No Pizza Tonight

Well the wood arrived for the oven yesterday and a friend got someone to make us a bespoke pizza spade - rough and ready but it will do, so it has to be pizza tonight.

 I've never made a pizza base before and my only attempts to make flatbread with Malika's recipe have made really tasty bread but with holes in, which won't do with pizza as the topping would fall through. I decide to cheat and use Asda pizza mix. I'm not sure whether that's a good idea as it is designed to cook at 250C for 20 minutes and the point of a pizza oven is to cook at 350C for 8. The instructions say roll out to a cake tin and then leave to prove for 10 minutes. I ignore them and leave my dough to prove before firming out. It does not rise. Mmfph.
Beloved has been burning the wood in the pizza oven.  He uses firelighters to get it going. The temperature rises to 100C. He adds more wood. It starts to burn. The temperature drops to 50C.
No pizza tonight then.

A Good Journey

We were not looking forward to the journey. Beloved had given me his cold and with my chest I just wanted to do an Elizabeth II and stay holed up under the duvet. Also we were taking out a pizza oven, which was heavy, unwieldy and which we thought moroccan customs may be interested in. We had bought it last May when Aldi had an offer and had not been able to bring it in the autumn because we already had 3 large and 2 carry-on suitcases and the small cars we hire would not fit any more in. We were worried about import duty which we had been told could be 100%. 

In the event it turned out well. The plane was 3 hours earlier than usual for some reason. I did have  hypo going through security but the staff were lovely about getting my chocolate out of my handbag and they now have chairs so I could sit until it worked. We had a following jetstream so the journey was an hour less than usual, and Easyjet had no immigration cards to give out, so, as we had ours with us, we went straight to the front of the queue while everybody else filled them in. In the event customs had no interest in the pizza oven although they were a bit concerned about a whole carry-on of medication. There was a slight delay whilst Thrifty had to phone up to get the hire car brought to the airport. "Thrifty" apparently means skimping on parking charges and with flight being early.....Their operatives were intrigued by the pizza oven. We left Marrakesh just about in daylight and were home by 10.30 pm which was unbelievably civilised.

I've been hunkered under the duvet recovering but Beloved has been doing. He tells me the marguarite we transplanted just before we left is doing well

 and that the geraniums are thriving and flowering.

 Even the morning glory had some flowers.

 I'd had a quick look at the hedge when we got here and it does seem as though the regular pruning regime is making the holes fill up. 

Beloved spent the afternoon assembling the pizza oven and installing it on the patio.

 We had originally bought it with the terrace in mind but then realised that that would mean taking all the wood up 3 flights of stairs and bringing the ash down so we are trying it downstairs. Beloved says if it starts smoking his patio walls he will banish it upstairs and live with the hassle.