Pizza Party

Friends of ours recently installed a backyard pizza oven...they had oven, we had beer...party! We bought a baby keg of hefe-weizen on a recent trip to Phoenix.

After the keg was nearly dead it was time for some food. Here was a really amazing salsa of shrimp and veggies:

The womenfolk headed to the kitchen to prepare the food to be cooked later - these ovens hold a lot of heat so they wanted to maximize the fire. A chicken in every pot!

And a pizza on every board!

And into Dante's inferno with ya you mis-shapen freak!
The ugly ones always taste best.

Lets fast forward through about a dozen pies and some chocolate chip cookies. Now it was my turn. Here's a little boulè that I whipped up.

You'll notice the chicken hiding in back, some quick breads on the side and who knows what off to the right. It was a left leaning group but we did seek political balance in the oven.

And near the tail end of the night, out came that chicken.

A great night of food. Soon you'll see a review of a book I did for The Gastronomer's Bookshelf that includes some great recipes for this type of cooking - possibly the most perfect cookbook I've ever read.