All Work, No Play

Busy start for the year with work and just trying to survive until spring. We have a big work trip coming up next month and I’m in charge of it as the only female brain at work. Everyone knows women are way better at organisation and making sure everything is in order well in advance.

Winter wonderland but I just enjoy it briefly here and there. Most of the time I work in a basement where some of the windows are fully boarded up so not much natural light to be seen. It’s dark when we leave for work and it’s dark when we come home. It’s fine, the days are getting longer by a few minutes every day, the mid summer sun will soon be upon us!

With the super cold temperatures for the past month, I’ve been making my gas powered pizza oven Ooni pull double duty; cooking the pizza and warming up the kitchen. You are not supposed to use Ooni inside but I figured it’s basically the same thing as a gas stove right? We don’t really have those in Finland, other than in restaurants and some summer cottages, but I know they are popular elsewhere.

Of course a little pizza oven is not going to provide much in terms of heating but it does have to be on for about 20 minuted before the first pizza so why not use that to my advantage. It’s nice and cozy prepping the toppings while standing in front of the oven. I find the design of the oven to be quite brilliant for how it directs the heat, you can get quite close to it in the front and not burn yourself, most of the extra heat goes straight up from the opening. The shell does of course get hot but it doesn’t radiate heat far so you don’t have to clear out a big space for it.

There was a steep learning curve with Ooni but now that I have perfected the routine of when to make the dough and how high to crank up the oven (high to heat the stone, low when the pizza is in), it’s really quite simple. And now as I also am comfortable using the oven inside, I make pizza way more often. I don’t even remember when I last ordered pizza in a restaurant because the ones I make are always better anyways.