Summer's here, so break out the pizza and beer! (Pt. 1)

Hey foodies! Testing the Water is back online after a rough conclusion to my first year in grad school. I'm currently back in Richmond, VA unwinding with the pizza party. We've been brushing off our pizza making skills by welcoming some new cooks into the circle, testing out some different preparation methods (ex. lower hydration ratio in the dough- but more on that in a later post), and some experimental toppings (we're hiding these pictures in the vault next to Operation Bin Laden for now). The weather is gorgeous, the beer is cold, the pizza is hot, and the company is incomparable. I'll let the pictures do the talking.



Belgium blonde ale: flavors of citrus, cream, and alcohol.



White pizza: garlic, olive oil, basil, mozz.



A last minute squeeze of lemon brings it all together.



Very nice garlicky flavor. By far, the best tasting pizza of the night.



Skipped out on the Bell's Oberon mini-keg this summer, which was the beer (un)official beer of summer 2010. A couple of us have tasted this season's Oberon and it just seems to lack flavor. Anyone else know what I'm talking about?

Southern Tier's pale ale sampler pack includes their pale ale, IPA, Phinn and Matts (slightly dark pale ale), and 422 (wheat pale ale). All of them are sure to please a hops fan. We look forward to drinking these during hot summer nights.



The infrared thermometer is reading about 950 right above the stone. With the broiler on, it maxed out at over 1100 degrees (F). Pizzas cook in under 3 minutes.

Needless to say, the pizzas featured in this blog are prepared by cooks that have been trained at the school of hard culinary knocks using kitchen appliances that are almost as old as we are. We don't recommend everyone try this at home, as a drop of sauce on your fru-fru glass window oven will cause it to shatter.



A pizza margherita with some crust that got a little too happy in the oven (but was still delicious).



"Green" dining.



The last pizza of the night was made with dough by a rising pizza chef. This feletti pizza (grape tomatoes, cheese, garlic, basil) is well paired with the first cold glass of rosé of the summer. What? Afraid to drink pink wine? This ain't the white zin your momma drinks at her book club meetings. Educate yourself.