On Saturday, we set-up at Lasting Legacy Park and had a great time watching about 100 people try wood-fired pizza for the first time ever. It was so much fun to see their faces light up with the first bite. So many people said, "I love the crust!" and "What is in this sauce?". We offer two sauce options, our classic Red Sauce which is 100% Organic Fire-roasted tomatoes, and a Pesto Sauce that is a blend of Basil, Cheese, Oil, and Garlic. But yesterday when I made my own pizza for lunch, I mixed the two and nearly fell out of my chair! That's why we're going to call it our BESTO SAUCE! For those who like it zesty!

We are recovering from sunburn today... in March? In Wyoming? Strange! Maybe we really did bring a little bit of Italy to Gillette! 

Since the last time we blogged:
We FINALLY got the little lever spigot we wanted for our hand-washing station. 
We got our License to sell food from the State of Wyoming.
We sold our very first pizza, a Jalapeno Popper Pizza, with peppers, bacon and cream cheese, to Deb Morgan.
We secured a couple of locations, and more are in the works.
We have an amazing new assistant/pizziolo (a person who makes pizza is called a pizziolo, and sometimes pizziola if the artist is a woman).  This young gentleman is Aaron Morlock and today he really worked hard, stayed focused, and created amazing pizzas.  Aaron is currently volunteering to gain experience, but we hope to promote him as soon as we are able. He has truly been an incredible asset already, and he's only worked a day and a half! 

We made over 70 pizzas on the fly at the Don's Supermarket parking lot in 6 hours, we could have sold a lot more, but we ran out of dough. Even though it was an impulse decision, we just couldn't wait another minute to make pizza. We had no signs, no menus. Only business cards, and everything needed to make simple, delicious pizza pies. We didn't post on Facebook, we told about 10 people after we arrived. We just sat at the back of the parking lot and let the wonderful aromas bring the people to us. We stayed so busy we didn't take a picture! However, loyal customer Sara Morgan took these for us. Over and OVER we heard, "I've never had anything like this!" and, "This is the best pizza I've ever had!" and we were only making cheese and pepperoni pizza. It was a great day for Pizza Carrello!

We had our first trip to our commissary yesterday and made over 100 dough balls in 2 1/2 hours! It was AWESOME! Our mixer was much quieter than anyone had expected and our team just sort of found their groove. Procedures we've been dreaming about since August were finally put into place and we worked together like a well tuned machine. It couldn't have gone better. Everyone at Pizza Carrello would like to send a heartfelt and sincere thanks to Sue and Tom Kalenberg for their amazing support in helping us get our mixer and just being all around amazing people. Tom and Sue, we really can't thank you enough!

Also, we would like to thank Louise and Rob Trowe for their support, the use of their shop and their enormous truck that we've been using to haul the trailer around. We couldn't have done this without you and your support. We appreciate everything so very much!

NOW WE ARE JUST WAITING FOR OUR HAND-WASHING SUPPLIES TO ARRIVE! I think we're all wondering if we should have shelled out the extra money for faster shipping!  

Our mixer is here! Soon our hand-washing station will arrive, and ingredients are only a few days away!  The Pizza Carrello Family could not be more excited. 

We have been perfecting our pizza handling skills, our dough throwing abilities, and learning how to AND HOW NOT TO cook a pizza perfectly. The other night, for the first time, we made dirty steaks! Dirty steaks are made by cooking the meat directly on top of a bed of coals for a couple of minutes on each side. The results were smokey, delicious, tender steaks that made our dinner table discussion turn to silence within seconds of the first bites. WE COULD NOT BELIEVE HOW GOOD THEY WERE! Not to mention Jalapeno Popper Pizza, Bacon Ranch Avocado Pizza, Pesto Pepperoni Pizza with Cream Cheese, and of course one Cheese Pizza just for fun, and fun it was. All of the pizzas we made were out of this world. We couldn't stop ourselves from giggling from time to time, just out of pure satisfaction. We were so busy enjoying ourselves that we forgot to take pictures of the pizzas before we devoured them. Forgive us, we were having too much fun! 

Last week we were extremely fortunate to have Thomas Garnick stop by our workshop to talk pizza. Thomas Garnick, of "Brava! Pizzeria Della Strada" in Denver, also happens to be a Gillette native! He has a ton of wood-fired oven experience, and he has done his fair share of catering that has garnered him some nice attention...  
*100 Things to Taste, Denver Magazine, 2010
*Best Specialty Pizza, Westword Magazine, 2011
*Top of the Town Pizza, 5280 Magazine 2011
We originally met Thomas while attending the "Fire Within" Fall Seminar, and he was a wealth of information then, but to have him confirm and validate that our trailer and our oven are truly great, really was a wonderful experience, worth a mint. While we were hanging around the oven chatting, I finished the final stage of the curing process. 

SO WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR??? We are waiting for our big, new, shiny commercial mixer to arrive so we can start making hundreds of dough balls which we will then turn into amazing pizza pies!!! So while we are waiting, we are finishing a lot of little details.  Since our handmade tiles are not finished, we painted the oven to protect the stucco until we can tile it. We chose a color that you can't miss!

Once again our camera died at the worst time, but this should give you a nice sneak peek!