My Guinea Pig
The highlight of my day is cooking dinner for Gumby and me. Usually I get to cook Sunday – Thursday night. It seems that most of the time dinner consist of chicken breasts cook someway, served along with some type of starch, and a green vegetable blah blah blah. I do like to experiment with my cooking and I think most of this experimentation is transparent to the consumer (i.e. Gumby), however I’m now working on homemade pizza. One night last week, I was working on dinner for just myself and I made a pizza. The toppings were great, pesto, “fresh” tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil. The crust that I made just sucked. It was hard and tasteless.
So tonight was pizza night again, I made the dough last night, popped it in the fridge and then tonight I let it warm up from about 30 minutes before forming the pizza. Unlike last week’s delicious topping, tonight I used some leftover Caponata sauce topped with smoked mozzarella (Note to self: smoked mozzarella melts into a plastic like form when heated). The cheese was kind of tasty and gross at the same time. I thought the sauce was ok, and the dough was much better than last week maybe a bit overcooked from compensating from the whole interesting cheese melting).
The whole time that we were eating I was dissecting the crust, asking the consumer various survey questions, basically this meal was a dough test. The fridge is full of items that would have made better toppings, but I just didn’t want to waste them. So what is all this about? I want to thank my Gumby for being my cooking Guinea Pig. I don’t know if he is aware how often he plays this role. As of now, there haven’t been any emergency trips to the hospital.
Anna and I say Thanks Papa!
So tonight was pizza night again, I made the dough last night, popped it in the fridge and then tonight I let it warm up from about 30 minutes before forming the pizza. Unlike last week’s delicious topping, tonight I used some leftover Caponata sauce topped with smoked mozzarella (Note to self: smoked mozzarella melts into a plastic like form when heated). The cheese was kind of tasty and gross at the same time. I thought the sauce was ok, and the dough was much better than last week maybe a bit overcooked from compensating from the whole interesting cheese melting).
The whole time that we were eating I was dissecting the crust, asking the consumer various survey questions, basically this meal was a dough test. The fridge is full of items that would have made better toppings, but I just didn’t want to waste them. So what is all this about? I want to thank my Gumby for being my cooking Guinea Pig. I don’t know if he is aware how often he plays this role. As of now, there haven’t been any emergency trips to the hospital.
Anna and I say Thanks Papa!
posted by The Yellow Dog Speaks at 10:35 PM
2 Comments:
Hmmm... I'm always the last to know.
I suspect you and I wouldn't get along well in a kitchen together at all, Y.D.
We'd chase each other with butcher knives. I must have the kitchen to myself. ;-)
To bring out the yeasty flavor in my dough, I let it rise for a couple of hours (or more). Speed this process by turning on the oven light (no heat from the oven) and let the dough rise. Keep it covered with a damp dish towel.
But, then again, I do like a thicker crust.
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