epicurean eclipse

Any excuse for a party, right? The eclipse seemed as good as any. Last night we had a do-it-yourself pizza party using the big oven on Marie's terrazzo to cook them. Fernando fired it up at about 3 PM, using dried coconut husks. He pours diesel fuel into half a husk


and tosses into the oven on the pile of husks. One spark and the fire gets going. The smoke pouring out the opening has a very sweet scent, like acacia.


While this was going on outside, four of the Wednesday Night Ladies Domino Club gathered in the dining room to make pizza dough for the evening's meal. With that little chore done we all sat down for a nice glass of red. I went home to assemble a big salad to add to the feast.

After three hours the coals were just perfect and it was time to cook.

Chuy took over pinching off and rolling out little crusts. Each guest helped him/herself to a tasty selection of toppings, and Fernando did the baking.

It took about 10 minutes to cook these little beauties. The oven temperature was perfect and the pizzas turned out just the way you want them; good crust, melted cheese, nothing burned.

As for the eclipse, we sat out on the terrazzo, binoculars at the ready and watched the show in the sky until it was over. We didn't have a good, clear sky for all of it; lots of clouds floating around. But it was beautiful nonetheless.