johnreilly

patio in progress

Patio-making is a process. We’ve spent the past several days working on it, and though I’m tired as hell, it’s starting to look pretty dang good.

I’ve been keeping up with the photos on Flickr, so you can follow the progress there, but I’ll just call out a few highlights here.

We started with 3 cubic yards of class 5 rock:

Turns out this wasn’t enough. We wound up having two more yards delivered. Then got another half yard. Maybe we don’t measure depth so well. In the end, we moved 7 tons of rock over the weekend. With a yellow wheelbarrow. Which broke.

After each layer of rock was put down (about 2 inches or so), it had to be tamped down with a plate compactor which did an amazing job of rattling every piece of dish ware in our kitchen.

We learned that Katy is much better at this than me. That’s okay, I have no pride. It gives me a chance to sit down.

This is serious business. There may have been a casualty here or there.

Once we got tired of moving rock around, we attached some plastic edging to the ground with big ol’ 10 inch metal stakes. The edging (hopefully) keeps the forthcoming sand and bricks nice and tight.

Next, sand. The white PVC pipes are guides which keeps the sand at a uniform depth as we spread it around.

After sand, comes bricks. Lots of bricks. This is where I become an old man and start complaining about my back.

As we reached the opposite corner, we realized our measuring wasn’t so great. After repositioning the side edging about 3 times, we (err, I) finally decided that perfection wasn’t necessary and let the sand take care of the small gap. Thankfully, Katy is able to remain cheerful despite my crabbery. :-)

And, here’s what we had as of last night:

(Note the shiny new red wheelbarrow.) Tonight, we’ll be picking up 100 more pavers and maybe laying more sand & bricks. Either that or we’ll sit in the grass drinking beer.

The end is in sight. I’m spec’ing grills.

first layer of rock done

Day one of the patio comes to a close. Witness Katy cleaning up one of the edges of the excavation, and the ceremonial first pile of rock dumped in the hole. 

A short while later, we’ve got our first layer of rock down:

More pictures of the process (from last year) can be found in part 1. Follow our progress this year in part 2.

Tomorrow: we get the plate compactor, and we do our damnedest to finish the rock base. We’ll see…

pizza, part two

(If you haven’t already, see part one here.)

Okay. So the dough has been chillaxing for two hours, and it’s looking all big and puffy again, sorta like this (isn’t yeast great?):

Plop the dough out on to the board once again, and tear it into two equal-ish pieces. Form each into some sort of ball-lump type of shape.

Spread each doughball into your desired pizza shape. 

(That was an advanced technique. Only attempt if you know what you’re doing, or if you’ve already got a couple beers in you.)

We went with two rectangle pizzas, as that was the same shape of the pans that we had. Your shape may vary. Our shape certainly varied:

Next, toppings.  First, sauce. We went with something from a jar. There is no shame in things that come in jars. Except when you’re talking about Italian gravy, aka. spaghetti sauce. But that’s for another time.

Here are some example toppings. We chose to use all of them. Green peppers, onions, olive oil (yes, that’s a topping. Use sparingly), mozzarella cheese, oregano, basil, and pepperoni.

Awesome note: If you want your pizza to not be crap, you must shred your own mozzarella cheese from a mozzarella cheese brick. The only acceptable alternative is to use that fresh mozzarella stuff that comes in a small bucket of water. I’m right about this.

Topping layer one: the cheese.

Topping layer next: the other things.

Looking good.  Finish with another layer of cheese, and sprinkle some pizza-friendly herbs. I generally like to go with either oregano OR basil, but for these we went with both on each and it was plenty tasty.

Pro tip: When finished topping, throw a few drops of olive oil over the whole thing. This tip will make you a pro!

Now bake. 450 degrees Fahrenheit until it looks done. Maybe 15 minutes? Can’t really advise too well on this one… Just keep an eye on it and you’ll be fine.

When done, remove them from the oven and place on a nice cutting board. I’d recommend letting them cool for just a moment, but I’ve got a sensitive mouth roof. If you’re hardcore, just dive in.

Open a beer, toss a salad, cut ‘em up however you’d like, and enjoy.

Thanks for watching. Maybe we’ll do this again sometime.

pizza, part one

Pizza. ‘Nuff said.  Here’s how we’re making it tonight.

First, prep your dough. In a big ol’ bowl, mix together 3.5 cups flour, 0.5 tsp salt, and 1 pkg dry active yeast.  Like so:

Next, in a smaller bowl (or a measuring cup), mix together 1 cup warm water, 0.25 cup olive oil, and 2 tbsp honey:

Mix wet with dry!

You’ll get a dough that looks, well, not very well mixed. This is good. Like this:

Dump the whole mess out onto a board with some flour sprinkled on it. Now roll up your sleeves. Time to knead.

Kneading isn’t that hard. Push down on the dough with the heels of your palms, fold it over, then push down again. Repeat. Over and over.

Here’s what it looks like after about 30 seconds:

Here’s what it looks like after about 6 or 8 minutes:

Notice how smooth it feels. Nice. Sorta like skin, but less creepy somehow. Pat it with your hands. It should have a hollow, almost musical tone. Very pleasant. 

Next. Put a small bit of olive oil in the mixing bowl, and tilt the bowl around so it coats the sides somewhat. Just a bit, don’t need much.

Place the ball of dough into the bowl:

Loosely cover the dough with a bit of plastic wrap, and put in a warm spot for about an hour. Then:

Holycrap. Thank you yeasties. You’ve made my dough awesome. As reward to the tender yeasties, press down once or twice on the dough with a fist, and listen to all the air escape. Satisfying!

Now scoop it out of the bowl, back on to the floured board. Knead a few times more, about 30 seconds.  Then back into the bowl with the plastic wrap, back to the warm spot, and back to waiting for another hour or so.

Now’s a great time to post pictures and write about what you’ve been up to so far. Maybe on tumblr.

More coming, as it happens…