When I suggested to Tom that I make chicken finger pizza for dinner tonight, he laughed at me. "Yes! Make it tonight. Because it's going to suck."

Now even I'll admit that I cannot make pizza-place pizza. I do not have an 800-degree oven. I do not have a pizza stone. (Until today, I did not even have a pizza cooking sheet.) I do not have copious amounts of grease around.

BUT. Tom's faith in my cooking has been bolstered again.

I snagged a pre-made Boboli crust (because I do not have faith in my lack of yeast abilities). Buffalo-Style Chicken Pizza, and, following the suggestion of a reviewer, I skipped the pre-made blue cheese dressing and instead made Bill's Blue Cheese Dressing - with a little less mayo, and a splash of balsamic vinegar.

The recipe calls for just tossing the chicken with butter and hot sauce. BORING. I cooked the chicken iiiin: some splashes of Frank's Red Hot, a bit of pepper, a bit of salt, some smoked paprika, a bit of chili powder. Added more of pretty much everything as I went, so that the chicken by itself was all nice and flavored. I used a bit of Tabasco in with the Frank's for the sauce-sauce. Threw a bit of cheddar in with the mozzarella.

Tom came down just as I was putting the pizza together. I had too much chicken for the amount of dough real-estate, so Tom sampled some. His eyeballs bugged out. "THAT... is pizza-flavored chicken." It so is. I nailed it perfectly. He tried some of the blue cheese on the pizza. "MMMMM!!! Oh, honey..."

I. WIN.

It's not even cooked yet, and I sototally win. XD

Labels: cooking

 
Tom's verdict: "A little snicky-snack like this, is not worth risking your dishes."

He also pointed out that the picture on the box? does not show properly caramelized sugars anyway.


In totally unrelated news (really!) - my brother has confirmed my suspicion. He has, in fact, seen someone get a DWI for riding their bike while intoxicated. (Tom has always argued that the problem will kind of take care of itself, so there's no reason to have a law on it. I was pretty sure it was possible.)

Labels: cooking, life in general, silliness

 
Links before I forget:

Chili Beef Pie with Biscuit Crust - was dinner tonight. AWESOME. Tom was raving. And really impressed that it was (mostly) from scratch. I generally followed the recipe, but threw in extra spices. Also dumped in some leftover ranch-seasoned rice that was in the fridge.

Cake Pan Size Conversions. THE ULTIMATE LIST. This thing is AWESOME. It might actually motivate me to finally break down and buy a new ink cartridge for my printer, so I can print and keep this by my cookbooks. (Orrrr now that I have the link easily accessible, I can print it out at work for ten cents. ;p) The above recipe called for a 9- 10-inch deep dish pie pan. Who in heck has THAT?! What IS that?! Oh look! An 8x8 or 9x9 square pan! I have one of those! (Which one, I will probably never be entirely sure.) Oh look! A 9x5 pan! I have a glass one of those which will clean (comparatively) easy!


In other news... I had a funny customer story but I don't remember which it was right now. uhm. Last week was all about wedding/bridal shower invitations. This past week has been farmer's market/craft fair people remembering they need signage for the summer. It's been a good mix.

I am making a doily! A real one! That I'm actually going to finish!
...I'm aware that I have gauge-issues, but I'm still fairly astonished that this might well be 2" SMALLER than it should be. It's already thread! (Size 10, which, as thread goes, is not insane, but still.) I'm already using a steel hook! (A 6, which, again, not insane, but, we're still talking like under 2mm here.) Blocking is going to help somewhat, and I don't think I took into account the fact that I had a whole round of triple-crochet stitches to do, but, still. This is ridiculous.

I have some pretty blue thread being shipped to me, as well as a booklet with more complicated doilies if I feel ambitious. Currently, I'm working from a pdf booklet of "5-hour doilies", which is just about right for me. Couple days of on-and-off work, and half of it was finished at Tim Horton's over breakfast this morning. It's only 12 rounds, only getting up to... eh, 100-some stitches around at this point.

Though they are INSANELY tiny stitches - which are probably my favorite kind. They just look so impressive! (And apparently I am fantastic at making them TINY. good lord.)

A very sweet littleoldlady came up to me at Tim Horton's this morning and told me how much she was enjoying watching me crochet there. :) She crochets as well, including doilies - I told her this was my first one, and she complimented it. :) She even asked if I've done broomstick lace! I was under the impression that was still a tiny-niche thing! Maybe it's just that it's recently making a come-back, and was a little less obscure in years past. ...I have not tried it yet, but there are patterns in some of my books and magazines, and it *is* really pretty. I'm just wary of anything that requires more than one stick. ;p

...I am done typing. I have some things to finish upstairs, aaaaand I need to decide what to do about my creme brulee. (Do not be impressed - it is from a box. A cheap box, at that.) I do not have the proper torch. The box says to broil in oven. My dishes do not want to be subjected to broil. While on the phone with Mom, Steve (who is way more cooking expert than I am) said nooooo way would broil get the nice crunchy brown top I'm supposed to get anyway. hmmmm.

Time to let Tom decide, this was HIS idea! XP

Labels: cooking, crochet, life in general, printshop, reference, storytime