------ History of Pizza and Pizza Oven Quest------

2010-07-20 I didn't cook this. Pizza Napoletana at Smashing Tomato in Lexington... VPN #312

Pre-2006

London had the 4 Horseman of Crappy Pizza chains. Thanks to "Book-IT!", I still like those personal pan pizzas. Occasionally we would cook a Chef Boyardee kit.
1996 - Go to an Uno's Pizzaria in Lexington for the first time. My life changes. First time I ever had pepperoni that wasn't translucent and sauce that had chunks of tomato.
College - Ate more $5.99/delivered pizzas than any human should.

2006

Purchased house and started experimenting with homemade pizzas since my counter space was measured in square feet instead of square inches. Starting with the Chef Boyardee crust mix and some chunky spaghetti sauce cooking it on the grill. At the time I thought it was good... but it was a fail.

2007

2008 -

Picked up some 6" deep dish pans at William Sonoma. Started cooking Chicago Deep Dish pizzas. Mainly only cook these in the winter due to the oven being on for an hour and a half at 475°F. These ROCK.
Stumbled upon using cast iron skillet on the grill.
Started making dough and sauce from scratch.
Somehow got the idea in my head to build a brick oven.

2009 -

Discovered Peter Reinhart's books "Bread Bakers Apprentice" and "American Pie"... added these to the small list of books that change my life. Others include(but not limited to) "Unix Systems Administration Handbook 3rd Edition", "IBM PC/BASIC Reference Manual", "The New Hacker Dictionary 3rd Edition", and "Engineering Formula's 7th Edition")
Start working on oven on July 4th
Oven work suspended for winter. Aug 22nd.

2010 -

Winter - Lots of staring at the half finished mess in the backyard wondering wtf I've gotten myself into
April - Go to San Fransico and eat nothing but pizza including my first Pizza Napoletana.
May - "Budget? Who needs a budget?" Order oven on May 4 from Forno Bravo. Considered a 28" but my wonderful wife Heather said "What's the point... it only cooks 1 pizza at a time? We should get the 36" oven." Because she's smarter than me(and before either of us can change our mind), I get the 36".
June - Finish the oven enough to cook in it in time for a 3rd of July party.