Monday, while I was still madly doing yard work and cleaning, Dale made the dough from the recipe Mike had given him. We'd decided on 20 lbs of flour.
Mike and Lyssa got home late that night. They called from Blythe, and Mike told Dale Sr. to press down the dough.
The next morning he and Dale rolled 60 balls of dough. Lyssa and I went to Safeway to get the beer, the wine, and the rest of the groceries.
Around mid-day, they patted out the dough balls into rounds.
By around 4 PM, they made the first pizza ever in the new pizza oven. Dale Sr. had built the fire early in the morning in there and had been adding wood to it all day.
Lyssa chopped ingredients most of the afternoon. I was setting up for the party.
The party was a great success. People took their own uncooked pizza dough, chose the ingredients they wanted on it, then Mike slid it on to the "pizza peel" which was sprinkled with corn-meal.
It cooked half-way, then he eased the pizza peel under it again and brought it out far enough so that it could be rotated. He was always glad to let those who wanted to try, cook their own, under his guidance.
Here are a few photos, including Dale Jr. and Jerry Gargalione playing and singing for about an hour toward the end (Jerry on the gut-bucket bass). There were always kids swinging on the swings and running about, about 40 guests in all. The core members of my travel club came en masse, as did my computer tutor and his family. His outgoing 3 year old daughter struck up friendships with Ethan and also with the 3 year old son of one of Lyssa's high school classmates.
I was so glad when Lawson and Marie showed up. She had decided to decline the catering job because they wouldn't return her calls in a timely fashion.
The woman to the side of me in the photo is allergic to wheat, so she brought her own non-wheat dough to make her pizza out of.
The following evening was a lovely, quiet, relaxed time. I got back from coaching drama club to find Lyssa making nachos and Mike and Dale Sr. playing cribbage on the cook-shack table in back, drinking lemonade with gin.
Dale Jr. bicycled over with Shelby, and Mike and Lyssa were teaching her to play cribbage.
Dale Jr. and I were holding Waylon so that she could play cribbage. (I got a lovely photo of him, which I will send to your display device, Mom, as Lyssa does not want photos of the baby on blogs. )Later in the evening he got a little crochety, and Dale Jr. got my guitar and played quite close to where I was holding the baby on the swing. He was entranced by the guitar-playing for a half han hour before getting crochety again.
Love,
Lennie
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