Chefmate Pizza Oven and Food Confessions

This is episode number 344 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're a DIYer looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're so glad you could join us for another episode here in the studio. How you doing, Kev?

Oh, you know, I'm pretty good. Pretty good. Good night. I mean, it's late, y'all.

Here in the studio.

I don't know when you're listening to this, but here in the studio, it's late.

Yeah. To give everybody listening, Kevin and I were just having a good chuckle over the Donald Trump Maduro video that he dropped after they brought him back stateside. If you haven't seen it, just go look at the Come Get Me video that Trump dropped on X. Which, in my opinion, hilarious.

It is pretty funny. I mean, look, there's a lot of things.

If you're going to be a dictator leader that just teases the United States president with, come get me.

Yeah.

You can't be upset when he does.

No, no. I mean, he did it emphatically.

Yeah.

Like, if you think you can come get me, come get me. And I don't know when that was taken. Yeah. But the very next thing in the video is taken.

He's just taken. Yeah. So anyway, and everything that's ensued, like I was telling you, like my favorite moment from this whole thing is when Trump just decides to tell the press, yeah, we made the entire city of Caracas dark. Yeah, we can make a city dark. We're really good at it. It's like, that's like if you go watch the video, Sitting next to him is Marco Rubio. Yeah. When he says, like, we're really good at making cities dark, he's like holding back. Like he wants to laugh. Yeah, he can't. Yeah. Because he's the secretary of state and he's supposed to be like, you know, decorum and all that kind of thing. But he's like, that's funny. Yeah.

So, so he's the secretary of state, supposed to be that. Trump, on the other hand, couldn't care less.

Couldn't care less.

Couldn't care less. Yeah. We make things dark. Yeah, we're pretty awesome at it actually. Yeah. Well, and, and like, it, it's just what's, what's bizarre. Like whenever I read about the fact that this happened, I was like, what did— is this fake news?

This was not on my 2026 bingo card.

I did not expect, no, I did not expect that at all.

Yeah.

But anyway.

Me either. Like, I was shocked.

Yeah.

I was like, no, this is like an Onion article, or this is like the Babylon Bee. Like, what's going on right now?

I literally scrolled past it going, whatever. And then I was like, oh, okay. But you know. This happened.

Hopefully it means less drugs, and it seems like Venezuelans are happy about it.

Yeah.

So.

I don't know what to do about that.

Carry on.

Carry on. Yep. And, and yeah, I mean, what, what are we gonna do about it?

Nothing.

Nothing. I'm not gonna change it. Are you gonna change it?

I don't have time to protest even the things I actually dislike.

It's true.

Yeah. Yeah.

Like Taco Bell.

We, we should probably protest.

We should pro— I don't have time for that.

The only time Taco Bell was cool was when it was in Demolition Man.

Oh. That's a good point. Yeah, they did have Dr Pepper, uh, like frozen Dr Pepper for a while. That was kind of cool.

All right, do you know, I, I saw— I don't know if it's true, I don't know if it's true, but I saw an article today saying that they were making Demolition Man 2.

What?

With, uh, Stallone and Snipes.

Oh my goodness.

So I'll watch it. Of course, who could pass up Sylvester Stallone knitting?

No, good, good question, right?

No one.

Weirdos.

Weirdos.

You know who aren't weirdos? True Texas Solar and Roofing.

Oh yeah?

They are not weirdos at all.

Okay.

That's a weird transition, but I just went there. It was, but let's ride this train. Yeah, we want to give a shout out to our friends over at True Texas Solar and Roofing. And I just wanna let you guys know that we still have incentives in place. I've, I've not heard any different. Have you heard any different?

I've not.

Okay.

So as far as we know, those incentives hadn't said, come get me.

That's right.

That's—

let's hope that they don't. Let's hope that they don't. Because right now we're still getting tax breaks on solar installation. And what's one of the things that's really cool is I've heard a lot of people go, yeah, I just don't want those solar panels all over my house. I've heard that.

Yeah.

Now, honestly—

There's other options.

There's other options. And that's, that's kind of what I wanted to mention. Like, there's lots of other options. You even like considered at one point putting like, like solar, like on—

Panels.

Yeah, panels out on a, you know, stand. Doesn't have to be on your house. But one of the things that's really cool is Tesla has solar roof shingles.

Right.

You can do a full solar roof. And they actually look pretty sweet. Uh, very resistant to weather. Looks like a regular roof. Yeah, it looks like a regular roof. Weather resistant. Uh, it's not like you're gonna have like some, you know, super glossy roof or anything. Um, but lots of options out there. If you're interested, if you've ever been interested, just have a conversation. They're such good people. Give them a call. The number is 936-286-8325. And on top of that, just know that they can also take care of your other roofing issues.

Yeah.

If you just need a roof taken care of, uh, we were talking about this the other night at dinner. Like, if, if we recommend them just for roofing.

Yeah.

I mean, you don't have to need solar at all. They're very good roofers on top of that. Very honest people. One of the things that, if you, if you've been following us for very long, you know this to be true. In Texas, Any Tom, Dick, or Harry with a hammer can put shingles up on your roof.

Yes.

There is no licensing. Nope. And so you can get Tom, Dick, or Harry to come put that roof on your house and good luck.

And they will.

And they will.

Well, they'll put some other, something that, you know, looks like a roof.

Yeah, exactly. And, uh, they'll say it's one thing and it may be another thing. Who knows?

Who knows?

These guys, They're awesome. They're wonderful to work with. Again, their number is 936-286-8325.

All right, so I know, I know we're going to be talking a little bit of food tonight.

Yeah.

So I have a food confession.

Okay.

That I think everyone needs to know.

Okay.

Uh, I discovered this over the past few months, uh, through testing.

Okay.

Serious, rigorous testing.

Okay.

That was scientific testing that was done.

All right.

Um, the Popeyes chicken sandwich is superior to the Chick-fil-A sandwich. It just is.

Look, I, I've had multiple of both. Mm-hmm. And on a scale from 1 to 10, the Popeyes one is better. It is.

It just is.

I don't know why.

The only thing, the only thing that the Chick-fil-A sandwich does better are the pickles.

The pickles? Okay. Not just the pickles. There's a hint of pickle flavoring.

Yes.

Because of the marinade that they do and all that kind of stuff, which is pretty good.

Yeah.

I mean, it's pretty good. But let me tell you this. So I'm glad you brought this up. So my son, he's a fairly picky eater.

Sure. Can't imagine where he got that.

I know, his mom's a little— sorry. Anyway, nevertheless, He, he loves chicken sandwiches.

Uh-huh.

And he will go out of his way to find chicken sandwiches. And he has ranked them. And I, it pains me to say this a little bit, but Chick-fil-A waffles, no pun intended, between number 5 and 6 on his list.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

What's number one?

Number one is Cane's.

Cane's. Oh, they're like their chicken tender sandwich.

Their chicken tender sandwich is his favorite one. He just loves it. I think he—

my son loves Cane's as well. I don't know that we've ever tried the chicken sandwich, but like, it's just like, well, you get a piece of toast with the chicken tenders. So you do.

In fact, there is a hack that a lot of people don't know. You can actually get their chicken tender sandwiches on 2 pieces of toast.

Well, there you go. So that would be something. That'd be in— that, that'd be competitive. Yeah.

Uh, so my son likes it first. Number 2 is Popeyes.

Okay.

And spicy or original? No, he doesn't like anything spicy. He's not a spicy person.

That's, that's actually where I think the Popeyes excels.

Okay.

Because does the regular one come with the sauce?

Yeah.

Okay. Because their sauce is great.

Yeah.

But like the sauce with the spicy chicken and the pickles, it's— and, and like their chicken is crispier.

It's, it is much crispier. It's thicker. The bread holds up a little differently too.

It does.

It's not, it comes out of the package a little fluffier.

Yeah. You know?

Yeah.

I don't know what they're doing, but they're doing it right.

I don't know why it's superior. I don't want it to be superior.

I don't want it to be superior either. I just, look, I even have like my own custom order on the spicy chicken sandwich at Chick-fil-A. And it's pretty good.

Okay.

Um, and I, I, I, I, I feel like that makes it a better sandwich than just like the regular one.

Okay.

Um, and it's not to say that the Chick-fil-A sandwich is bad.

No.

Popeyes has just got some stuff figured out.

Yeah.

And I, I didn't, I didn't believe the hype when it first came out.

No. Oh, I didn't either. I wouldn't, I didn't even want to give it a try.

Stay in your lane, Cajuns.

That's right. I just didn't even want to give it the time of day because I'm like, why are you even trying this.

Don't mess with my Jesus chicken.

That's right. And, ah, they messed with it.

Yep. I don't feel bad about getting chicken sandwiches on Sundays now.

That's true.

And they got— I mean, it's a better sandwich and it's available all day.

Yeah, it just is. It's an up-and-coming Chick-fil-A.

Like, unless you want to sponsor, in which case I'll just— I'll completely sell out.

That's true. But those Cajun fries are pretty good.

Yeah.

On top of that.

Look, I mean, like, When you start talking about like sides, I mean, it's not even a contest because they have red beans and rice.

They do.

They've got coleslaw and their coleslaw is pretty good.

Yeah.

I'm not a big fan of their mashed potatoes, but I feel like most people's mashed potatoes are crap.

Yeah. Especially whenever you put like, uh, like I actually like brown gravy, but their brown gravy is not—

I don't want gravy from anywhere, honestly. Yeah. I just don't trust it.

No, I, I want to make my own gravy. I like gravy and I prefer brown gravy over white gravy most of the time. Um, but I want to make it. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't want it prepackaged.

There's a few places that I'll trust gravy. And most of the time, if it says that it comes with gravy, I'll just be like, hey, can you put that on the side and not on my food?

Yeah. Unless, unless your name is Frank.

And I'm so sad that we don't have that anymore.

Frank's.

It's gone.

So good. It was so good.

Well, that's what makes things special, Kevin, is they don't last forever.

What? That's, that, that is what makes it special is I want it to be here for me when I need it.

Well, listen, you're gonna— I came, I ate a 32-ounce tomahawk tonight from Refuge, and I'm not sad about any of it. I did split it with my wife, and among other things like a bottle of wine and some appetizers and other deliciousness with some friends. And you're in for a treat.

Okay.

Now you don't— oh, and lobster. We also had lobster.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, that was the other part of it.

They had some really interesting— And we're— my wife and I are going with some friends soon. Um, they had some interesting looking, uh, appetizers. Yeah.

So we had the, uh, we had the short rib poppers.

Okay.

Those were good. I imagine those were one you were eyeballing.

Well, yeah, because you know my wife and short ribs.

Yep.

Which we had delicious short ribs the other day, or she did, at Hearsay. Uh-huh.

Oh.

That was good.

That was funny is like we all thought we were going someplace new and we got there and we're like, we've all been here.

We've all been here.

All 4 of us.

Yes.

Dang it. Yeah. But it was still good, but it was like we wanted to go someplace new.

Yeah, I wasn't disappointed, but yeah, we'll go somewhere new next time.

I will tell you this, um, they, the Refuge, I was telling you this, I think they have like 4 or 6 different like in-house specialty Old Fashioneds.

Oh yeah.

Um, I don't know if you're a rosemary fan, but they have a rosemary Old Fashioned.

Yeah, I'm not a huge rosemary fan, but I'll eat— I'll— I'm okay with it. I loved it. Okay.

It was so good.

Well, but here's the thing, like, I found especially whenever it comes to specialty drinks, sometimes the weird stuff just works.

Yeah. So the other ones, I just wasn't— they sounded too sweet.

Yeah.

And my wife got a toasted marshmallow Old Fashioned.

Oh, did she like it?

Oh, she loved it.

But it was sweet.

For me, it was sweet.

Yeah.

She liked it, but she really likes toasted marshmallow.

Well, that's not fair.

It's not like I'm not a big s'mores guy. Yeah, it doesn't— like, I don't get excited about toasted marshmallows. Sure. It looked like they did. I tasted it. It was good. Yeah, it was. To me, it just— it was a little too sweet.

It was too much.

And the other one I think is like a pecan Old Fashioned. I forget what the other one was. Anyway, they got a bunch of them. I mean, my friend that we were with, he just had a rye Old Fashioned and he had it smoked.

Okay.

And it was great.

What rye did he put in it? Do you remember?

Whatever the house.

Okay. Probably Woodford or something.

Who knows?

I mean, there's a lot of really good ryes out there.

Yeah. Yeah, though, I mean, not only that, I mean, if you're just like a bourbon guy, you can get a flight just to try a bunch of different ones. But everything, I mean, they do a really great tableside presentation. We had 2 tableside presentations while we were there. One was for the tomahawk. They carved the tomahawk in front of us.

Oh my goodness.

And then the other one, they do a flambéed bread pudding, banana bread pudding.

Oh. Which I need to start preparing for that meal today.

So, well, here's the thing is we, we went and had dinner tonight because tomorrow we're starting a 21-day fast.

Okay. I didn't know that.

Yeah. So we were, we were, you know, out on Rumspringa.

I mean, at that point, you're like, spend what you want to. You're not spending any money over the next month.

Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, we're, we're off to the, uh, the fun races tomorrow, but you got a new toy.

I did.

That we wanted to spend a little time talking about. I thought people should know about.

Yeah.

It was a little Christmas gifty.

It was. And I'll tell you this. So we don't really talk about this too much, but my favorite food is pizza. By far. If you, if you ask me on any given day, what do you want to eat? Pizza is the answer. I've always loved pizza. Like I mentioned this the other day in the car on the way to dinner. Like, the worst pizza I ever had in my life was delicious. Like, I just love pizza. Uh, have I—

I went to different public schools.

That's, well, that's fair. Uh, but your wife would disagree because she really likes—

liked her cafeteria food.

But I— there's plenty of bad pizza out there. I, I'm not gonna, you know, like, I just really dislike Little Caesars.

Okay.

there's bad pizza out there. However, I love pizza. And one of the things that is special in our family is on Fridays, we do pizza and a movie.

Mm-hmm.

And for years now, I've made our pizza from scratch. So I make the dough. I, you know, we use fresh ingredients. I, you know, I shred the cheese and You know, we, we use good quality ingredients and I've always just done it in my oven.

Mm-hmm.

And my son, like, he's, he is so in love with my pizza. It's, it's just, it's, it's what, it's what my family loves.

Sure.

You know? And so it's a special thing for us.

Mm-hmm.

Well, uh, my, my, one of my relatives, gifted us a pizza oven for Christmas, which it's a little shocking given, given how much I love pizza.

That you didn't have one already.

Yeah. But here's the problem. The, there are so many different options out there.

On the ovens?

Yes.

Yeah. Yeah.

That narrowing it down to the one that I really wanted, I finally found the one that I really wanted. Um, it's not cheap. And so I've just held off thinking, okay, eventually I'll get it.

Right.

Um, this one isn't that. However, um, there are a lot of things about making pizza that I do differently than how it needs to be done if you have a pizza oven. And, and the big part of that is the dough, like how you, how you make the dough, all of that sort of thing. And I am not an expert at any of that. I'm learning at this point.

Right.

So before we get into what we got, uh, I will tell you. So we, we got this as a gift and I realized I had a, a pizza dough making pack that I bought like 6 months ago. It's just dry ingredients. Uh, what, for the most part, there's some olive oil and some honey in there.

Okay.

Uh, but it's basically make your own dough and all that kind of stuff. And I, I bought it thinking, man, I love making my own dough, but this is interesting. It's like all these this, you know, fresh, authentic, like Italian ingredients. Like, this should be great.

Yeah.

Well, what I didn't realize is it takes 2 days to make the dough. So, um, I'm gonna briefly explain that process.

Okay.

So, uh, have you ever made dough from scratch before?

Many, many times.

Okay. How do you typically do that? What is your process?

So, I mean, I sort of got into Italian crusty bread. And so I whittled down how to do that, and I can do it in about a day.

Okay.

But it's basically, you prep the yeast, then you introduce the flour, and then you introduce the oil, and then that actually helps form the gluten. You beat the crap out of it.

Yep.

And then you let it sit and rise.

Yep.

And then you smack it around some more.

Yep.

Well, okay, I should say, when you put it in the bowl to rise, you sort of COVID the dough with oil, and that oil allows the dough to expand without breaking.

Right.

So, and it's basically those 3 ingredients.

Yeah.

You can make a really nice dough. And really what I learned, it's for, I mean, at least as far as bread baking, now what I've learned is that I can actually take that dough and use it for like pizza crust It just depends on what you do with it once it's done.

Right.

So what I learned about making crusty bread is it's less about the dough and more about how you bake it.

Yeah. Yeah. So this pack has some similar instructions. It's pretty cool. Like it comes with like this full video breakdown of how to do everything. The first thing you do is make what's called a poolish. I'd never heard of this before. But it's similar to what you're talking about. You put water, yeast, honey, actually, and a certain type of flour in there. You mix all that up and put it in the fridge for a day. Get that back out, and then you introduce—

What kind of yeast is it, by the way?

Yeah, I—

'Cause most yeast is like heat activated.

Well, yeah, which is interesting because this, like, this system, it very specifically talks about keeping everything cold.

Mm-hmm.

And, and how, and, and the point that he makes, uh, whenever we, you know, kind of get into the whole process, the point that's made is like the cold keeps it easier to, to work with.

Mm-hmm.

And so Yeah, it's very interesting because he does not talk about keeping it warm at all.

Yeah, 'cause when I make mine and it's usually like Fleischer's yeast or something like that, it'll tell you the water needs to be about 110 degrees to activate the yeast.

So there's actually, there's a few different things that he uses. Okay, so the— it's all kind of packed together, um, in, in the way it's, it's made. So you get, uh, you get double-aught, uh, milled farina flour.

Mhm.

Uh, it also comes with, uh, diastatic malt powder, and it's also got some, uh, Mediterranean sea salt in it. Uh, and those are— that's the main stuff that you put into the second portion of this. Once the poolish is done, then you add in this other mixture of the flour, the salt, and the malt powder.

Mm-hmm.

Mix all that up, and that's whenever you get the dough that you wind up putting on the counter, letting it sit there, rise, those sorts of things. And then yeah, you create gluten after that. So you have to beat the crap out of it and really knead it the way you're supposed to. And then it's got to sit there again for— I mean, this process takes a long time.

Right.

Now, you can make multiple dough balls at once and you can freeze them. You can put them in the fridge. You can use them however you want to. But I had to say, you know what? I'm going to try it. Just because I'm like, the kind of dough that I always made was just kind of a— I couldn't make it in an hour and it was pretty good.

Yeah.

But it was more for just like throwing it in the oven type of thing. So, uh, let's talk about the pizza oven for a minute because that— I, I made the dough, didn't know how it was going to turn out because I've never done it that way before, but I'm like, let's try it.

Yeah.

Uh, and, and then see what happens. So the, the pizza oven, the brand is Chefmate, and it, it's an all-electric pizza oven, which is one of the things that I didn't think that I wanted, mainly because, um, I kind of wanted a wood fire flavor.

Yeah.

Going. But, but this is, uh, the gift that I got, and I was excited because one of the things that's nice about it, I just plug it in. I don't have to have propane on hand. I don't have to have any other fuel source. I just plug it in and it's indoor. So pretty awesome. It, uh, it makes 12-inch pizzas.

Okay.

And it heats up to 800 degrees.

That's crazy.

Yeah. It takes about 20 minutes to heat up to that, 20 to 25 minutes. Um, and it's got a stone inside of it that, that's removable. You can take it out, clean it, whatever. But you put that in there, heats up, and there's— what's kind of interesting about this is there are multiple settings and it is super simple. There's 5 pizza settings. There's Neapolitan, New York style, thin crust, pan crust, or frozen. And depending on which setting you have, like it automatically kind of sets the temperature to the right temperature for that setting.

Huh.

Or you can dial it up to whatever temperature you really want to. But there's literally just like, if you press that button, it just goes to the right temperature.

That's nice.

Yeah. So I was doing Neapolitan crust and it automatically put up at 750 degrees. So I just left it there. The real interesting thing that I was most concerned about was how am I gonna get this thing in and out of that pizza oven?

Yeah, yeah.

Because I, I've seen people do this and it seems like an art to—

You didn't have like a pizza spatula?

Well, yeah, it actually did come with one.

Okay.

Which is great. A perforated, um, uh, it's called a pizza peel. And, but here's the thing, I always made mine directly on a pizza stone and I just put the stone in the oven. That's how I always did it, right? And I would actually bake my, my pizza crust for about 5 minutes, pull it back out, and then top it all. And so it kind of gave it a little bit of structure. Well, that's not the way you do it in one of these.

No.

You, you completely top and make the— you, you stretch the dough, you top it, you put everything on it and slide it in. I thought this is gonna be a disaster. I do. I do not feel good about this. But they— the p— this dough pack comes with semolina flour.

Yeah.

So I didn't even know about semolina.

Which is cornmeal, basically.

It is, but it's a lot thinner.

Yeah.

It is super thin. So a lot of people use cornmeal, but the problem with cornmeal is it has a pretty low burn tolerance. So it'll, it'll burn, it'll make your crust black and those sorts of things. So The semolina doesn't do that. It feels much like a flour, but it's kind of a yellowy color, but it has a much different sliding property to it.

Yeah.

So it slides really easily. So you put that down, you actually use it, you use the semolina to stretch it out with to begin with, and then you slide the pizza peel under it and Yeah. Worked great. I was shocked at how simple that was because I was really nervous about it and getting it into the pizza oven and out was super easy. It's got like a window so you can really—

Oh, so you can watch it?

You can watch it.

Yeah.

And the very first pizza I made was delicious. It was one of the best pizzas I've ever had. And I'm like, I don't even know how I did this because I'd never done it before. I was literally just watched as many videos as I could watch and try to figure it out. But, uh, the oven itself, it couldn't be simpler. It's even got a little timer on it. Just turn the knob to whatever time and you can press it to start.

How many, how many pizzas have you made in it now?

4. Okay. So, so that, that dough kit made 4 pizza balls. That first night we made 2 because 12-inch pizzas versus I'd normally make a 16-inch. And it would— a 16-inch would feed my whole family, but 2 12-inches also feeds the whole family. So also thinner crust.

Okay.

But we did that. And then 2 days later, my kids were like, can we please make some of that pizza again? And so we used the other 2. And it was super simple, so easy. One of the things I did like about this specific pizza oven is, uh, if you've ever watched any videos with about pizza ovens, a lot of people have this very great technique of using a different pizza peel than what you put it in with. It's more of a smaller round, uh, peel that you put in there and like, like twist it and turn it.

Yeah.

So that, so that evenly cooks all the way around. This pizza oven has the heat source from the bottom and the top. And so it, you don't have to turn it or anything. It's, it's perfectly positioned because it's electric. They just put the heating elements where they need to be.

Yeah.

You don't have to turn anything. It's literally set it, throw it in there, let it do its thing for about, they took about 4 minutes.

That's crazy. To cook.

And then, yeah.

Which makes sense. I mean, if you ever worked in a pizzeria, I mean, like a pizza or like a commercial pizza oven.

Yeah.

start to finish? I mean, like from when you put it in the oven to when it comes out the other side, it's maybe 5 minutes.

Sure. It didn't take long because they're so hot. I mean, yeah, when I, when I made them before, it took about 13 to 15 minutes, uh, in a 450-degree oven, right? Well, this is almost double that, so it makes sense that it, it makes sense that it's less than half the time.

Anyway, it tastes different. I mean, it's just, yeah, it's a totally different cooking structure.

It's totally different. Totally different.

So are you gonna do your, uh, are you gonna keep making 2-day dough?

I don't know.

I know you and I talked about going and buying some.

Yeah, so that's the other thing that you can do. And I know this is an option for a long time. I've just never needed it. And so I've never considered it, but a lot of pizzerias sell their dough.

Yeah.

And a lot of times it's like $4 or $5 for a dough ball.

Yeah, it's super cheap.

Yeah. And just go get however many you want to. And yeah, most of the time they're happy to do that.

Yeah.

And so, you know, it's gonna be good quality. You know that they're making plenty of it. The other thing that I found is there's a company out there that makes pre-made dough balls. They come frozen.

Oh.

But they're made with a similar 2 or 3 day process.

Process, yeah.

Fermentation, the whole creating the gluten. It's not some quick mix type of thing. I've not tried that yet. I might.

Yeah.

But the only reason I haven't is 'cause you gotta buy like 25 of them. And that feels like a commitment.

Look, I mean, I can show you like my dough.

Sure.

I mean, 'cause it's less than a day to make it.

I like that.

I mean, 'cause I used to really like having crusty bread to dip in oil. I would make it for meals and things like that for like an appetizer or something. And it just makes really good crusty bread. And it makes good pizza dough. It's, I mean, it's, it's the same, it's the same recipe that like old grandmothers would use for when they're making pizzas. It's like a, it's just like a very versatile dough.

Yep.

That you can use for like calzones or pizza or bread or like whatever.

Yeah.

Um, and I, I like it for that reason. 'Cause I mean, like you can, you can take it and do like the really thin baguettes.

Okay.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

you could do like a really long, thick loaf. It just depends on how you roll the dough out, what you do with it. And if you put enough oil on the outside of it when it's rising, it's super stretchy. And so you can, you can have, you can do the flip up in the air.

Yeah.

All that, you know, that's where that comes from.

Sure.

Um, just don't do it when it's covered with oil because that gets messy. That's right.

Um, yes, it does.

Uh, but yeah, I mean, I think, and that's the thing is like doing it at home by yourself, With just those, I mean, I guess technically 4 ingredients if you count the water.

Sure.

Super cheap.

Oh, it's extremely cheap. I mean, the most expensive thing is using good quality ingredients for the rest of it. And a lot of people are making their own sauce. I haven't ventured to making my own sauce yet, but I know it's not that difficult. It's just a matter of getting the spices right in it to make it taste the way you want it to. But, you know, that's the most— to me, the ingredients you put on top is really important. So, yeah. But, you know, the cool thing was, I mean, in a matter of 10 minutes, we had—

Dinner.

2 pizzas.

Yeah.

Completely ready to go. You know, it was great. I'm thoroughly happy with it. I didn't know how I would like an electric one over Yeah. A gas one or something else.

Um, you know, I'm, I'm, I am with you on the, there's something romantic about a wood burning oven.

Yep.

Like there is particularly like a pizza oven.

Yep.

Some of the best food I ever had in my life came outta something like that.

Yeah.

And I'm talking steaks. I'm talking, sure. Like, you know, whatever. Yeah. Like they're just incredible.

Yeah.

And they impart incredible flavor crust. I mean, they're just, but they're also a lot of work and they're really expensive.

They are the one, the one, uh, just to give you an idea, the one that I'm— that I was looking at before I got this one, and I will keep this one for a long time. I'm really happy with it. Um, you— so it was propane. It— and so it shot the flame up from the bottom, but it also had a, a, a flamethrower from the top.

Like a broiler.

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

But it also had, um, a place where you put like blocks of, of wood.

Oh.

And so it was, it was heating that wood up and giving it that wood flavoring.

Okay.

So it was kind of a hybrid type of thing. So it still was a compact pizza oven, but still gave you the wood option.

I see a lot of people with propane ones, but you were telling me that this one, like right now, it's on sale? Yeah.

So I, look, I, again, it was a gift. I almost feel bad about even, you know, going and looking and only looking really— For the show. Yeah, for the show. So its retail price was $499. When I saw it the other day, it was $299. And I'm sitting here going, God, they spent a lot of money on this gift. It's a really nice gift. It's on sale right now for $199.

That's not bad.

No. I mean, and if you just want to throw frozen pizzas in, you don't have to heat your entire oven up. It doesn't take that long. It honestly doesn't take up that much space.

And I'll say this, the frozen pizza game these days is a lot different than when you and I were growing up. 100%. It's just a different thing.

It is.

And I mean, don't get me wrong, there's still the DiGiornos out there that are just like, meh. But there's some good stuff out there.

You can get some Kraft pizza that they're freezing now. I mean, it's available.

I mean, not how I want to live my life.

No.

But To each their own.

I mean, it's not terrible. The other day, look, the other day, and this was, this was before. So when my kids found out I was, I got a pizza oven, they were like, we gotta have pizza tonight. And I'm like, well, sorry, but I'm doing this 2-day thing, you know, for the dough. And they're like, well, we want pizza. So we made a frozen pizza that night. And then we had pizza that I made. And then we wound up going out to dinner with you and your wife, and they had pizza that night.

Oh, at our house.

At your house. And then we had the other 2 pizzas as well this last week. So 4 different times my kids had pizza and my son declared it the best week ever. He loves pizza as much as I do, which is a lot of fun. But I mean, honestly, It is so simple. And what's hilarious, so if you look at this thing, there's 672 reviews on it on Amazon. 70% of them are 5-star. So the majority of them, it's a 4.3 out of 5. There's a 1-star review here that I saw that I—

Mm-hmm.

One of them is like stupid long. I don't even care about you. This was so— it was so hilarious to, to listen to this person talk. Is he— it says this, um, Think Before You Purchase was the, uh, the title of it. Um, and it says this: this has got to be the biggest piece of junk that I've purchased. Highly overrated. First of all, the directions don't tell all. and they contradict the cooking process. The displays are difficult to dial in. Okay, Craig, there are 5 buttons, and if you push one of them, it goes to that temperature. If you don't like that temperature, you take the little round dial and turn it. And yeah, turn

it. But to this person, the displays are difficult to dial in and not easy to use for sure.

Different.

One thing you can be sure of is you can count on tossing your first 3 or 4 pizzas and maybe more because they will not cook properly. I truly thought this would be a slam dunk when I read the description and purchased, but it is so much easier and more efficient to just set the temperature, wait for the oven to preheat, and put your homemade pizza, especially the frozen kind, in a conventional oven. Especially the frozen kind.

Especially the frozen kind.

Anyway, he says, this oven is just as expensive as a regular oven.

No, it's not. Not even close.

No, it's not. The manufacturer makes it sound so simple. This is just not the facts. Too many settings that are difficult to adjust.

5 settings.

This is my favorite part. In my over 40 years of making pizzas, I have never been so frustrated on even one. Do yourself a favor, save money, and stick with your oven that you can have more space, flexibility, better control of temperature to work with.

Yeah. That's a giant lie. 40 years of making pizza and this is the most frustrated you've ever been?

Yeah, that's dumb.

I doubt that.

Yeah.

Well, what happened when you found that oven with 6 settings?

That's right. Exactly. So dumb. Anyway, it's, it's, this is a great little pizza oven. I, I am super happy with it.

And, uh, would it be best indoor, outdoor?

I mean, what's indoor? It, it actually says it is an indoor pizza oven.

Okay.

It does not, it literally does not even say outdoor at all anywhere. on it because it's electric.

Yeah. So don't buy it and put it on your outdoor kitchen. Correct.

Yeah. No, you don't need to do that. Now, that's actually one of the things that, you know, at first I was, I was kind of like, oh man, I've been looking at these others. They're gas or they're this, they're that, whatever. But what do you do if it's raining?

Yeah.

And you want pizza?

Like, I guess, I guess open the garage door, do it out there.

I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe.

Most, well, look, I mean, most people that have an outdoor kitchen these days, they're covered.

Most of the time, that's true. But I, not all the time. I don't have a covered one. You do. I don't. But like, I don't have to worry about it. This thing just sits on the countertop.

There you go.

It gets to 800 degrees. It's worth it. I think this is totally worth it. Um, I would gift it to someone else if I had $199.

There you go.

But I don't. So no gift for you. Anyway. Yeah. So anyway, good purchase. I'm happy with it. And we'll leave a link in the show notes to it. There you go. Thank you guys for listening to today's episode. We are gonna go to sleep because it is late. And if you've not already, please like and subscribe to all of our channels. Give us a rating, a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other places if you want to.

All the reviews.

All the reviews. Thank you very much for listening. Tell a friend about us. Till next time, we'll see you later.

See ya.