Need Advice about wife

[mustbecrazy]

Re: Need Advice about wife

I love plants and gardens. My wife's grandfather had a organic nursery for 40 years. (Before organic was cool) I used to love to go help in the green house etc. Unfortunately I can't grow a thing. (except weeds) everything looks like crap. So when I see pictures of yards like yours its quite amazing to me. Is it magic or something? Grow plants on an oven?
What did you need a challenge or something? Is a garden with dirt just too easy for people like you? (people with green thumbs).
Again all in good fun. Gene

[pmoconnor]

Re: Need Advice about wife

Yeah, I know you said to stop reading after the first paragraph. But, lucky for you I didn't. My womanly suggestion is to make friends with someone who has one and ask them to invite you and your wife to their next pizza party. My boss did that for our staff. We all got to toss our own dough and make our own pizza. It was great. I just bought a Primavera60 as a result. I think if she can experience it herself, she'll have a blast and beg you to built one for her.

[mustbecrazy]

Re: Need Advice about wife

Trish,
After 42 years of cooking for me, my wife would be most interested in ways that she can NOT cook. However, since you were so nice and wrote on this tread I will ask her what she thinks of your idea.

My newest idea is to have my grandson build the WFO. In my wife eyes he can do no wrong, so this might be the answer, I could just assist. Perfect solution. I'll report back on this idea too, see if it will fly.Gene

[pmoconnor]

Re: Need Advice about wife

I guess there was a little lost in translation. I wasn't suggesting she cook . I thought you wanted her permission to build the oven and then once it was built you'd cook for her! Silly me ... Either way, I think it'll be something you both enjoy. Good luck. Trish

[FIREANDFLAMES]

Re: Need Advice about wife

Trish,
After 42 years of cooking for me, my wife would be most interested in ways that she can NOT cook. However, since you were so nice and wrote on this tread I will ask her what she thinks of your idea.

My newest idea is to have my grandson build the WFO. In my wife eyes he can do no wrong, so this might be the answer, I could just assist. Perfect solution. I'll report back on this idea too, see if it will fly.Gene

When i built my oven my wife shrugged and rolled her eyes, but after two years she is always asking me to cook pizza. Not only does it taste amazing it is a chance to have some quality time with the family!

[mustbecrazy]

Re: Need Advice about wife

Fire and Flames,
I think my wife is a little bit afraid that I would me making too much pizza. We went to a Italian restaurant this last weekend and had pizza cooked in a "wood fired" oven. Oven brand "X" that really was a gas fired oven, and I commented that "wouldn't it be great if I could cook pizza and Italian food (she had raviolis) all the time in our own WFO" She said "We (meaning me) don't need to be eating pizza all the time." "We, (meaning me) could stand to loose some weight."
See what kind of an irrational person I'm dealing with here? I think I am getting further behind on convincing her to let me build a WFO. I may have to resort to just building it and then asking forgiveness or maybe never tell her about it.

"Is that pizza on your breath?" You're not sneaking behind by back and eating pizza again are you?" Who me? Where did you get a crazy idea like that?

ps. I am writing this at work. I think she is starting to get suspicious.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Need Advice about wife

Ha ha ha, Gene! You little sneak!

My wife (who has been really patient with me finishing the patio prior to finishing my oven) can't wait for a family-gathering spot to eat together and cook wonderful food without having to heat up the kitchen.

John

[Grimaldi]

Re: Need Advice about wife

I think you need to give up, Gene. It was a nice thought and all, you building a WFO oven, but you have obstacles that may be better left unbreached. Plus, it is a lot of work, you might injure yourself, it may drag out for years...I don't think it will work for you, sorry :]

[lwood]

Re: Need Advice about wife

Good try Gene....

[olddude]

Re: Need Advice about wife

so far i think the grandson is your best bet try the we got to spend time to gether
bonding and teaching. tell her that you built it so he will have a reason to come around and bring his family back to see the oven he built with his grandpa

[Stan]

Re: Need Advice about wife

Gene, here's some things to consider:

1. WFOs use no electricity, don't heat up the house in the summer, and are stunningly fuel efficient. If you insulate well, it will stay hot for days. That means not using your oven inside for days.

2. It's not a pizza oven. Stop saying pizza; it's a bad word in these kinds of discussions. It's an oven that can cook pizza as well as anything else that goes into an oven. And, chances are it will be much larger internally than your actual indoor oven.

2.1. Also, stop saying Italian food. It's food, period. You can grill, bake, roast, braise, smoke, dehydrate, WHATEVER. Paella? Yes. BBQ? Yes. Soup? You bet. Thanksgiving? Absolutely. Crisp Peking duck? I'm working on that...

3. Nothing cooks for a crowd like a WFO. I can cook for well over 20 people in my tiny oven with no problems whatsoever. If you like to have people over for dinner, a WFO is a godsend. If you don't generally have people over for dinner, that will rapidly change with a WFO.

4. I've never experienced anything that brings people together like my WFO. Everybody goes and watches it fire, sips beverages and talks. It's astonishing what a communal cooking place can do to bring your family together.

5. If you do get permission, don't slack off! Do it carefully, and do it well. Make it pretty. Add some outdoor kitchen components. If you do it right, you've just increased the value of your home, created a place that will bring your friends and family together, and changed the way you cook. If your wife can't get behind that idea, then you need to give up.

Stan

[Grimaldi]

Re: Need Advice about wife

WOW, Stan! You just sold me

Seriously, very well put.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Need Advice about wife

Nicely said, Stan.

Even though this is a gas-fired oven video, show this to your wife Gene. Like Stan said: It's food, period.

YouTube - Cooking in a Wood or Gas-Fired Oven

John

[Janine M. LeGrand]

Re: Need Advice about wife

As a woman, the WFO that I have is a real blessing:
It is wonderful for social gatherings. I entertain outdoors so I don't have to clean the house, just wipe down a wooden picnic table. While sometimes I'll roast a duck or such, for parties pizza is both cheap and extemely popular. I do a little prep ahead of time (make dough and sauce), but then have guests do much of the work--they can sit around the table, grate cheese, slice veggies, then everyone assembles there own pizza.
People find fixing the food half the fun, and it is a wonderful icebreaker. Rather than have people wondering what to say, who to talk to etc. they are all engaged in a common activity. Competative groups can play "who made the best pizza?" for fun. Everybody shares and cooperates and can easily enter conversation--a great social dynamic effortlessly achieved. Since the party can be about making the food, I never have to worry about having all the dishes cooked and ready at the same time. Clean-up is also easy for most WFO dishes (I line pans with foil for roasts etc.) Any leftover toppings for pizza get thrown in the fridge and usually make a great stir-fry the next day, though sometimes I've also done some fancy egg scrambles--both quick and easy dishes also.

Hope this helps,
Janine

[mustbecrazy]

Re: Need Advice about wife

Grimaldi, you may very well be right, might be the best advice given, except unfortunately I watched the you-tube video that John linked about cooking in a wood or gas fired oven.
That guy was amazing. I want to cook like that (and eat like that too). I have been looking at this all wrong. I like to build things, that's what punches my buttons, and I have been looking at this from that view, but apparently a WFO is about cooking and eating and entertaining not just building. Is cooking building? Yes, I think it just might be.

Plus Stans Five Tips..He's got me convinced. But my wife????

Janine, thank you for your insight. My original reason for building a WFO was for cooking at a big party we have each October. Last year we had 125 people attend. I thought it would be a blast to cook in a WFO for it. I was thinking mostly pizza, but clearly my view was very narrow. I will see if I can figure out how to post some pictures of last years party on this forum. I am not really very computer inclined, and I am just learning how to make all the functions of this forum work. In fact I realize I did not really begin correctly and began posting in the introduction area without really being an introduction. This forum is great. I spend a lot of time reading about other people building WFO. What a talented (and helpful-and friendly) bunch of people. http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/imag...lies/smile.gif

Thanks Gene