So a few weeks ago, I got 2 beautiful bunches of basil and made pesto (see photos). This week, I was planning on making the pesto pizza from the Simply in Season (among other things). Then, as I tend to do, I invited 4 friends over for supper to share the pizza with us (for a total of 6). However, I did not think of what I was planning on making. After looking over the options for which I had purchased groceries, I realized that all of my options (main dish, sides, etc) were for 4 people. So, I just decided to make them all. I made my favorite cucumber salad from the More With Less cookbook and an awesome kiwi-strawberry salad (kiwi, strawberries, a few tablespoons of citrus juice, a dash of honey and a bit of cinnamon) which I made that afternoon and were fine.
I also decided to make a chocolate layer cake, since it was one friend's birthday. I made the 2 chocolate layers according to the directions and waited the appropriate amount of time and then inverted the pans to take out the cakes. Unfortunately, I discovered why most cooking experts recommend putting parchment paper on the bottom of the pan in this case. Approximately 1/3 of the cake remained in the pan. Dangit. But, I was committed and doctored it back together as best as I could. Next, according to the recipe, the plan was to have 2 chocolate layers with a layer of cream cheese, whipped cream and Oreo chunks in the middle. Since I hadn't planned well (big surprise), I didn't have cream cheese or whipped cream, so I decided to go with white frosting which I did have. I pulled out the Oreo crumbs which I had from something else and mixed them in. What did I now have? Grey frosting. Dangit.
But, I had what I had, so I spread it on the cake, and then decided that was pretty ugly, so I spread some of the extra white frosting around the edges to make it look pretty. (On a side note, through this entire process, I was thinking about how much I hate caring about how food looks and that this is why I never bother!!) So, I get the frosting done in the middle and put on the top section (which is barely holding together). I spread my chocolate frosting just across the top, as the directions indicate. But, since 1/3 of the original top layer was falling apart, it looked really weird on one side. So, I just decided it'd be better to frost the whole thing, which I did. By the way, at the beginning of this whole episode I had put the cake on a piece of waxpaper on a plate and was planning to move it to the cakeplate off the waxpaper when all was said and done. (Again, should have known better than to care about appearance!!) As I go to move the cake to the cakeplate, I put it on the cake plate, and then pull out the wax paper. At this point, approximately 1/3 of the bottom layer pulls out right along with the wax paper!!!
Dangit again. But, it was as done as it was going to get, so I turned the now sloping side to the back, put the lid on and stuck it in the corner, hoping to forget about it until supper.
When I had finished the cake, I had turned the oven up from 350 to 400. After the whole cake episode, I got ready to put the chicken tenders for my salad into the oven. However, at that point, I discovered that my oven was now at 300 degrees, not 400. I thought it was because I bumped the dial, so I waited another 20 minutes, and still the oven was cooler. It appeared that my oven was broken. (Still does, for that matter.) So, I microwaved the chicken, much to my chagrin.
Meanwhile, my pizza dough was rising, but I now had no way to bake it! So, the best I could do was to grill it. Not that this is bad. Grilled pizza is awesome, but it has a tendency to become a disaster when I do it. Either way, I had no choice. So I make my pizza dough into five 8-inch rounds and oil top and bottom and throw them on the grill. After grilling one side, I pulled them off, spread pesto on the grilled side and put tomato slices and mozzarella on top. Then I put them back onto the grill for a few minutes (baked side up). (Meanwhile, I'm trying to beat the dogs off with a stick. They LOVE it when I grill because they inevitably get a LOT of food from my sloppiness). It turned out fine, but it was a crazy afternoon :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment