Deep dish pizza while camping

As someone who has taken the single pot method of cooking to some extremes in the past I felt that this camping trip should live up to the tradition. That said, I wanted to try something new and had the idea to try making a Chicago style deep dish pizza in my dutch oven over a camp stove. A quick Google of the idea yielded almost no guidance. So I offer my experience here for the edification of the next person to give it a try.

Dough:
I made and froze a half pound dough before I left, along with about a cup of marinara sauce. My dough is a simple 1lb flour, 1 tb salt, 1 tb brown sugar, 2 tsp yeast and 1+ cup of water. This was half that.

At the campsite I oiled my dutch oven, stretched the dough and placed it inside the oven working it up the sides. The trick I discovered here is that the dough wants to fall back into the center so you need to have all the fillings close by and ready. I placed a layer of large cheese slices in first, followed by my other fillings, then sauce and then a final layer of cheese.

I baked it on my lowest setting for about an hour. Upon removal I discovered that yes, the crust had baked but that part of the bottom was burned. All of the fillings were hot, the cheese was molten and the side crust was great.

When I attempt this again I will try to spread the heat a bit, perhaps with a heat tamer between the stove and the oven. Or, I could do it in the coals of the fire.

Back from camping

Went camping with the family for the last few days. It was oddly refreshing to have some intense heat (as I write this the sun is finally breaking through the Bay Area fog at 11 am) and to be off the grid for a few days. We camped at Del Valle, a reservoir and park managed by the East Bay Regional Parks district outside of Livermore CA.

I took my bike (actually I had four hung on the back of the car) and took the opportunity to ride in a new area since this is further south than I can roam normally. I rode up Mines Rd, which much to my surprise ran a good 20+ miles uphill from the 700 ft at the park entrance up to 2600 ft just south of the Santa Clara county line.

It was some really good riding though, a weekday morning and the number of cars and bikes encountered did not exceed my total number of fingers and toes over the course of nearly four hours of riding out and back. The road was quiet, the landscape charming and I even spotted a few jack rabbits and wild turkeys trying to decide if I was intent on chasing them. I did have a passing thought about the chance of a mountain lion being in the area, but decided with the large number of deer they would be well fed without me in their diet.

Convergence

Convergence of my two favorite subjects: food and bicycles -

Five-Star Tour Cuisine for Guys Who Eat and Ride

Some additional Tour chatter

So amongst the usual tour chatter with coverage from the NYT, lots of video coverage (see below) there are some nice background stories that emerge during the tour that otherwise would not get written in other seasons. So if you ever wondered why Lance Armstrong rides for Astana (sponsored by the glorious nation of Kazakhstan- insert Borat joke here) this little snippet from the New Republic might help fill in the gaps. It all comes down to who you work with (in this case Bruyneel) rather than who you work for.

Where I'll be for the next few weeks

Tour de France, live streaming.

http://tdf.sbs.com.au/tdf2009/

Update:
That link isn't working anymore. So try this for a list of possible links to live video:

http://www.cyclingfans.com/live_race_coverage

The burger has its "bacon" treatment in the NYT

I think the real question you have to ask yourself after reading this article on burger construction is. "do I need a dedicated food processor for meat?"

The Perfect Burger and All Its Parts

A special nod to the mention of Gus' Pickles on the Lower East Side. For of those not familiar with it, go rent Crossing Delancey where it has a supporting role.