Dino's 42" Pizza Oven Starts

[trockyh]

Hey Dino, you are quite the craftsmen! Your oven and enclosure are beautiful. I wish I had citrus in my yard, but too cold here for most.
Looking forward to see what color you end up with. I know it will look great!

Cheers,
Tom

[eprante]

Dino,
Looking very nice( the oven, you look the same)!! You are close to the end, then you will be like Dmun, Les, and Mark- hanging around and giving advice to all of us in the midst of our build.
Eric

[Raffy]

Hey Dino,

It must be a relief to be so close to finishing your oven. Your oven is looking fabulous. What type of stone slabs are those in front of the oven? I'm thinking of putting stone slabs in the ground around the oven instead of brick tiles for a more natural look.

I'm really interested in learning more about baking bread. Can you tell me more about starters and how to make my own? Would really appreciate it. Or if there is any internet literature I can read please point me in that direction. I tried to google it and I mostly get topics about car engine starters hehehe

Thanks!

Raffy

[Millstone Man]

Great looking stone work. It really is a work of art as well as a practical use.

[Dino_Pizza]

Thanks for compliments and encouragement. I still feel so slow, especially when people like Raffy start and almost finish an oven in weeks .

Raffy: those are gray granite flat stones left over from a patio I did under a gazebo. I needed to level that area in front of the oven before a pool party so I set them in the brown decomposed granite (temporarily-initially) and it's turned out to match really well, so I'll keep.

RE: sourdough starter: I made mine last year with my own grapes (they're organic and had a nice white bloom of dusty yeasts on their skins) and hung them in cloth in a jar of rye flour and water for a week. Then I removed them, re-fed and re-fed the starter with regular flour and now I have the strongest started I've ever had.

There are so many people on this forum with GREAT info on bread baking. Jay (texassourdough), Rossco, Splatgirl, Elizabeth have all be so helpful and I can't remember half of them. Here is 1 thread with their discussions and pictures of starter:

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f10/...ent-11954.html (Interesting Dough Experiment)

Lots of forum members have had dough discussion regarding books by Reinhart and Hamelman and I've searched those words to get to some good forum discussions on bread baking.

Thanks, Dino

[Dino_Pizza]

Here is some progress. It's going so slooooow for me. Mike and I are in semi- "oh boy it's summer, lets go places" mode and I feel like I'm ignoring my child.

Also, I've never inserted an actual picture in a post, I've always done thumb-nails to click on but after reading dmun''s instructions to Nikki, I had to try prove to myself I could do it. I feel so tech-y -Dino

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[mfiore]

Dino, your stonework looks great.

No summer here yet. We've had some great weather at times, but it's going to drop into the low 30's again tomorrow with a chance of snow.

[Modthyrth]

It looks spectacular! I'd love to see a picture of it at night, with that fabulous built-in lighting.

[bbell]

Now that's a great looking oven!

[SCChris]

Beautifully done!!

Chris