Pizza in the Snow

The oven's ready. The crusts are made. The sauces and toppings are set. It's a go....Pizza in the Snow! It's Winter Tracks time, and we're firing up the oven today to bake some pizza. And it's snowing---finally! (Big sigh of relief.) Even though we've had dustings come down regularly for the last several weeks, it still feels like we've been shorted on snowfalls. The flakes today are of the big, fluffy variety. This will add great atmosphere, and a little moisture, to our pizzas.

Pizza in the summer is a pretty set routine, since we have been doing it for four years. Winter presents another situation. I pre-baked the crusts, as that will speed up the process. In order to keep my hands warm while "building" the pizza, I have latex gloves to put over my thin knit gloves. Of course, standing by the oven will help keep us warm, too. The trickiest part will be keeping the pizza hot while serving it. With any luck, we'll have enough folks here to scoop up the slices as they come out of the oven, before there's time for a cool-off.

Lots of other activities are on the agenda for the day as well: skiing and snowshoeing in the fresh snow, a winter camping demo, a seminar on canoeing, and live radio and music tonight at Trail Center. WTIP will be broadcasting The Roadhouse, from 5-7 p.m. If you can't be up here, be sure to webstream it. I will be interviewed at 5:15 or so, to give listeners an overview of what Winter Tracks is all about. Just go to the website, http://www.wtip.org , and click on the dancing moose, and you'll be able to webstream it.

If you can't be here for our festival, but still need a little dose of winter before it is gone, you can come up some other time in March. With fresh snow coming down to add to our eighteen or so inches still in the woods, it's going to be around for a while. I love March skiing the best, as the days are warmer and longer, and the snow is still in great shape.