Oh did we have a treat last night. With the impending arrival of baby #2, it was pretty much now or sometime in 2010 before we’d be brave enough to go over to our friends Jay and Kate’s place to get a taste of their backyard brick-oven pizza. This thing is truly a marvel – handcrafted, standing probably 10+ feet tall, it takes a good hour+ to fill it with hand-chopped wood and bring it up to proper levels of incineration. With a dough recipe from Cook’s Illustrated, Jay does an amazing job. He’s got the dough-tossing schtick down, too (much to Sam’s amusement). The simplest were among the best – pepperoni and fresh mozzarella (with a dash of truffle oil, ‘natch) and the goat cheese, mushroom and onion (also with truffle oil) was perhaps even better. Great food and great hosts – a fine night was had by all. See the photos of the pizza process here.