PIzza at Home

For dinner, I had homemade pizza with some arugula and a glass of red wine.



On a whim, I decided to try TJ's white (as opposed to their whole wheat) pre-made pizza dough. I'd tried their whole wheat dough before, with unimpressive results, so my expectations weren't high. In my mind, the mere act of making pizza is an apathetic way to clean out the fridge, so my expectations are never terribly high.

I had a disastrous time finding toppings (turns out my fridge wasn't as full of leftovers as I thought), and an even worse time wrangling the dough onto the pizza stone and topping it (as you may recall, I do not own a pizza peel).

And yet, it turned out reasonably well. The crust was perfect- crisp on the outside, chewy and fluffy on the inside. I was very impressed, and wonder if I hated their whole wheat crust because I followed their cooking instructions rather than my gut pizza stone instincts. Next time, I'll try their whole wheat crust, but bake it at a higher temperature and see if it yields better results.

Ooh, pretty crust...



I topped it with a garlic/olive oil sauce, smoked chicken sausage from TJ's, and some baby Swiss left over from a fondue experiment a few weeks back. I wish I'd had another, more assertive cheese to blend with the Swiss. I was trying to get rid of the chicken sausage, because it tastes like hot dogs. Gourmet or not, kosher or not, I do not and have never, ever liked hot dogs. The sausage is slightly better than a hot dog, and tasted fine on the pizza, but it will not be a repeat TJ's purchase.



The wine was Albero tempranillo from TJ's. It's inexpensive(under $6), and made with organic grapes. It's also weird. My best guess is that it's too young to drink. I like tannins, but it's downright bitter, after two hours of breathing.

In other news, I made some muffins this evening. Chocolate chip mini-muffins, with white whole wheat flour. They turned out nicely, except that it is impossible to thoroughly grease my mini-muffin tin without significant effort. And I am lazy. Hence, decapitated mini-muffins.



Also, I am still grossed out about the crappy butter I have.



Yuck. This is the butter with "natural flavors" added that make it smell and taste like movie popcorn butter. Even Jon noticed the weird smell, and he has notoriously bad smelling acuity. It's not terribly noticeable in baked goods, but I'm still irate with Cabot's.

Pork and Rice Krispy Treats at Home

For lunch, I had leftovers from last night's pulled pork sandwich and some bad fake rice krispy treats.



The sandwich was from The Shaved Duck. So tasty. Also tasty? Their chili sampler (including a smoked duck white chili), their mac n' cheese, and their duck fat fries. That's what I had for dinner last night. I can't wait to go back and try the duck confit. Or maybe just have some more chili and fries...



The krispy treats were less successful. I was wandering down the cereal aisle at Schnuck's, looking for muesli (which no one in this city sells, apparently, not even Straub's, the posh grocery store), when I was struck with a bizarre krispy craving. I haven't had actual homemade ones in perhaps fifteen years. But I just couldn't bring myself to buy Rice Krispies. I hate those things- what was I going to do with the leftovers? So I decided to try making them with Kashi instead.



I was seriously underwhelmed by the final product. I'm not sure if it was the fact that the marshmallows were old, my cereal substitution, or the butter.

The butter, you ask? Sweet, innocent butter?



I am a huge label reader. I never buy a processed product without examining the ingredients in detail. I'm just weird like that. But I never imagined I should examine the butter label. I check that it is butter, not margarine, and whether it is salted or unsalted. But what could possibly be in butter, other than cream...maybe some salt or vitamin D?



Yeah. I'm still not quite sure what this means, only that the butter reeks of fake movie popcorn butter. Unfortunately, I bought two pounds of it because it was on sale and I've been baking a ton lately. Fine with me, Cabot's just lost my business forever. The least they could do is label it appropriately. Maybe some people want movie popcorn butter.