  Stay turned on, and tuned in because the best is yet to come, hopefully.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

Rudi's organic white bread

4 pieces of fried bologna/cast iron pan

fried bologna and white bread, white bread and fried bologna 

The Man Jerry Garcia

sunrise back yard Oakland 10-21-12

Fall Planting

I got my act together this year and planted my winter vegetables two weeks ago. We planted green and red kale, spinach, chives, iceberg lettuce, arugula. As you can see by the photos below we're not talking about a large quantity of food, but just enough to feel good about producing something for yourself that didn't come from the store.

We all had gardens growing up back east. Quite a few of my Italian and Polish cousins lived in our same neighborhood. My father Rocco's cousin Danny had a garden last time I was back in Connecticut. Danny was pushing a hundred years old, and that garden was producing like crazy.

The soil in New England is a rich musty dark brown, and when you picked up a handful, put it to your nose you could smell mother earth, and you knew instantly that this was where you came from, and that this was where you would return when your journey on this planet was complete.

My grandmother Angelina bought little pieces of land when she got an extra fifty or hundred dollars. You could buy a lot, a whole acre, for fifty bucks back in those days. Our house was where she had her big garden. She had a milk cow, pigs, chickens, and a little red barn.  She had red grapes and Concord white grapes, and made a crude form of wine. One year my Dad made some dandelion wine, which turned out to be vinegar.

There was a slight slope to our property, and my father had the garden configured so you could put a hose with a small trickle of water at the top of the garden, and it would irrigate all the rows of vegtables of the garden all the way down.

He explained to me how the Romans had built the aqueducts, and that our little garden in dirty old Danbury Connecticut was operating on the same principle of moving water that had been perfected thousands of years before. Or as the old man might have said; "Water moves down hill kid."

Gardens were a source of pride, and the people with the best gardens had bragging rights all year round because what wasn't used or given away was canned. Old tomatoes made great bombs to throw at people's cars, and made wonderful weapons for a food fight with your friends.

So, for this blog I'm going to give you a simple salad dressing recipe, and that's it for this week. The veggies are nice, but they need something to accompany them, to make them shine, and this salad dressing will do just that. It goes well with some nice crispy frisee', cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives,  cucumber and dandelions.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War


Toasted Sesame Salad Dressing

1/3 cup of dark toasted sesame seed oil
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
pinch of celery salt
1 tsp fresh crushed garlic
2 tbs dark brown sugar
crushed black pepper to taste
1/2 tsp onion salt

Let chill for at least one hour. Mix well and drizzle over fresh organic greens and veggies. Toss lightly.

winter iceberg  lettuce, dill and cilantro

kale, chives, arugula

the old homestead...garden was to the right

Toasted sesame salad dressing

Geraldine's Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Chunk Bundt Cake

I'm always blogging about my recipes, and experiences with food, but there is another side, or in my case, my better half, and that is my wife Geraldine. Having sustained a relationship for almost 25 years is my proudest accomplishment in life. I see a lot of people in this world who are alone and just as many who are in unhappy relationships and I just thank my lucky stars. I don't even want to think what my little world would be without my wife.

Geri, as she is called by most of her friends, is a great baker, and comes from a lineage of fine bakers, especially her grandmother Elsie who's chocolate cake, made from scratch, could induce a pallet organism every time I ate it, which was often. We had Sunday dinner with Elsie almost ever week, and there was always some chocolate cake to be had. Gram, as Geri called her, was the queen of freeze and thaw. Anyway who's ever done any baking will tell you that sheet cake freezes easily. Gram's, aka the old trout, the old bat, or dust in a dress, chocolate cake was light, delicate yet firm, moist, full of chocolate, and oh so damn good. For someone who never knew his grandparents this was always a special time for me, and food was always front and center at these weekly gatherings.

About a month ago we had a backyard benefit party for my old friend Michael David Evans who lives in England, and is very disabled. Geri and I have been raising money to bring him back to the West Coast. I made pizza, and Geri made the deserts and salad. She made her famous chocolate chip cookies, and a sour cream chocolate chip chunk bundt cake which I couldn't stop eating. People ate so much pizza, I made 12 pies, that they were too full to eat dessert, so I got to scarf down a third of that chunk cake all by myself the next two days after the event.

My back is on the mend, and I should be blogging more in the future. I have also been editing cooking videos from our trip to Paris in April which I hope to get on line before the first of December. We shall see as the blind man once said.

Without further ado.

chocolate

melted chocolate

chocolate, sugars, cinnamon

layer #1

layer #2

In the oven

Geri and Janet

Perfection

Geri's Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Chunk Bundt Cake: (bundt pan needed)

Ingredients: (for the batter)
*2 sticks of unsalted butter
*1 1/2 cups sugar
*3 eggs
*2 cups all purpose flour
*1 tablespoon baking powder
*1 teaspoon baking soda
*1/4 teaspoon salt
*1 coup sour cream
*1 teaspoon vanilla
*5 oz. Scharffen Berger 62% Cacao semi-sweet chocolate chopped into 1/4" cubes

For the Strussel Topping
*2 oz. Scharffen Berger 62% Cacao semi-sweet chocolate
*1/4 cup granulated sugar
*1/2 cup brown sugar
*1 teaspoon cinnamon
*1 cup toasted walnuts

Preparation: (for the cake batter)
1) preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2) Grease pan generously, and dust with flour

3) Beat the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy in a kitchen aid using the paddle attachment, add the eggs one at a time, and add the vanilla extract.

4) Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together. Gradually add the flour mixture with the sour cream, and then fold in the chocolate pieces.  Set aside.

The Strussel:
1) Melt the 2 oz. of chocolate in a double boiler stirring until melted

2) Remove the chocolate from the heat and mix in the toasted walnuts, and then add the sugars and cinnamon.

The Cake:
1) Pour 1/2 the batter in the bundt pan, and add 1/2 the strussel mix.

2) Cover that with the rest of the cake mix, and then top it with the rest of the strussel mix.

3) Bake for 1 hour or until the toothpick comes out clean when inserted.

4) Let it cool on a rack, unmold, and serve warm or at room temperature.

You can't go wrong topping this dessert with some fresh cool whipped cream or ice cream.

A nice 20 year old Tawny Port goes great with this...

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

Nothing to Give

Sometimes you have those weeks, and you got nothing to give. I do feel an obligation to produce a weekly blog.When I start something I usually don't give up. Where it all leads me who knows. That's the big question of the universe. I know there are a few people who actually read this blog so that keeps me motivated to write each week. On the other hand I don't get paid to do this so, fuck it.

Lately life has been just a little tough. My back has plagued me, and I actually was in the emergency room, walking with a cane, pain pills, steroids (which will make you psycho),  basically the whole nine yards of lower lumbar pain. So, do I care about blogging right now, not really. When you've got what feels like a screw driver stuck in your ass, and a pain down your leg, and every move is agony I could care less about writing something.

Along with the pain I still have a viable business to run. One that I have had for almost fifteen years. I actually like what I do for a living, unlike a lot of people. I feel very fortunate to be able to make a living at something I enjoy.

Every once in a while life puts out a little piece of shit, and it says; "Eat this asshole", and you don't have much choice. That's just the way it is. Sure you'd rather have a slice on pizza with anchovies, but that's not on the menu.

If you're wondering where I've been this last week or two that's it. I haven't done much cooking either. For the two or three people who do read this I'll be back soon. I am on the mend.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

cooking at a friend's wedding this summer

Summer Fades to Fall

This Saturday September 22nd, at 10:49 summer passed into fall. School is in full swing. Mom's and Dad's are back to the grind of shuffling work and kids school schedules. Seniors are taking their vacations off season. Ranchers are moving their herds back in from grazing out on the range all summer. Cattle and wildlife will be in rutting season soon, and farmers are bringing in the crops.  This summer we have had the best weather that I can remember. That means very little fog.

 I love summer, and hate to see it go. I'll miss the fresh strawberries, the asparagus, the long days and nights,  swimming up at the Russian River, bikinis, motorcycles, driving with the top down, and barbecues to name just a few things.

Here in Oakland California the leaves have been turning early this year. I don't predict the weather, but based on what nature is telling us it looks like it might be an early winter. I've heard that El Nino is scheduled for a comeback. Winter in Oakland means rain,  and there are a number of reasons I'm living in California, specifically the Bay Area, and the moderate climate is at the top of that list. I know we need rain, and where there is water there is life. The great thing about living here is that if I want snow it's only 3 hours away. I can play in it for a couple of days, and come home to the Mediterranean climate that I have become so accustomed to living in.

I also love the fall season because it is harvest time. This is when the growers and producers of food reap the bounty of their labor. The corn, the squash, the wheat, the apples, pears, nuts, the grapes, crush time, and canning. So, before summer fades from sight I'm going to give you another summer recipe.

My friend Kevin and I were arguing about the best method to cook corn the other day. His method is to cook it on the grill and in the husk. I shuck the husk, add a little olive oil, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes or cayenne (optional). His method steams the corns, mine cooks it Indian style. With his method you have to clean those funky little hairs inside the husk. My method you just skip that task, and let the heat burn the little hairs off. This method bring out the natural sugars in the corn, and sugar as you know is highly addictive. You won't need dessert after eating this corn.

finished product..white and yellow corn

Indian corn on t he cob

Korean style BBQ ribs

on the grill

So, here it is. My preferred method to cooking corn on the cob, Hippie/Indian style. When winter has set in real good I'm going to get some corn on the cob, and BBQ it just so I can remember summer again.

I also included a recipe for Korean style beef short ribs.


Hippie/Indian Corn On the Cob

Ingredients:
Corn on the cob
salt and pepper
olive oil
red pepper/cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions:
Note; (I'm using a gas grill for this recipe. If you're using charcoal wait till your coals are nice and white, and you're good to go)

1) Remove husk from the corn cob, and remove as many of the little hairs from the corn as you can.

2) Rub a light coat of olive oil all over the corn, and apply salt and pepper, and any additional spices desired.

3) Place corn on the grill, and cook it till it's golden brown all around.


Korean Style Beef Short Ribs

Ingredients:
2 lbs beef short ribs

Marinade:
1/4 cup sliced green onions
1 oz. dark sesame seed oil
6 cloves of garlic crushed
2 tbsp fresh grated ginger
1/4 cup Mexican Coca Cola
4 tbsp warm water
1/2 tsp white pepper

Directions:
1) Marinate the short ribs 1 hour before putting them on the grill on high heat.

2) Cook a couple of minutes on each side till they are firm but not overcooked.

That's it.

Peace...Make Food/Not War

By Bread Alone....Post #3...Cooking Methods

This is the last installment of the By Bread Alone blog series. Previously in blog #1 I explained how to make a classic NY style Neapolitan pizza. In the second blog I discussed toppings, and included 26 different suggestions for toppings.  This blog addresses heat sources to cook pizza.

There are many ways to cook pizza. I've cooked pizza on a camp fire before, in our wood fired pizza oven, electric stoves, gas stoves, and camp stoves. At our family restaurant in Connecticut we cooked pizza in a gas brick oven at 550 degrees, and we made the best pizza I've ever ate. So, let's discuss some of these methods briefly, because I'm ready to wrap this series up, and move on.

First, let's establish that it's the floor of the oven that needs to be hot, and the heat needs to come from the BOTTOM, and circulate around. If you don't have a hot floor your pie will cook on the top, and be doughy on the bottom. That is the worst possible case scenario. There is nothing worse than doughy pizza. Have I done this?  Be serious. Hell yeah. Yes, I have fucked up pizza, and everything else in my life every which way possible. Not really, I'm prefect, it's the rest of the world that's fuct.

Camp fire pizza is great. There's nothing like being outdoors with the big sky, the stars, and nature all around you. You can make your dough in advance, and keep it on ice in the cooler with your toppings till you get to your camp site. Or, you can make your dough at camp, let it rise, punch it down, let it rise again, shape it, and you're good to go. You'll need a flat round pan, and your fire heat needs to be between 550 degrees and 700 degrees. Bring a digital infrared laser thermometer along with you. I've seen them as cheap as $37.00 on line, and upwards as high as $250.00. This is a real treat for you and your friends because how many people cook pizza on camp outs?  It will be a big hit, and you will be the envy of all the other campers around you. Personally I like to camp where there is no one else around. If you make the dough there at camp site you will need a thermometer for your water also, 115 degrees.

Wood fired pizza ovens are expensive. I looked for 8 years on line for an oven that wouldn't cost me 10 K and I finally found one. You can make your own cob oven also. I'm going to be doing this with a friend starting next Wednesday. There is nothing like wood fired pizza. In my book this is hands down the best way to cook pizza. The wood and smoke give you a flavor that no other heat source can duplicate.

There are nice wood fired ovens on line that are made of steel, and the wood fire box is ON THE BOTTOM. These are some cool looking ovens. I was very tempted to go with one of these, but it in the end I opted for a kit oven.

Forno Bravo came up with the wood fired oven that we now have for around $2500.00 plus shipping, plus the stand. If you're a do it your self er, like I am, you can make your own stand out of cinder block. Then make a form of reinforced concrete and put the oven on top of that etc etc. I had a metal frame fabricated, and I had it built so I don't have to stoop over.  I also had wheels mounted on it so I could move it around a little. This cost us an additional thousand dollars. Forno Bravo had a number of kits to choose from, and we got the 34 inch, the smallest one. If you get the biggest maxi-dweeb pizza oven they sell you're still only going to be able to cook one pie at a time in there, so why spend more money when you don't need to. You will need help putting this together. This is not a one man job, and Forno Bravo's instructions are not very helpful, but this oven ROCKS.  If you're going to get a stand fabricated make sure it is solid. This model weighs a thousand pounds plus. If you get a 34 inch oven like we did make sure the top of the stand is at least 46 inches square. The inside of the oven is 34 inches, then there's 3 inches of concrete, 3 inches of fire blanket on top of that, chicken wire, and then two coats of stucco, for a total of 42 inches.

This oven will get up to 1000 degrees, and you can do low fire ceramics in it. I like to cook my pies  around 650 to 700 degrees. It takes about 2 hours to get the ceramic floor hot enough to make pizzas.  At this temperature I can cook a pie in about 2 and half to 3 minutes, but you have to watch it, and turn it a number of times in that short time period. If you try to multi task when that pie is in the oven you'll get burnt every time.

If you buy a kit oven take your time putting it together because if you screw it up your oven can crack, and a number of other things could go wrong. If you go to my blogs, loving my oven series, there are some helpful hints there to avoid these pitfalls. I suggest that if you get a kit like we did that you let it sit for a month in dry place before you put it together. This will allow some of the moisture in the concrete dome to evaporate naturally.  Then you need to follow the curing instructions to the letter. This is also chronicled in my Lovin' My Oven blog series. Forno Bravo did a good job with describing how to cure the oven.

If you want to build a wood fired oven cheaply build a cobb oven. Get a load of clay and dirt and some straw, make a stand, build a form and have at it.  I will be taking pictures and video of the one my friend Rick and I are building out at his place, and I will be posting photos, and detailed instructions on how we did this on line. There are ovens in the mountains up by our cabin that the Basque sheep herders built in the late 1870's that have survived right out in the elements. If you keep it covered from the rain it should last you a lifetime, and you can build a beautiful one for $400.00 or less.

The wood you choose is up to you, or you can use charcoal or coal for that matter. If you use wood you need a hard wood. I have a couple of cords of Juniper wood from our property in the high desert
that I'm still using. Stay away from soft woods such as pine or redwood. They're ok for kindling, but simply won't burn hot enough. Oak, walnut, apple, cherry, eucalyptus, are all good woods to burn. Forno Bravo tells you to only burn wood, no charcoal, no coal, and no starters such as lighter fluid. Wood is easy to find here in Oakland. Not many people use wood to heat their homes any longer, and there are places you can just pull up with your truck and load up.

There's a place in San Francisco called Lazarri's that sells wood and lump charcoal to a lot of the pizza makers in the Bay Area. The cool thing about Lazarri's is that if you purchase a cord of wood you can take home what you need, and come back any time for the rest. It's like a bank account. It's wood account.

I never use starters such as lighter fluid. You don't want you foods imparted with these traces chemicals. They are toxic and harmful to the human body.

Cooking pizza in an electric oven works just fine. You get a nice even dry heat, and very little fluctuation in temperature. You need to keep your pie ON THE BOTTOM rack in a round pizza pan. Put a little olive oil on the bottom of the pan so it doesn't stick, or you can use coarse corn meal, which is my preference.

A gas oven is great also, and that's what I've been using at home till we got the wood fired oven. Again, again, again and again, BOTTOM RACK. If you have an oven that burns hotter than the standard 550 degrees more power to you. At 550  degrees my pies takes about 6 minutes in our gas oven. I still use the gas oven or the gas grill if it's just Geraldine and myself.

We have your standard Charcoal Webber grill that uses charcoal, and if you want that smoke flavor in you pies you can get it that way. You can also use chips and get some added smoke if you really love the smoke. I'd rather just light up a spliff myself.

Gas grills are my second favorite way to cook pizza believe it or not. Our gas grill will get up to 1000 degrees when the top is down, and it  has a smoker as well. It's just like an oven in there with the top down. Once you figure out how long it takes to cook a pie with a gas grill you can avoid the loss of heat from opening and closing it while checking to see if it's done. Just set your timer and pay attention. Experiment.

We have a little camp stove, and I have made pizza right on it before. We used this to heat our yurt cabin, and it cooks pizza perfectly. It has a nice flat top. You can put the pies right on that top, and they cook in about 4 minutes.

You can cook pizza in a frying pan if you need it that badly, gas or electric. Put a little olive oil in the skillet, then the pie, and cook the bottom till it's done. Flip it over,  put you fixins' on real fast, put a lid on top to help melt the cheese, and cook till the bottom is done. I'd do this on medium heat so it cooks through and through.

That about covers it. this has been a fun series, and I hope the three people who read this blog like it.
Feel free to contact me with questions or whatever.

Once again.

Peace...Make Food/Not War