Kaimusailing

Rain, rain, go away. We had a gloomy Memorial Day weekend and now our plans have been scuttled by more rain, almost gale conditions, and maybe flooding to follow.
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The Atomic 4 engine is still locked up, frozen. I went to Pocomoke to get Liquid Wrench at any of the stores there. It turned out none of them had it, nor did any of the stores in Salisbury. I have plenty of PB Blaster, which is the #2 penetrating lubricant. The liquid wrench probably wouldn’t have made a difference. The sump bolt on the engine also refused to budge, but the rain kept me in and the heavy duty socket set was still stowed away in the Honda CRV. I will try that. Pounding on the pistons didn’t move anything either.
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The marina sent an announcement that Friday would be live entertainment at the Boater’s Lounge, the former Red Shell Shanty, that we frequented just a few years ago. Orange crush drinks and other libations kept us coming back, plus it is right on the water. Unfortunately the marina closed it as a bistro and converted into a sort of lounge with internet and Roku TV.
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I had an idea in the back of my mind to do pizza night again with my propane pizza oven, and the best venue for that would be the Shanty where we could show up with our adult beverages and bake those pizza pies. We had done this last year and before that we had an event including steamed crabs. Now the marina is bringing a guy with a guitar and inviting boaters to bring their booze to enjoy the entertainment.
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I went back in the blog, years ago, what was my flour/water ratio to make pizza, and how many pies? It looks like for 4-6 pies it’s 5 cups of flour to 2 cups of water, or 1 ¼ C flour to ½ C water for each pie. Now I have to find out how many people will be at the Shanty besides our little group. I have to test out the oven and make sure I have a full propane tank.
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While I was in Pocomoke looking for liquid wrench I bought a lot of pizza ingredients including Galabani whole milk mozzarella and Great Value crushed tomatoes with basil. I tried it and it is very good, and cheap.
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Other ingredients will have to wait. I have the recipe for Angelo’s Pesto Pie, an Italian restaurant in Kingsland, GA, and it’s a pie with spinach and feta cheese in addition to regular toppings. Spinach needs to be fresh and prepped to remove the little stems.
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It looks like the forecast for Pizza Night is thunderstorms. The venue is tented and we will go ahead come hell or high water. I called the marina office to ask how many people they expected and they replied they had canceled the event due to risk of thunderstorms. They hadn’t emailed the cancellation. I wondered if there would be boaters showing up, expecting entertainment, but getting pizza. I texted a fellow boater who kept his boat on my dock, come and get the best pizza this side of New Haven.
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My plan was to go out in the morning, get the propane tank refilled and get my perishable pizza ingredients. The car was dead. I checked the battery, 8 volts. I took the battery to SUNSPLASH and put it on charge. While it was charging I began preparations for pizza.
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I cleaned a large bowl and added 2 cups of warm water, a tablespoon of honey, and about a tablespoon of bread yeast, whisking the concoction smooth. I covered the bowl with a towel and let it ferment. Red onion, multicolored sweet peppers, and mozzarella were prepped and placed into individual red soda cups.
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After the fermentation had gone on for about ½ hour, I added 2 cups of all purpose flour and whisked the concoction smooth, no lumps. I put the towel back over the bowl. It takes about 20 minutes for hydration to complete, so after ½ hour I began adding more flour, should be 3 cups more, mix with a big spoon to get the dough roughly mixed, then coat my hands with EVOO and dig in, kneading away for at least 5 and no more than 10 minutes. I had to add a bit more flour. The dough had that leathery “tough” texture. Let it begin to rise.
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I tried the battery in the CRV and it started. I drove to the local propane distributor and refilled the tank, then to the grocers and got sliced mushrooms and garlic salt. I forgot to get spinach. Maybe next time. By the time I got back to the marina it was time to relocate all my stuff to the old Red Shell Shanty. Cuddily called and I reassured her I got the car going and got my stuff already, she was prepared to take me shopping for pizza ingredients and maybe a new battery. She said call Teri and so I did, inviting her for pizza. She declined due to soreness due to injury.
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The oven was set up with the propane tank ready to ignite. Let the countdown begin. I prepped a large can of Great Value crushed tomatoes, adding about 2 tablespoons of garlic and about 1 tablespoon of Italian spice mix.
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The mozzarella had been cut into 4 large cubes, and the cubes were each sliced into 7 slices. The pepperoni was in large slices and it looked like 2 groups of 14 slices each. Perfect.
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Cuddily arrived with a bunch of oranges and liquor to make orange crush drinks. It was time to ignite the oven and so I did. I began forming the first pie. It was pepperoni, 14 slices on top of mozzarella on top of the tomato sauce. I had used no salt in the dough or sauce, so I now dusted the pie with garlic salt. The oven was at only 700 degrees, I put the pie in and set the timer for 4 minutes, then rotated the pie 180 degrees for another 4 minutes. It came out looking perfect and I set it aside on the tile table next to the oven. Let it coalesce for a few minutes.
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Cuddily had commandeered my cutting board and set up an orange crush table next to a power outlet. She had an electric orange juicer and began producing fresh orange juice. She made an orange crush drink and asked if I wanted one, I responded by opening a box of Nighthawk dark malbec. My favorite Nighthawk pinot noir was completely bought out at Sysco in Pocomoke. I had to settle for malbec.
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We tried the pizza. I usually have one slice from each pie and resist the urge to devour that first pie. Cornelia Marie and Wilbur arrived with Nori, the Wonder Dog, and more pizza ingredients and an orange crusher. They began mass producing orange crush drinks while I began making another pie. It was a pie to end all pies, small bits of mild Italian sausage, mozzarella, feta crumbles, sweet peppers, red onion, I remarked it is a sausage pepper and onion pizza. I let it bake for 5 minutes, did the 180, then 5 more minutes. Let it rest. Cornelia Marie then made a pie using some of her secret ingredients, parmesan shreds, balsamic glaze, black olives, and some that remain secret. The pie was excellent.
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A marina security person came in to see what we were up to and we asked where is the light switch, it is beginning to get dark. A fellow boater, Wes, and his partner arrived. He asked what was security there for, what was he doing? I said he’s looking for the light switch.
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More crush drinks were made. We made two more pies for a total of five. That’s 30 slices of pizza. Only 2 remained at the end of the day. The lights never came on, both figuratively and literally. Outside a gale arrived suddenly with the trees bending in the gusts and some lightning and rain. What a night. The 3 liter box of wine was gone. The oranges were gone. The Shanty looked like the storm had passed through inside. A couple of important marina management and staff stopped by to assess our pizza party. Oh good, they plan on scheduling a taco party at the Shanty next Saturay. Hmm, Mexican pizza with mole sauce and shredded chicken? Mole sauce and sliced hot dogs?
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The next day I needed ibuprofen and time to wipe down the Shanty’s tables, hunt down various pizza related objects, and stow leftover perishables in the fridge. The image is from saachiart.com, Pizzaiolo at Maschmanns, by Sriram Kuppuswami of Norway. It is available for purchase at that site.