Personalization

[blacknoir]

What are some of the things you have done to Personalize your oven? I don't mean using custom hand cut stone or hand fired clay shingles. I mean things like a plaque commemorating the first firing.. name and hand prints in the foundation.. engraving..

I know that I'll be putting my whole families hands in the foundation along with the year it was poured.. but I'm trying to think of something more.. maybe a cast iron plaque.. not sure yet..

[waitingtocook]

The only real personalization I did was to inscribe "NO PINEAPPLE" just off one side of the entry in my last coat of render. In Australia, we have a pizza called "Hawaiian" which has ham and pineapple on top. I personally believe this to be wrong! No pineapple can enter my oven, ever! People are welcome to bring their own and add it after the pizza has come out of the oven, but no pizza shall ever enter my oven with pineapple on it, much to my mum's disappointment!

[Frances]

Someone engraved their signiature on the keystone (on the inside of the dome). That was pretty cool... does anyone remember who that was?

[blacknoir]

heh, Hawaiian pizza must be a universal term cause it's the same thing here and I can't stand it..

[Wiley]

Somebody needs to come to the defence of the lowly pineapple (although if you have ever walked thru a pineapple planting one knows the plants have a pretty good defence of their own :-).

In our household pineapple pizza gets a high rating and is often requested.

And as a base for BBQ sauces etc., it ranks pretty high...to steal a line from Steve Raichlen"s BBQ University:

"Pineapple juice makes an fitting base for a barbecue sauce. After all, barbecue originated in the West Indies and so did the pineapple. (The latter was "discovered" by Columbus in 1493 on the island of Guadeloupe.) In the 19th century, the pineapple became an American symbol of hospitality - carved into moldings and banisters throughout New England. The fruit's sweet, musky, acidity makes a prefect foil for pork."

Anyone who has spent time in the S. Pacific or Hawaii knows that in those cultures as well it is a symbol of hospitality and welcome.

Torn chucks of pineapple and Canadian bacon on a thin crust pizza... yum!

Wiley

[thebadger]

I added a family time capsule in one of the concrete cores and had the family put handprints (in the concrete) in the wood storage area.

Dick

[Modthyrth]

I put the family's handprints and scratched the date in the foundation (under the oven, in the wood storage area). And I signed the chimney and dated it before it was covered by the structure. Neither one is overt in any way, but they made me feel good!

[waitingtocook]

Don't get me wrong guys, I love pineapple, use it cooked and raw in many dishes, but I just hate those pizzas with (what turns out to be) dried little nuggets of pineapple and awful processed ham! Yuck! Such a thing will never come from my oven.... seems sort of wrong.... but thats just my opinion.