Calzones in our very own pizza oven!

One of the things we were really excited about when we looked at this house was the pizza oven! The Linguist loves to do Dutch-oven cooking and, as you know, I'm a die-hard bread baker. A pizza oven just seemed like the next logical step! It only took us 7 months, but we finally got around to trying out this new toy!

To get it going, you build a fire near the back. The bricks in the top of the oven begin to turn white as it nears the target temperature of 700 degrees! The Linguist got a little too close at one point and has some singed hair to prove it!

Our first dilemma was what to cook the calzones on...none of my bakeware is approved for use up to 700 degrees! We finally settled on using the Dutch oven lid. Who knew we'd need our cast iron griddle in Italy?

Yummy! Calzones filled with chicken, ham, pepperoni and lots of cheese were a hit with the adults and the kids.

Since I had leftover dough, we opted to try a dessert calzone -- apples with cinnamon and sugar baked up perfectly. 

Delicious!