Welcome!

Well, the holiday season is upon us! Schedules fill up, and the days fly by with so many activities and to-dos. We hope cooking in your wood-fired oven affords you some fun, relaxing times with family, friends and neighbors. (Even if it’s too chilly for everyone else to join you outside, they’ll certainly appreciate the goodies you bring to them indoors!)

Speaking of outdoor activities, I am doing a new fundraising race on December 4 – running both the California International Marathon in Sacramento in the morning and the Las Vegas Rock-and-Roll Marathon in the evening. That’s 52.4 miles and one flight, all in one day. As always, Forno Bravo is a recognized fundraiser for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. If you’d like to support this effort, we have Team Reeves eBooks available via the Forno Bravo Store for $10 each, and Forno Bravo matches all contributions. I’ll let you know how it goes.

While many of us in the Northern Hemisphere are bundling up, our friends Down Under are enjoying their summertime. Last month, we announced a Down Under Photo Contest. We had a ton of great entries. Soon, we’ll post five finalists and open the contest up for your votes, so stay tuned on Facebook and the Forum. In the meantime, enjoy this new gallery of Down Under ovens!

I also want to take a moment to welcome Dan Compton to the FB community. Dan is a chef at Vie, one of only two restaurants in the Chicago suburbs to receive a coveted Michelin star, and he is going to be cooking in his Primavera oven, blogging and posting fun and innovative wood-fired recipes and photos every week on the FB Community Cookbook and in the FB Forum. I am really looking forward to this.

We’ve got a lot more to cover in this newsletter – a new line of ovens, a holiday gift guide, a Marinara pizza recipe from Pizza Quest – so we’ll get right to it.

On behalf of the entire Forno Bravo team, a happy and safe holiday season to you all. We recognize we have the best customers and community out there and are very thankful.

James

Community Cookbook Update & Brussels Sprouts Recipe

Several months ago, we introduced a new resource for the wood-fired cook: the Forno Bravo Community Cookbook. We’re happy to announce the online Cookbook has a new moderator, Dan Compton. Dan will be writing weekly recipes and providing regular input and advice to wood-fired cooks.

To give you a taste (sorry) of what you can expect, take a look at Dan’s roasted brussels sprouts recipe, a great addition to any menu (how about Christmas). Note that this recipe has converted even the most ardent of brussels sprouts haters.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Oranges, Olives and Currants
(From the Forno Bravo Community Cookbook)

We hope to generate more activity over on the Cookbook – so be sure to create a new (free and fast) account if you haven’t already, visit regularly and share some of your favorite recipes. 

Here’s a little more about our new Cookbook moderator: Dan Compton grew up in Elgin, Ill., just outside Chicago. With romantic visions of being a writer, he attended Northwestern University, where he received a degree in journalism. After college, he moved to San Francisco. It was there, at his neighborhood farmer’s market rooting through a particularly luscious batch of tomatoes, that he was bitten by the cooking bug.

The onset of symptoms was slow but steady, with the disease eventually reaching his brain and causing him to make the decision to move back to the Midwest and attend culinary school. Dan earned his culinary arts degree at Kendall College in Chicago. He now works as a cook at Vie in Western Springs, one of only two restaurants in the Chicago suburbs to receive a coveted Michelin star.