Day Three Hundred and Six - Pizza Stone

Dear all,

For Christmas last year, I had given Darren a Pizza Stone, inspired by our pizza-making efforts, but was yet to Christen it as part of our kitchen ensemble. A pizza stone is a flat stone used to evenly distribute oven heat to pizzas ( or other baked goods); they apparently hold more 'thermal mass' than metal or glass. The porous quality of stone also absorbs water, resulting in an authentic, crispy crust. Delicious!

I set to work and [as always] made way way waaaaay too much. Making pizza is most certainly a new found love and it gets two thumbs up from Darren too as we can easily freeze it afterwards as opposed to having pounds and pounds of food left over in the fridge for days on end.

I slow cooked the tomato sauce for 4 hours, throwing in tomatoes, garlic, onion, herbs and [of course] the orgasmic onion seasoning.

I then cooked up 3 types of pepper including jalapenos, mushroom, corn and fresh tomato. I cooked up a pound of bacon, 8 hot Italian sausages and used two types of salami. I also grated up 2 balls of mozzarella, 2 types of Parmesan and a good dose of Feta. A hearty meal.

It is important to heat the stone in a cold oven which is then warmed over 45 minutes to prevent the stone from cracking and then again, left to cool gently while the oven cools down. ooo and don't leave it in the oven if you have a 'self cleaning' feature. It will end badly.

I sprinkled the stone with corn meal ( recommended to prevent sticking) and started layering on the ingredients. *Luckily* I had enough for one more pizza after this one.. so we ended up with about 12 pounds of pizza.

And for dessert: A whole tray of sample cakes from Vince!!! What a treat! I will be running tomorrow... yikes!