Mini pizza fail

They're the tall, puffed-up things in the middle.

Some time last week, I was watching TV and a random cooking segment came on. The guy was making various hors de oeuvre/hors d’oeuvre/hors d’œuvre type foods (he called ‘em canapés).

This particular segment was about mini pizzas. Being a lover of all foods Italiano, I decided to pay close attention to the segment so I could maybe have a go at the recipe one day.

The guy got some pieces of puff pastry, put a small dollop of tomato paste on each, then topped them off with a chunk of some fancy cheese. He cooked ‘em in the oven and they turned out to be the beautiful, delicious-looking things on the left.

Last Thursday, my sister and I were all, “Let’s make food!” and I suggested that we have a go at the mini pizza recipe. I found the recipe online on the Better Homes and Gardens site on Yahoo:

Ingredients

puff pastry

tomato paste

bocconcini

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line an oven tray with baking paper. Cut 8 x 6cm rounds from the pastry and put them on the prepared tray.

Spread a little tomato paste in the centre of each round, then season with salt and pepper. Top each round with half a ball of bocconcini.

Bake for 12 minutes. Remove tray from oven. Stand pizzas for 3-4 minutes, then garnish each with a basil leaf.

We didn’t have tomato paste or bocconcini, so I improvised with what we did have — pizza sauce and a huge chunk of camembert that I found in the fridge. I also couldn’t be bothered to cut the pastry into rounded pieces, so I left them square. Everything else in the recipe, though, I followed.

However, disaster struck. I’d never had to cook camembert, so I had no idea how it’d behave if it were melted. Camembert cheese is soft and a little gooey and has a white “casing,” if you could call it that. The casing didn’t seem to be affected by the heat, but the soft part of the cheese melted all over the place.

I started freakin’ out a little, but, what can you do.

A couple o’ minutes later, my sister told me that the cheese had started bubbling and the sauce had formed a thin film.

At this point, the timer hadn’t gone off yet, and I didn’t want my mini pizzas to be undercooked time-wise, so I left them in the oven. Also, the puff pastry hadn’t puffed up. I didn’t know why, but my sister suggested that the puff pastry was probably still a big frozen.

The time to take them out of the oven finally came, and when they did, they looked nothing like the ones I saw on TV.

They were so delicious though. My sister didn’t like the taste of camembert, but she didn’t mind it once it was cooked. She’s not a cheese lover like I am.

We both ended up eating them all. Not straight away, but we finished them.

Here’s a few close-up shots so you can see my failed, delicious disasters;

Did I tell you that they were oh so delicious? Nom nom nom, I want some more. Next time I make them, though, I’ll use the right ingredients and make sure my puff pastry is completely thawed out.

- Keep moving forward.

 

K

[rant]

The names of some Facebook fan pages are really, REALLY lame;

every girl wants a boy like this. – The “qualities” listed are all superficial ones.

WHEN HOME ALONE OR THE ONLY ONE UP IT FEELS LIKE SOMEONES IN YOUR HOUSE :S – THAT IS JUST A WEIRD FEELING PEOPLE GET THAT NO ONE EVEN LIKES, IT IS NOT SOMETHING TO BECOME A FAN OF.

being hugged when your crying, makes you cry even more – If you become a fan of this, you are simply saying, “I like crying because someone hugged me while I was already crying. I also don’t know the difference between your and you’re.”

Trying To Hint Something Out To Someone But The Idiot Doesn’t Get It – “I like to keep giving hints to someone who isn’t getting it, but I’ll give them another hint because they might get it this time.”

lame jokes become lamer when you explain why they’re SUPPOSE to be funny – Facebook fan pages become more lame when people start creating fan pages with lame things to be a “fan” of.

Walking And Pulling a Leaf Off A Tree. and tearing it up! – I guess the person who created this fan page walked and pulled leaves off trees as a pastime. And then tore them up!

Adding “(:” At The End Of A Sentance To Make It Seem Nicer – Learn how to spell and how to stop abusing capital letters.

MY STATUS IS ABOUT YOU… LOOK AT IT – HEY LOSER(S), HEARD OF A WALL? GO WRITE ON ONE INSTEAD OF BEING A TEENYBOPPING ATTENTION SEEKER.

I Hate That One Person Who Always Puts Negative Comments On My Pics – Then remove them from your friends?

I made a mistake & I am no longer keeping it a secret – Good for you?

Dont Ya Hate It When Your Building A Snowman And A Potato Hits You ! – Because that happens to everyone.

i h8 it wen ppl talk lyk dis. – Then stop doing it.

I Hate People Who Say Minus Instead Of Subtract – Boo hoo, cry me a river.

If You Are A Person Join This Group – No comment.

I know I’ve become a fan of some really lame things, too. Every now and then, I become ashamed of the fan pages of which I clicked “Become a fan,” and when that happens, I pore through the pages listed on my profile and remove myself from the lame circle of lame fans.

Having said all that, I guess I should go through my pages now and pull myself out from membership;

Open a pack of gum, and suddenly everyone is your bestfriend

I don’t know you, but I think you’re ridiculously hot

I Hate Getting Texts That Only Say “k”

I Use My Cell Phone To See In The Dark ¹

I Feel My Phone Vibrate When It Doesn’t ²

I say dude right before I say something moderately important ³

Saying Something Then Realizing It Only Makes Sense In Your Mind ⁴

I Missed Your Call By a Second, I Call You Right Back And You Don’t Answer! ⁵

i Hate when people bring up a mistake you made a long time ago ⁶

…just to name a few… of the 75 I removed myself from!

And why does Facebook place the “Remove me from fans” button where it is easily unnoticed, ie. at the bottom of the page so that you have to scroll down to find it, and in doing so, you get distracted by the weirdly amusing things you see on that page? Yet, the “Become a fan” button is like a huge banner hung across the top of the fan page, enticing you to click on it and forever be humiliated by that little piece of information that all your Facebook friends now have access to and may use to publicly disgrace you.

Then most of those lame pages don’t even have content that relates to whatever it seems to be dedicated to. The creators of some of those pages update the status with information about their day, and the majority of the updates I see are about how many people are a fan of that page. These lame fan pages are all about publicity, I tells ya.

[/rant]

- Keep moving forward.

- -

¹ My E63 actually has a flashlight on it.
² Detailed info said, “This goes out to the people who feel their phone vibrate, but when you check to see who called or texted you… nobody did.” I feel for ya, mate.
³ So do people who are high on marijuana.
⁴ Actually, no, I don’t like it when that happens, ’cause I end up feeling (and probably looking) like an idiot.
⁵ I don’t like that either. People like that waste my hard-earned money.
⁶ Then why are you a fan? Why was I a fan? o_o
 

Aussie Christmases

The typical Christmas scene includes chimneys and fireplaces, mugs of hot chocolate, warm gloves, scarves and coats, and the beautiful snow that’s so common in the US, the UK and of course, the North Pole.

But what most people don’t experience is Christmas in summer, which Australians get to enjoy every year.

Scott Hampson of Agent-X Comics tweeted this link to a music video of Rolf Harris’ Christmas in the Sun.

I think Mr Harris describes Aussie Christmases well.

Over here in Western Sydney where I live, we had a cloudy and wet Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Even so, a summer Christmas is the Christmas for me. So what if it’s hot and it’s not snowing? I’ve never celebrated Christmas anywhere except here in Sydney, so I’m not missing out on anything. For me personally, a white Christmas would be pretty exciting, but I guess it’s not my kinda thing.

- Keep moving forward.