Friday night on most Kiwi high streets is the busiest of the week on account of the hordes of people picking up their favourite take-away food. It has long been traditionally the one day in the week when I threw in the proverbial tea towel and treat myself to the luxury of someone else to take the catering strain. Living next to a thatched pub in our village in the UK meant we only had a few steps to take to a Friday night playground. When we lived in Wellington itself there was heaps of choice for eating out or take-away but now we live in the country the opportunities have diminished somewhat so our Friday catering routine is the closest thing we get to our favourite convenience food is making it ourselves.
This photographs was taken by my dear friend Sarah when she visited us earlier this year and it pretty much sums up our Friday cooking routine. Although there is no late sunshine streaming through the kitchen window these days there is something comforting about the routine of making pizza dough, rustling up some mozzarella and baking our pizza in our Big Green Egg Pizza oven. Admittedly the home dairy is a stretch every week but I couldn’t imagine Friday nights any other way. A glass of wine, Garrison Keiller’s Radio Show or The Splendid Table Podcast twittering in the background and a couple of basset hounds sniffing at your ankles in case there was any cheese that didn’t quite make it onto the pizza.
It’s the signal that it is time to kick back and enjoy the freedom that the weekend brings. Hope you all have a great one when it comes around.
A perfect Friday evening, I am planning on putting a pizza oven in next spring, a little decadent but I try and justify that by telling myself I will use if for the school too ;0)
Oh do it, you’ll never regret it and if it helps to use the school to justify, go for it!
Only a true domestic executive would count home made pizza as convenience food! I’m inspired to dig out my pizza stone and get kneading.
Glad to have got you inspired Sue. Well worth the effort I think.
Yummy, homemade pizzas are such a fun to make when you’ve got people round for dinner and a movie – always good to be able to cater for fussy eaters too as everyone gets to choose their own toppings. Wish I had a pizza oven though!
I just recently bought a pizza stone, and have been loving getting into making homemade pizza on a regular basis. Have yet to have a go at making my own mozzarella, but it’s on my list of projects to tackle – soon, very soon.
Thanks for the tip on trying to beat the dreaded orange photos – I take it that needs to be a separate flash? Not the camera flash?
Hi Sue – great to know you’re a pizza artisan too! As for the flash, depends what sort of camera you have. I have the option to put a flash onto my camera and it can be pointed in different directions. If you’ve got a point an shoot try with the built in flash – experiment with it and perhaps use some white boards or light backgrounds to bounce the light back.