The Bogle Mind Boggle

     A mind boggle at Bogle. Yes, that's Bogle Winery and Vineyards right across the river in neighboring Yolo County. (If you're a red wine drinker than I'd suggest the Essential Red and the Old Vine Zinfandel.) On a whim a couple of years ago I drove out to Clarksburg in Yolo County and stopped by Bogle Winery to see the manager or anybody who would listen that I owned a mobile pizza trailer and was willing to share it with anybody who'd have me. I brought my card and walked upstairs to the tasting room. I was cold calling but when you have a product that you believe in it's more like sharing than cold calling. Bogle has a beautiful venue back in the vineyards along side a creek and far enough from the main road that you don't even hear traffic. I introduced myself and explained what we do. The manager took my card and said, "Thanks for coming by." OK, so I gave it a shot. Three summers later I get a call from Shaun, the manager and asking if I was willing to come out to Bogle and do pizzas on a Friday evening for their music venue called Alfresco Night. I anxiously drove out there wearing my pizza print shirt and reintroduced myself. Shaun was a very personable young guy and he explained what Alfresco Night was. I immediately loved the idea and he went on to say that, "You can't run out of food." Apparently I was replacing the pizza guy who did run out of food and apparently didn't care. Shaun went on to say that maybe it was partly his fault for sharing some of the Bogle wine with that pizza crew and maybe that was partly his fault. Hearing that there was to be only 300 to 400 people at this alfresco night I wondered how many pizzas we would actually sell. It was an evening of music on the lawn from only 5:00 to 7:30 and a captive audience who could bring in picnic baskets if they chose but I heeded his warning anyway. Two days before the event an email was sent out to all Friday evening vendors by Shaun to reinforce the policy of not running out of food! OK, I get it, come prepared!

   Friday in June rolls around and we are just back from Alaska. I am prepared for another overly excited event coordinator that thinks his event is different and better than all the others. I heed his warning while joking to my staff that, "We might get busy. Yeah right." Five o'clock and the people are rolling in and finding themselves a spot on the lawn. 5:02 and there's an order! 5:05 and there's a line. 5:10 and we are up against a line 20 people deep! Holy #*@! and that translates to $$$$$! The band is rocking away, my wine glass with an inch of wine is sitting on the deck of the pizza trailer while I'm shoveling 6 to 8 pizzas at a time in and out of the oven! Flashbacks of the Pear Fair are going through my head. This doesn't happen every day. We're all in high gear, all five of us, and the orders keep coming. Some are 6 to a ticket! 6:00 comes and goes and there's no end in sight. I look over my shoulder and they're still lined up 20 deep! "My god, Shaun wasn't kidding!" There is no place for the customers to go since we're the only vendor and the nearest food is 5 miles away. "We've got to keep this up." All I can think about is don't run out of food. "Is it 7:30 yet? Have we fed them all?" Finally the music ends and the orders slow down. A few musicians belly up to get a pizza and we're standing there in amazement. Are they serious? Is it like this every Friday night?
    We met the crowd head on and fed them all. Shaun had planted an employee in the mix to gauge us. Once he goes through the line to place an order the turn-around time was about 4 and a half minutes. They were impressed! So was I! "Let's count the tickets and see what we did," I said. One hundred and ninety four pizzas in 2 1/2 hours was the count. That averages out to 77.6 pizzas an hour. That's got to be a pizza record, at least for us anyway.
    Shaun had set us up for 3 Friday night al frescos and now I was a believer. "Come prepared," he had said. Thank the pizza gods we were prepared!
    The next time we did Bogle we did an astounding 238 pizzas in the same length of time which averaged out to 95.2 pizzas an hour! I told Shaun that if the pizza police were out they would've caught us exceeding the speed limit. I set a personal best that first Friday with 10 pizzas in the oven at once. The second Friday I broke it twice with 11 pizzas in the oven at once. Somehow I was able to snap a picture while juggling those eleven pizzas as proof that I wasn't exaggerating! Sure the photo is a little blurry like those bank robber photos you see the bank cameras snap and you think, "He looks a little like my uncle or maybe the neighbor down the street." It's definitely clearer though than the photos you see (or don't see) of Bigfoot in the mist behind some foliage with a shaking camera.

Eleven blurry pizzas! A personal best!

    After two successful Friday evenings we were asked to stay and do the Passport Weekend which was various wine tastings and produce stands out in the Clarksburg area.

The lawn and vineyards at Bogle

    The third alfresco night was equally successful which got us their corporate event to serve all the Bogle staff and sales reps as a catered event in which we were able to chat with a number of the Bogle people and talk wine and pizza. Ronnie, an outside rep who hired me was there and what a sweetheart she was.  Not only did she send me home with a sampler bag of 6 bottles of wine but when I went to deposit the check on Tuesday I noticed they had written it for $100 more than it was supposed to be. I called her voicemail and sent her an email letting her know about the mistake. She texted back and said, "Deposit it, it's a tip!" That goes in my Italy fund for next year! You gotta love Ronnie!

   Oh, that glass of wine the first Friday night with only an inch in it? It still had an inch in it when the last pizza came out of the oven. That's how busy we got! Fortunately the staff their loved us as we do them and more wine was available! Cheers to Bogle, a mind boggling winery and alfresco event!

Par-Baked Pear Fair

    The once again, amazing Pear Fair has come and gone. Who would've thought that we could break previous years records with a little small town home grown pear festival along a road most people wouldn't drive during the day let alone at night. In a town called Courtland along Hwy 160 is a lone courthouse that I suspect fathered the name for this sleepy little village along the river. The people there are enthusiastic, supportive, full of energy and excitement when it comes to this event. Its like Mayberry on steroids. Whatever their formula is, it works. News crews come out, people line the road for miles trying to get in, and vendors are in place. The Pear Queen has been crowned, the car show is shining and the weather always seems to cooperate.
    Just days before in order to streamline and make things more efficient I had spent 2 days bar-baking 450 doughs to bag and have ready to dress and bake. Par-baking will take away the unpredictability of the weather proofing fresh doughs too quickly and sticking to the sheeting between layers. They are easier to handle, won't cool the deck of the oven as much and make a great crunch when you cut them. This is huge when it comes to helping eliminate frustration on the job and speed things up!

A couple hundred par-bakes cooling before bagging

   To be honest, I wasn't excited about the Pear Fair the final few days before the event. The weather had been in the triple digits all week and we were going to cook just like our pizzas. 102º was the prediction and it can zap your energy and enthusiasm, especially when you're standing in front of a 900º pizza oven all day.
   Sunday morning rolled around and when  I peaked outside at 6:00 A.M. it was overcast! Clouds were hovering all over the sky. Hmmm, this isn't what my i-phone was telling me. I like this better. Generally if I don't like the weather one app on the phone is predicting, I will open up another app to get a confirmation. If the second prediction is a little cooler with a slight breeze and a cloud cover, I'll go with that one! That's more to my liking! Off on the horizon as we were driving over there from Elk Grove I could see rain falling in the west, probably near Vacaville or Suisun. No rain in Courtland, just a beautiful 72º. As it happened the clouds didn't burn off until about 12:30 which was awesome. I was even burning pear firewood that day so I think the message in smoke went directly upwards.  We were being blessed by the pear gods!
   The crowds came and we hunkered down for the pizza storm that we were ready for. I added a 6th person to the crew, my niece from Boise State had been visiting her boyfriend that she met up in Idaho who happened  to live in Elk Grove, of all places. She was excited and ready to work. I didn't know what kind of worker she would prove to be but found out quickly she was as versatile as a Swiss Army knife. (That generation probably doesn't even know what a Swiss Army knife is so maybe she was as versatile as a smart phone). We had her as a back up on every station and she performed well on each. After I heard she had worked 4 of the 5 stations I asked her if she wanted to bake a few pizzas. She jumped in willingly and completed the task standing on her toes to see in the oven! What a kid! Her brothers were equally impressive the night before when we pulled the trailer into Courtland and set up. There's nothing like a couple of strong athletes to show their uncle how tough they are and how quickly they are to learn. Later in the day they hauled in more ice for us as the day grew warmer and the first 100 lbs. of ice was nearly gone. It's a shame they live up in Oregon where I can't tap into that energy more frequently. They'll even work to be paid in pizza!
   I set a personal best of baking 9 pizzas in the oven at one time and a company best of baking 438 pizzas in a day. Pear and proscuitto was the pizza of choice once again. Who would've guessed?
   There wasn't much time to gloat about our new records and how everything worked like a well oiled machine as the next event would be the return to Bogle Vineyards just 2 weeks and 2 miles away. Bogle is where we get tested for speed, quality and accuracy in a 2 and a half hour window of putting out the best quality we can in a very limited amount of time. More on that next blog but I have to say how proud I was for all the Tuscan Sun staff that didn't make a single mistake or get flustered the entire day. It's hard to imagine that we could do any better next year but the organizing, the passion and the stamina show when it's crunch time. Speaking of crunch time. That's the sound a well baked pizza makes when you cut it for those four hundred plus pizza lovers at the Pear Fair. Mmmm, wood-fire pizza at it's best!

Pizzas for Sail!

Wedding guests creating the landscape on canvas

   So, what have I been doing since I don't seem to be blogging lately? Well, just for starters I have been welcoming spring time in as the assortment of paint jobs,  pizza events, Steampunk events, Civil War events, and travel opportunities arising along with the murals, paintings and wedding requests. Weddings? "Really? Yes, weddings!" I have now had two requests to paint at a wedding. One, I have been hired for the other didn't like my price. Helwig Winery out in Amador is a first class winery with all the wedding features anybody who could ever hope for with a majestic 360º view of more vineyards and landscape, sunset and beauty was the wedding couple's choice location. I still haven't even done a pizza event for a wedding yet and already I am being asked to paint a wedding? Who wants Elvis, karaoke, jugglers, mimes, pizza tossers and such if you can have an artist?! The reality of it is that I don't paint but encourage the wedding guests to create the painting. I just supply the canvas & paints, supervise and coach them and the painting becomes the guests gift to the bride and groom! What the heck, if it pays OK, I'm there. Cool idea too, I'm hoping it will catch on!

Terry Isaac

One of Terry's wildlife paintings in acrylic

Another of Terry's masterful works

    It's funny how the ball will start to roll sometimes with an innocent comment during a TV show while watching an episode of Kitchen Nightmares with Chef Ramsay. Sheri commented that she doesn't hear his British accent anymore. I told her, my friend Terry who's wife is British, that after a few days of visiting them I noticed I didn't hear her accent anymore either. "Hey, let's Google Terry and see what's going on in his life and the art world of wildlife paintings" Sheri said. We paused our show and Googled him. June 8, 2014 Terry is the featured guest, speaker and workshop teacher aboard the Celebrity cruise out of Vancouver BC to Alaska for 7 days. Holy #$%! Terry, my buddy from college is the hot topic aboard the Celebrity Century cruise ship! I want to go! We've never been to Alaska although we have been on a number of cruises. How is this going to work? I have a 3 day pizza event at the Yuba County Airport doing the Western Aviation Regional Fly-in Airshow from June 6th through the 8th. The ship sets sail on the 8th out of Vancouver B.C. and I don't even know if I can get a room on it. The deeper I dig, I find out it's been sold out. Bummer. I really would liked to have been on it and surprised the heck out of him. It's been 6 years since he flew me up to Penticton, BC just to paint his new house then the following year Sheri and I flew up there to spend some time with him, meet his new British/Canadian wife, Kathleen and go to an Elvis Festival. Oh, he would be shocked I'm sure, if I showed up at one of his onboard workshops as I was going to use the alias Hans Hansen to register. Nope, the cruise is all sold out. "Wait a minute, what about a waiting list?" I did the typical online searches and nobody will put you on a waiting list. "I'll call the cruise line directly." Nope, not even them. I told my story to the cruise line agent and apparently, if you can find one with a sympathetic heart they really do have an unofficial waiting list. Well, at least the agent does if the cruise line doesn't. She told me she would monitor it daily and give me a call if something opened up. "Someone on that cruise must be going to an Elvis festival,an air show or wood-fired pizza event and cancel out at the last moment," I thought.

   What do you know? A room opened up and we're in like Flint! I couldn't believe it. A couple of weeks later we get an email from Expedia Cruises with our room assignment on it. It says we're booked on a family size veranda balcony! I can't afford that! But it's a free upgrade with probably a string or two pulled by my friend or one of his staff. "Never mind, we'll take it if the price remains the same!"
   Now, I have to plan accordingly for the 3 day air show pizza event, the wedding painting, and now the Alaskan cruise all the while getting a root canal, paying all the bills ahead, setting the drip systems to water, repair the pool vacuum while Sheri finishes up her last week of teaching 5th grade for the season. Piece of cake!
   We refer to these as God-winks. If it's supposed to happen then somehow it will. If it defies logic, planning, strategy and common sense then it must be a God-wink. We were able to use our frequent flyer miles for the airfare to B.C.. My crew is willing and able to carry on the pizza event while we're gone, the root canal will be finished 3 days before we go, Sheri will be done teaching for the summer while all the travel logistics have fallen into place and our passports are in order. I'm also signed on to Terry's workshop for the 2 days at sea and just realized I can write my share of the expenses off in my taxes next year!
   How cool is that? Selling pizzas while I'm sailing away at sea with my friend of 37 years who is the star of the show. I think God is winking at us!
   He certainly is because I just got this little notice as I was about to publish this blog. Check out the video below. It could've happened while we were away! Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor? Wink, wink ;-)

A Dicken's Fair They'll Remember

Professor Nefarius Brainstormer

   This is the latest in my pizza journey. I've written about the history of pizza, the evolution of pizza, the flavors of pizza and some silly stories and adventures about pizza throughout my pizza journey. Who would have thought that making pizza would take me time traveling back to the 19th century in the world of Charles Dickens, H.G. Wells, Jules Vern, Nikola Tesla and Steampunk? A year ago I didn't even know what Steampunk was!
   The Elk Grove Dicken's Fair has been around now for 26 years. The event coordinator told me they were having a trailer/booth decorating contest for the best Victorian decorations and costumes were optional but welcome. Hmmm, I wondered how I could go above and beyond the typical Christmas decorations that everyone might be using. I didn't wonder too long before I got the idea to steampunk our trailer and outfits. We are already Civil War re-enactors so we had 90% of the outfit in hand. The month of September I spent out in the garage building a death ray that would make Nikola Tesla nervous and proud. Not to nuke pizzas but as a fun item to display and  attract more pizza lovers to our booth. Next were the hats. The hats are a must. People of the steampunk era (a fictional reality that never happened that evolved into the future with only the power of steam, since electricity was nothing more than a parlor trick). Hats had goggles for exploring or scientific work or using in their flying machines or for just plain good looks. Gears were evident everywhere and a symbol of high technology. In October I constructed 3 hats for my wife, myself and a fellow worker. In November I worked on steampunking the trailer while a friend added organ pipes that pumped out steam and classical music. I have never worked so hard for a pizza event in preparing as I have this one. What helped to motivate me was the prize of a free vendor space plus $100 but who needs motivation when you have a killer idea?
   When November 30th rolled around I was excited to set up. We crammed liked the Superbowl was on in an hour and got things going. The fire was stoked, I was stoked, my crew was stoked and we were ready. When the event coordinator came around she looked  in amazement at  all the work we had done and said it gave her goosebumps just looking at it! That's what I wanted to hear! Quickly it was 10 o'clock and we were baking pizzas. People gathered and enjoyed our steampunking efforts as they looked at the death ray, took our pictures, watched steam come out of the organ pipes and ordered pizzas. Before long and some 150 pizzas later the judges came around  dressed in their Victorian outfits and they stood and stared. I introduced myself and the young lady said to me, "I just love Steampunk." "Oh, that's got to help," I thought. When she returned a second time to just soak it all in she was practically speechless. I think she was wondering why I went over the edge just to decorate comparing me to Chevy Chase in his Christmas Vacation movie and how he went over the edge decorating his house for Christmas. It's not hard to answer, I wanted to win!
   Two weeks prior Sheri and I had gone to our first Sacramento Steampunk Society party all dressed in our finest gear sort of as a tryout for our newly fashioned couture. At the evening' s end I was selected best male steampunker. Now I was shooting for my second victory. About 4 o'clock the coordinator came by once more and said, "We need to talk." Hmmm, did I do something wrong? So I listened in very closely and she says, "You won..... by a long shot!" Hot diggety I'm 2 for 2 but not without the help of my crew and wife all participating.

Wearing your corset on the outside is demonstrated by Steampunk Sheri 

I love my new chimney!

A little steam for a special effect

The Ultimate Death Ray

Steampunk Pizza Oven

   What a kick it was to entertain the fairgoers and explain to those who asked what the death ray was for I explained, "It was for shooting down stray planets threatening our part of the universe." In addition to the death rays, organ pipes, steam and costumes I had propped up an explanation of what Steampunk was for those who were seeing it for their first time. It read: Steampunk is a neo-Victorian Era, evolving out of the 19th century where steam is the energy of the future. Explorers, inventors, scientists and daring young men in their flying machines built the reality that has become the Steampunk Era. The women then were sassy, classy and a little bit trashy. Hopefully we made this a fair that they will indeed remember!

Notice the steam from the organ pipes?

Professor Brainstormer talking about the Death Ray

Steampunk Pizza!

   The journey continues often in ways you would least expect. We've done a number of fairs and festivals and always have a couple more lined up in our sites to get our wood-fired pizza out there. The one festival I have prepared for more than any other is the upcoming Dickens Fair in Old Town Elk Grove. Last Christmas my wife and I decided to drive 2 hours into the city of San Francisco and visit the real Dickens Fair. I say real because it has no equal when it comes to recreating the look, sound, feel and smell of old England in its merriment during he Victorian era. The famous Cow Palace had been transformed into a 19th century city with shop keepers, street performers, scientists, explorers, inventors, snake oil salesmen, food vendors, chimney sweeps, street urchins and yes, even the Queen, Queen Victoria to be exact. In the air was the aroma of chestnuts that were actually roasting on an open fire!
   Being that we are Civil War re-enactors we already have the 19th century civilian outfits. All we needed to do was tweak them a bit to be British and we were a perfect fit. While walking the streets of merry old England we had both noticed some characters that we were not familiar with. I stared in amazement and  tried to identify the portrayal these attendees were doing. I finally had to ask and their reply was, "Steampunk." What punk? "Steampunk," they said. Hmmm, Steampunk, I'd never heard of it but I had seen it before. Most of us old enough to have seen an old Jules Verne type movie have seen it. Think of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A more modern use of Steampunk might be the movie Wild Wild West with Will Smith and Kevin Kline. Remember the huge mechanical spider? Steampunk was an era of post Victorian modern advancing into the future without the use of electricity but steam. Inventors who built death rays, time machines, flying airships and mechanical devices of every conceivable type. Often they were over built, weighing heavily and with the use of lots of gears, sprockets, rivets, gadgets and of course steam.
   I was intrigued. Steampunk is a current genre of Cosplay and art. What-play you say? Another new word in my vocabulary is Cosplay which is short for Costume Play. Being that we are both costume people and not just

for Halloween, I needed to explore it. If you Google "Steampunk" and put it on Images you will get the meaning and now have a new word in your vocabulary as well. Besides being Victorian modern it is really cool stuff. The death rays and time machines don't have to actually work but a few moving pieces will always make it appear to look like it really works. Welders goggles are adapted to look as if they are flying machine protective eye wear or scientific viewing devices. Lots of hand guns in every conceivable style from pistols to long range shooting devices. Boots adorned with gears, time pieces and gauges of every sort, hats with mechanical devices and even prosthetic articulating
mechanical arms for god only knows what!
      So what does this have to do with pizza? Everything and nothing. As I mentioned, the Old Town Elk Grove Dickens Fair coming November 30th will see Steampunk for the first time. We will be baking pizzas there but in addition to that we will dress in our Victorian Steampunk costumes which we have devised. The pizza trailer will also be tweaked to appear Steampunk with organ pipes, steam and anything else we can think to add to it. The reason being is Elk Grove is holding a contest for the best booth decorations and the winner will be given free vendor space at the next Elk Grove event. Several hundred dollars in value. I intend to win that prize so that's my incentive. But also to be fair, Civil War ladies were not the prettiest women on earth so to glide on over to the post Victorian age of Steampunk where the women are
cute and sexy isn't so bad of a shift! The Steampunk genre, I have learned has been around for at least 20 years! People of all ages have taken it to another level integrating it into everyday devices to "steampunk" them.
I think I will need to study this genre of art and Cosplay for quite some time! Currently, in addition to our outfits and hats with goggles, I have already built a death ray, some hand pistols and am working on an airship next. Yes, an airship that hopefully will hover above our heads at the Dickens Fair. You'll have to wait until the event to see if I can really pull it off. When I have a thorough understanding I will be able to write the next chapter of Steampunk involving the making of Steampunk pizza I hope!
By the way, what would go on a steampunk pizza?

The Return of the Pear Fair! Pear Lovers Flock To 41st Annual Pear Fair In Courtland « CBS Sacramento-Watch Video below under Reality TV

    Ah yes, the Pear Fair! Friend or foe? Beast or blessing? Dream or nightmare?  I'm not certain but it was no fluke. Our measuring stick has been the Pear Fair since our debut a year ago. We haven't topped it since with about a dozen fairs, festivals, home & garden shows and wineries under our belts. Nothing compares to the Pear Fair. We misunderstood it last year and severely under estimated it's drawing power. This year with a years' experience and training we were much more ready for the onslaught of hungry fair goers. We love the Pear Fair and I do believe the Pear Fair people love us as well. We heard so many comments from people exclaiming how glad they were to see us return. That made us feel welcome for sure!
   The weather was perfect and not too darn hot. I was ready to do battle with hundreds of pear lovers when on the early morning drive over to Courtland to get set up on the last Sunday of July one of my key workers called in sick. OMG, this can't be happening already. Just 4 people to serve the hungry hoards? We'll make it happen somehow but I'm not sure yet how.
    As we were setting up that bright Sunday morning the local news crew was making the rounds and looking for a happy and friendly face. With the news of losing one of my staff I wasn't going to be the happiest one to interview. Fortunately they went over to my wife, Sheri and talked to her. She has lots of experience with public speaking being a teacher for over 30 years so I was glad to see the reporter talking to her and not me. She in turn mentioned her husband was the real owner and so the cameras came over to me. Thanks Sheri!

230 Pear & Proscuitto pizzas on the day!

   I did what I had to do and spoke with them when they asked me to make that scraping sound on the oven floor again while I was tending the fire. I guess even the sounds of getting ready sounds good on the news! So, for those of you with a keen ear can actually hear the sounds of me scraping a fire tool over a brick oven floor. No stuntman was used in making this noise and no bricks were injured I'm happy to report. I guess it all makes for realistic TV. Hmmm,  reality TV.  I could just see it now. A camera crew following me around as I make food purchases, fill out vendor applications, pack a trailer and even get a close- up of me when I'm plugging in a refrigerator! How more real can you get than that? Stay tuned for next week when Vince actually bakes a pizza!!! It's got to make for great TV! Check out our little claim to fame! Reality TV (Sorry, there's a commercial just before the video!)
 

Hungry pear fair folks lining up for some pear pizza!

   I'm getting a little side tracked while fantasizing about TV stardom. Should be TV Stardumb I think.

   In any event, the Pear Fair has been our high water mark since last year. I really started to doubt myself that the new crew I have. I had told them that we did an estimated 300+ pizzas last year. Are you sure Vince? Sounds like a bit an exaggeration all of a sudden. Did we really do that may Pear & Proscuitto pizzas? Was I stretching it a bit in my story telling? The most since then was probably the 435 pizzas we did in a 2 day event at the Old Sugarmill Winery in Clarksburg last February.

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   Meanwhile as we were reaching a critical breaking point, Sheri called our sick girl after finding out the real truth that she was hung over from the night before of partying and drinking and insisted she come in as she had made a commitment to be there. She showed up in good spirits about 1:30 and we worked her tail off. Now that would've been good reality TV!

Converting pears into cash!

 The Pear Fair people are great. No problems, issues, late notices, surprises. Just good people doing what they do best. Putting on one helluva pear fair like they have for the past 41 years. No foe, beast or nightmare here, just a great showing of people bringing with them a healthy appetite for some pear pizza or anything else pears can be converted into. Personally, I like converting the pear pizzas into cash! Wink, wink!

Banjos and Pizzas are for Happier Moments

   Many blogs ago I was writing about taking a trip back east, doing the Civil War thing and eating pizza every chance I got. Well, we made it back there again for the sesquicentennial of the Battle of Gettysburg or as others will call it, the 150th anniversary in commemorating the battle where so many young men died. The Southerners would call the war: The War of Northern Aggression and Gettysburg as the high water mark.

   Sheri and I were selected to be greeters at the Soldiers Cemetery or what is currently called the Gettysburg National Cemetery. To be a greeter one has to apply by filling out forms online, providing photos of our 19th century outfits and be willing to stand at the gates in 90º temperatures with skyrocketing humidity and be willing to greet spectators with a cheerful yet somber voice as they entered the cemetery grounds. Hmmmm, cheerful and somber? Don't know if I can do that but I'll give it a try. The Boy Scouts were there to light the 3500 luminaries that glowed in the dark over the Gettysburg dead. We got the chance to meet some of the Boy Scouts and inform them that 100 years ago at the 50th anniversary of the battle that the Boy Scouts actually helped out enormously for the surviving veterans reunion of the battle, both north and south. They set up tents, did their laundry, provided assistance to the handicapped and helped to feed them. These young scouts had no idea that their legacy is connected to the whole ordeal. I was glad to be able to educate them as their troop leaders should have but they probably had no idea either.
    It almost seemed fitting that when taps was played that Sunday evening and the 21st century military marched by in perfect order that the heavens opened up and poured down on us in torrents. Almost like saying they were washing away the scars one more time and to start fresh tomorrow.
   I learned something about pizza that week in Gettysburg. Pizza is a little like a banjo. A what? Yes, a banjo. You can't be in a somber mood and play a banjo or eat a pizza. Pizza is for happy times like a banjo is for brighter times. It just doesn't seem to be appropriate after walking past so many graves of so many young men who gave their life to preserve the Union and turn to your wife and say, "Ready for a pizza now?" I don't mean that disrespectfully but in reality it's hard not to be moved after seeing so many luminaries and hearing taps being played. Pizza can wait, I thought.
    In fact it did wait. Once we got to Philadelphia I figured we would be gorging on pizza at different places every night. As luck would have it our hotel was right next door to the Reading Train Terminal which has since been changed into a food court for 70-80 amazing choices of food types, styles, ethnicities and flavors. None of them were connected to a franchise as it was all real food in the best sense of the word. One night I skipped the pizza for the lasagna which was amazing. Another night we heard someone walk by and raved about the chicken being out of this world so we ate chicken that was every bit as good as we had hoped. Another evening we discovered the German fare and ate grilled bratwurst. There were so many choices, including Amish treats that we don't get at home or at least near Sacramento that we had to try as many as time would allow. We did have pizza in Boston and while in Gettysburg we tried a pub that served amazing food that we needed to sink our teeth into.  Even after the re-enactment we thought about getting a pizza on the way home. However, as Picket's charge ended a couple of rain drops fell followed by a few more and then the heavens opened up on us. By the time we reached our car about a mile away our 19th century outfits were drenched to the bone. Sheri was smart enough to bring a change of clothing. I, however, am the eternal optimist and said it wasn't gong to rain. That left me either in soaking wet clothes or strip down to my boxers and t-shirt which were only partially wet. We found the first place we could called Lincoln's Diner, walked in a little sheepishly and sat down wearing my solid blue boxers. Nobody even noticed.  Pizza wasn't on the menu so I settled for the meatloaf. Pizza will have to wait one more time. It did wait...all the way until we finally returned home and had 6 days to prepare for the return of the Pear Fair. The amazing Pear Fair that we cut our teeth on in our opening pizza debut a year ago. Was it a fluke, could we really have sold close to 360 pizzas that day and was it to  repeat like the year before? Only 6 days to order the food, repack the rig, get the crew together and bake pizzas like there was no tomorrow. Being a guest greeter at Gettysburg was one thing but cranking out the same number of pizzas again this year would prove to be quite another.
   To be continued in: The Return of the Pear Fair.

Wood-Fired Chili Pizza

   What do you do with an oven that has reached 900º over the last 3 days selling over 300 pizzas to hungry Home & Garden customers? You do what other pizza oven owners have told you to do. You've closed it up. It's surely cooled down enough on the hour drive home and sat in your driveway another 15 hours so it's got to have cooled down enough. The coals are out. There's no smoke. Just sticking your arm through the opening tells you there isn't much hot air in there so you go buy a beef brisket, season it, put it in a Dutch oven with beer and potatoes and onions and carrots. Pop the lid on and slide it into the oven for a nice slow cook of several hours and forget about it. Did I say, "Forget about it?"Apparently I wasn't supposed to forget about it. On my way out to the mailbox I got a whiff of food cooking in the air. No, that was food cooking. I ran back into the house, grabbed some pot holders and ran back out. By now, moms are walking their little kids home from school and I must've looked panicky. I dashed between them, pulled off the oven door and quickly removed the lid to the Dutch oven. At this point a picture is worth a thousand words. I didn't need a thousand words. Only one. Burned. Kingsford probably would've recognized it and maybe even applauded me. "Honey, dinner's ready!" Well, I knew better than to yell that out as the neighbors surely would've known otherwise. The aroma had turned to odor. Those school moms sure would've been laughing. I should've been but I had to recover quickly. What to do next? Go back to the store, buy another roast and try again tomorrow and this time keep an eye on it.
    I thought to myself,"Stick with pizza." Yes, pizza makes more sense! So, I was hoping to find more uses for my mobile pizza oven. Finally it dawned on me. Pull out the books and start checking out more pizza recipes. I found one that I thought looked promising. Chili Pizza! Yuba County Fair Grounds at the Home & Garden Show was my testing ground. People love chili and people love pizza. Why not try them together? With a batch of my 5 hour chili with no beans in it I decide to put it on the menu. A scoop of semi-spicy chili on the dough, a few chopped onions and sprinkled with some cheddar cheese and some jalapeños by request, I created my first chili pizza. Friday we advertised it and we sold one. My crew laughed at me. However, we had 2 more days to try it again. By Sunday afternoon we had sold out! My crew had finally got up the guts to try one, well, maybe a bite of one. "Oh, that's good!" they exclaimed. Too bad they hadn't tried it sooner!

   The Elk Grove Chili Cook-off is coming up in June. June 8th to be exact. I was told by the event co-ordinator to offer chili if I could. Apparently you can taste the chili from the different competitors and vote on your favorites but you can't buy a bowl of chili. What's the point of that? I had a banner made up specifically for the cook-off saying Wood-fired Chili Pizza. I'm predicting that we sell more chili pizzas than any other. As for the wood-fired brisket, it's not going to make it on the menu soon.

Taking Pizza to Wine Country

    We went wine tasting in the Amador Valley last summer with our friends Larry & Andrea from PA and got to talking to the wine guy who pours those little sips of wine. He was fun, personable, knowledgeable and enthusiastic. We got to talking about more than just wine when I saw an opening in the conversation that led to talking about pizza. I talked, he listened and before I knew it I was reaching into my pocket to whip out a Tuscan Sun Pizza card to him. He looked at it and studied it and started asking about the Pompeii oven pictured on the card which led to more conversation about pizza. Andrea was on crutches after breaking her ankle on an almost trip to Italy. I say almost because as they were leaving the parking garage in Philadelphia to get over to the airport Larry found out he was a dollar short for the garage attendant. Andrea had to get out of the car, go open the trunk to pull out her purse when the car behind them rolled up and caught her leg between the bumpers. Andrea fell with what appeared to be a bruised leg which quickly swelled up and instead of going to the airport they went to Emergency. There, she had pins and plates implanted into her ankle and the trip to Italy wasn't going to happen. What a let down! However, their timing was such that with the help of some Vicodin they decided to fly out west a week later and hook up with their friends who came in from Australia down in San Jose. Sheri & I drove down to San Jose to meet up with them then bring them back to Elk Grove to hang with us for a few days before jetting back to PA.

   What a trooper Andrea was to hang tough and not let the accident bring her down! With a leg brace and some crutches we went wine tasting in the Amador Valley. That's when the eventual conversation started with Steve, the wine pourer, who graciously brought a stool over to Andrea so she could rest her leg.
    About 4 months later Steve emailed us about doing a pizza event at the Terra d'Oro winery called a Tour of Italy set for March 2-3rd of 2013. We were excited to do a winery and such a beautiful one at that! Fast forward a few weeks and the pizza gig fell through. However, the same day it had fallen through another winery, The Old Sugarmill from Clarksburg just across the river from us called. Sheri & I have tasted wines out there on numerous occasions in the past. They wanted us in 10 days to sell pizza at their Port & Chocolate event! Sweeeeeet!
   After the dismal attendance in December of the girls' high school basketball tournament in Antioch we still had 2 freezers full of pizza product. This is a winery and this crowd will be more sophisticated then a bunch of high school kids. We need to up our game and put some pizzas on the menu that were a bit more sophisticated. Thanks to the information provided by Albert Grande's website: Pizzatherapy.com and a pizza book written by my pizza hero Tony Gemignani we were looking in all the right places. Our menu consisted of 5 pizzas. Naturally we had to put a Margherita pizza on the menu using fresh mozzarella, Tony's marinara sauce recipe topped with fresh basil. Next we looked up his Fig & Proscuitto recipe which we altered slightly then a Bacon & Bleu recipe from our friend Ron Arguello who is also in the mobile pizza business, a Pesto & Sun-dried tomato pizza and finally a standard spicy pepperoni. No carnival pizzas here!

    Beautiful warm weather on a windless day brought the wine tasters out in droves without the kids. At $20-$25 a person for the entrance fee at The Old Sugarmill we wondered how many pizzas we would actually sell.  I had estimated 50-60 pizzas per day due to the numbers we had sold at street events of this size. I admit openly that I have estimated every crowd at every event incorrectly. Once again I was way off. On Saturday we sold over 220 pizzas at a rate of 36 per hour. The most pizzas I had baked simultaneously in the wood-fired oven was five. Saturday I reached 9 and never burned a single one. All day long I was floating 4 to 5 pizzas at 900º. Sunday was nearly as amazing. Joani assembled pizzas at a constant speed of proficiency and accuracy. Chris & Greg expedited while Sheri ran the orders from inside the food court and took in wads of $20's and making change all day long. Even at 58 years old she can still work a crowd, make them laugh, educate them about wood-fired pizza and still make a few tips. What a team effort that was. I was proud of each and every one of them. Even my brother Dan showed up with my 86 year old mother who pitched in and ran orders up to the front and restock the ice chests while Sheri's sister laid out doughs and and helped out in all departments. Her sister, Florence was visiting from Arizona and her and Sheri weren't going to even work the event this weekend but got roped in anyway out of pure passion and consideration. I'm sure glad they were there. Couldn't have done it without them!
   You can do all the math and give it your best shot at anticipating a crowd but when the weather invites you outdoors and wine tasting is in the air it can make wood-fired pizza all the more special and that much more tasty. Can't wait for the Old Sugarmill to call again! We'll be there!

Pizza for Eternity

   2012. The Mayans may have been wrong or maybe just misunderstood. December 21, 2012 came and went like any other day of the year and we're all still here. Not that I'm surprised at all as I could've easily purchased enough dough, cheese and food for 1000 people prior to 12/21/12 and not paid for it until after the world ended. I had enough faith in our modern day calendar to go ahead and pay for it upon pick up as I usually do. So what's up with those Mayans?  Maybe their calendar was off by a few millennia. Should've had an Iphone perhaps. Either way, we're still here and I have enough pizza to feed an army right now.
    Deer Valley High School in Antioch called us to do pizza and told us that they were so busy last year at this girls' national basketball tournament their snack bar couldn't keep up with the demand of Ho Ho's, licorice sticks, Pepsi, Ding Dongs and Twinkies that they thought we'd make a killing. We were one of 2 vendors just 10 steps away from the gymnasium doors. It sounded promising. After 2 days of dismal sales we bailed. The hot dog vendor hung around to Saturday but when I checked on him at 2:00 that day he had only sold 15 french fries, 9 hot chocolates, 2 hot dogs and 1 hamburger. The food won't go to waste as both freezers are jammed full but the fact that we were the best prepared that we've ever been was disappointing. It's taken us several events to work out the bugs but this time we had it all. We had Christmas lighting, work station lights, rubber floor mats, space heaters, a new cash register, flyers, loads of paper plates, napkins, extra help on call and plenty of enthusiasm.
   I had even cooked up 5 gallons of my favorite pizza sauce in a new 20 qt. pot I just purchased so we didn't have to use the institutional pizza sauce. Man, we were ready!
   So, forget about the basketball tournament and we'll turn our efforts towards other events. The Artisan Cheese Fest in Petaluma looks like fun. There's an Amador Valley Winery who is interested in us for early March and then there's a soccer tournament in Sacramento with plenty of open dates and no pizza vendor on the schedule. Even Lodi's Street Fair contacted us again about selling pizza in May!
   I don't feel like we failed only that the stars weren't aligned or something. Maybe I should've consulted a Mayan. Heck, Steve Jobs' computer "Lisa" was a failure! When the copy machine was invented and shown to Xerox they said, "Who needs copies? If so, we have carbon paper." Even Edison tried 10,000 times to get the lightbulb to work before he succeeded. He eventually told a reporter who asked him if he feels like he at first failed. Edison looked at him and said, "No. I now know 9,999 ways how NOT to make a lightbulb."
   Like Edison, we will keep on keeping on. Sure, the freezers are full right now but if you look at the bright side, even if the world was to end tomorrow we can have as much pizza as we want  going with us into eternity. Let's see, our pizzas cook at around 900º. I wonder what the temperature of Hell is?

A Dickens of a Fair

    Dickens was good to us. Elk Grove had their 25th anniversary of the Dickens Faire. We signed up to bake pizza and pulled out our Civil War outfits for the event. Since we are civilian Civil War re-enactors it wasn't a stretch to pull them together with a bit of a tweak to appear as Victorian era folks. A larger hat, a different cravat, (that's a tie, for those of you who don't speak Victorian) and some comfortable brogans. (shoes)
    The Victorian era spanned several decades from 1837 to 1901 during the reign of England's Queen Victoria. The Dickens era fell well within those decades from 1836 with his first successful novel The Pickwick Papers to 1870, the year in which he died.  The American Civil War however, was also within those two periods lasting from 1861 to 1865. When I think of Charles Dickens I think of his novel, a Christmas Carol as do most people, I believe. Who can forget Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit and of course Ebeneezer Scrooge? Not to mention the ghosts from his past, present and future. I always enjoyed that story whether I was reading it, watching a theater production or viewing Mr. Magoo as a child with the voice of Jim Backus playing the roll of Scrooge. Oh Magooooo, you've done it again!

   When ever a theme is mentioned I'm first in line to be a part of it. Dickens Theme? Piece of cake...or pizza or something. Sheri & I didn't hesitate to dress the part. Our partners even got into it with their articles of clothing although I had to remove Greg's baseball hat and give him a proper period hat. Not a problem, any good re-enactor will have multiple accessories to change his appearance or help out a friend. My red satin vest is still at the dry cleaners though trying to get the pizza residue off of it.
   The outdoor ice skating rink that was promised to us didn't freeze in time. They blamed it on the equipment as
any good contractor
would. It never really mattered. The street faire was one long block long and we were in the middle of it. Everybody had to pass us twice as they strolled along on a sunny and crisp day. People were hungry and we were ready. Our final pizza count was over 200 by the time we shut down at 4:00 for the parade to come through. By Dickens it was close though, as we ran out of fresh dough, cheese, paper plates and napkins. That was a first for us! I even made a cheese run to keep us going until 4. On previous occasions at the Elk Grove Dickens Fair we had been disappointed by the attendance when visiting it. I just believed the ice rink would draw more people in. It wasn't the ice rink though but the sun bringing the people out and letting them have a dickens of a good time. They told us to expect 10,000 people. I think the organizers did a dickens of a great job and were amazingly prophetic. (I guess I've used that dickens word to death by now!)

   If the ghost of Christmas future was to show at my bedside I definitely would bake pizzas at the  Dickens Fair again next year!

 

Victorian Pizza

What should I call my next novel?

   We aren't experts. We aren't professionals. We are just a couple of guys who love pizza and hope to share our brand of pizza with others who like pizza. It really sounds cool to hear friends say to their friends in front of you, "Vince makes an awesome pizza." or "You've not tasted pizza until you've tried Vince's wood-fired pizza." Hearing that really gets my excitement up.
   We did the Lodi Street Faire in, where else? Lodi. Had a really good run of sales to the Loditians. I don't think that's really a word. Maybe they're Lodites.

   Real Estate agents will tell you though, that it's, "Location, location, location." They're right. We were snuggled in to our 10 x 10 foot space with the pizza trailer in back where nobody could see it or enjoy the show sandwiched between the Kettle Korn guy and the world famous Lockeford Sausages. Lockeford Sausages has a following and a clientele. People literally drive for hours to stock up on Lockeford Sausage made locally right next door to Lodi in the town of, you guessed it, Lockeford. I guess that would make those people Lockefordians? Anyway, not putting them down at all in any way cuz their sausages are excellent but darn when it comes to a reputation that precedes you and a corner booth with 2 exposures, they win! I wanted to go take pizza samples to the 20+ people standing in line at their booth and swing a few our direction. I didn't, that would be poor sportsmanship. I did enjoy their barbecue smoke from the sausages being grilled over an open flame and a large pan of fresh onions over the fire right where we had to enjoy it all day. It sure beats kettle korn blowing in your face. We did well in Lodi. Our measuring stick has become the Pear Fair and any comparison to it is where we mark it.
   Next on the agenda is Elk Grove's very own Old Town Dickens Fair in downtown Elk Grove. It's been small and poorly attended in the past and you've got to give the poor volunteers some credit for trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear with barely any support from the city itself. This year appears to be different. For one, it's the 25th anniversary of the Dickens Faire in Elk Grove. Whoopee! I had to mention that but the main reason I believe it will be better than any year prior is this year they are actually getting support from the city and putting in an outdoor ice rink. I couldn't believe it myself until I saw the article in today's paper. They are actually going to do it, albeit temporarily, until Christmas but hey, that's taking a shot at being supportive.
   I did request a space next to or near the ice rink as that, I believe, will be the main attraction. Piping hot pizza on a cold day in November while waiting to rent some skates has got to be a perfect combination. The smell of wood smoke drifting across the ice has got to entice those hungry skaters to come check us out while they soak up some heat from the 900º degree oven. It's like leading lambs to slaughter. Shouldn't even be legal but hey, no one's forcing them to skate.

Typical Victorian couple of the era

Our outfits while re-enacting with friends at Manassas

  We will attempt to dress in Dickens period costume as we just need to make a few minor changes to our Civil War outfits to adjust to the particular decade. Fact: The Victorian era began in 1837 and dies with the Queen in 1912. Fact: Dickens was a contemporary of the Queen living from 1812 to 1870. Fact: Neither of them actually ate a pizza.
   In the Victorian era they still wore top hats with cravats, frock coats and vests, so that should be easy. The ladies still wore hoop skirts but with much bigger hats and a bunch of lace. Can't let the clothing get in the way of the pizza making. Of course it would probably be more appropriate if I dressed like a chimney sweep since I usually end up pretty dirty from the soot and ash but would you want to eat pizza cooked by a chimney sweep? It's all about romance and marketing too, I suppose.