Journal

Guns & Pizza

17 Comments

Today was the Elders’ Quorum annual “Guns & Pizza” event. This year, because of budget restructuring, we only had about $40 to work with for pizza, which does not buy pies sufficient to feed 20 guys.

No problem. I volunteered to make double-decker dutch-over pizzas for all. The ingredients hit our budget for $35, and this morning I loaded up five dutch ovens with the help of Cort, Will, and Brian.

I wish we’d taken pictures. We made straight pepperoni, BBQ chicken,ham & pineapple, supreme, and pizzagna pizzas, and it turns out that five dutch ovens is exactly how many will fit in TurboSchlock’strunk.

The pies were assembled between 8:30 and 9:30, but we didn’t start cooking them until about 11:30. That means they had time to rise. Sure enough, three of them rose enough that during cooking they brushed the tops of the ovens — which I had thoughtfully brushed with olive oil against just such a possibility.

We had a good crowd show up, and they managed to eat 80% of the pizza (mostly by overeating – each of these pies will feed eight). I was quite pleased with everything except the pizzagna. SOMEBODY (we’ll name no names) forgot to add basil, even after talking about how important spices would be on this most experimental of pies. It turned out kind of bland. Maybe somebody should have added a little salt, too.

Oh, and the guns — Mostly we shot skeet. I was exhausted after eating, so I headed home before they headed up to the pistol and rifle range. I hit maybe half of what I shot at, which stinks, but at least I nailed the very first skeet I drew a bead on. After close to two years of no practice, that felt really good.

17 thoughts on “Guns & Pizza”

  1. I’ve never shot skeet…wouldn’t mind trying some time. For that matter, I’ve never fired a shotgun, period.

    Wonder if we can arrange a Geeks With Guns event at a skeet range?

  2. The last (and only) time I’ve ever shot skeet was out in the desert one fine morning, using a total stranger’s shotgun. He was kind enough to let me play with a number of his toys. 🙂

    ::makes mental note to buy more bang sticks::

    1. 1) Make pizza dough using your favorite recipe
      2) Start the fire. You’ll need about 30 charcoal briquettes.
      3) smear olive oil all over the inside of the dutch oven (including the lid.)
      4) sprinkle some corn meal on the bottom.
      5) Take half of your dough and make a pizza-crust on the counter. It should be about an inch bigger in diameter than your oven. Lay it in the oven on the cornmeal and olive oil.
      6) Top. For a basic pizza, use spaghetti sauce, pepperoni, and mozzarella.
      7) Put the lid on.
      8) Take the number of inches of oven (12 is the usual) and subtract 4. Put that many coals on a concrete pad or other outdoor cooking surface (dirt works. Grass doesn’t.) Put the oven over those coals.
      9) Take the number of inches of oven and ADD 4. Put that many coals on the lid of the oven.
      10) Start a 45-minute timer. The pizza will be very close to done then.

      If you want double-decker pizzas, just add a second layer of pizza crust and toppings atop the first, and then add about 15 minutes of cooking time.

      –Howard

          1. Thank you! Were you able to make all five (dutch oven) batches at the same time (in the bread machine)? I guess it’s time to pull the bread machine out from the dusty corner of my kitchen cabinets.

        2. Bread Machine Pizza Dough or Focaccia

          1 1/2 cups water
          4 tbl olive oil
          4 cups bread flour (read our flour page for more)
          2 tsp salt
          2 tsp dry active yeast

          Add the water and olive oil, then cover the liquid with flour . Add the salt (half each in two corners), then make small well in the middle of the flour and add the yeast. Start the dough cycle, which will last for roughly 90 minutes.

          Coat an oval or square metal baking dish, roughly 9″ x 13″ and 2″-3″ deep liberally with olive oil.

          Take your dough and gently stretch it until it is roughly the shape of you pan, lay it in the pan, and push it into the corners to fit. Giggle the pan back and forth to make sure the bottom of the dough is coated and slides smoothly. Cover and let rest of an hour, or until it has risen by half.

          Push down the center, leaving the edge puffy for a crust.

          If you want the crust crispy, bake it before adding sauce and toppings, about 10 minutes at 450F, or follow Howard’s Dutch-oven recipe.

          For focaccia bread, coat the dough with olive oil and maybe a little sea-salt, and bake for about 20 minutes at 450F.

          ~Rick

          1. Re: Bread Machine Pizza Dough or Focaccia

            When stretching the dough use your fists, not fingers or you’re going to tear the dough. Also how thick should it be? Mine always come out too thick

          2. Re: Bread Machine Pizza Dough or Focaccia

            Or, you know, you could always use a rolling pin. 🙂

            Some of my crusts are too thick, too. If you want to fine-tune the dutch oven double-decker, the second crust should be thinner than the first.

          3. Re: Bread Machine Pizza Dough or Focaccia

            I’d say make it however thick you like your pizza crust. This recipe isn’t too good for thin crust, but fairly adaptable for medium to thick.

  5. *chuckles* I just had an interesting conversation with a friend. Somehow, we joked that her boyfriend would challenge me to a pistol duel (strictly platonic relationship, but we were joking), and then I said, “Well, I’m from Alabama. We use shotguns.” His response? “Well, yeah, but you can’t really kill somebody with a shotgun.”

    Heh. Calls himself a Texan.

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