Fun Filled Friday

Last night we were going to have homemade pizza.  Tasty right?  Well let me tell you how it went…

I get home from work.  It is around 5:30PM.  My wife and I agreed that we would need a pizza stone.  Whenever we have made homemade pizza the crust has never been solid through the pizzas.  Pizza stones (basically a form of tile) raise the heat in the oven and direct it towards the crust.  But where does one get it?  We did some research, and while they are available at places like Bed Bath & Beyond, they can be pricey.  People recommend that getting a basic limestone tile from any hardware store works and is much cheaper too.  We decided to do that…

The Fellowship of the Stone

We first went to the Home Depot near our apartment.  Did they have any limestone or terra cotta tile?  “No, but try Century Tile.”  So we then leave and try the Lowes which is basically next door before we try Century Tile.  No luck there.  We then go to Century Tile.   By the two cars in the parking lot, clearly this is a popular place.  We go in and are greeted by a sales person.  We tell him what we are looking for.  He shows us what he offers and we make a decision.  Ideally we would want a 16×16 tile.  Well they don’t offer that size, only 12×12 or 18×18.  He offers to make a single cut to end up with a 16×18.  We say fine, but then he goes on how it may not be ideal to have a cut because of the lack of the factory edge or something.  We remind him that we only care about functionality, not eastetics.  So we pay for it and wait for the cut.  15 minutes later we leave with a piece of tile and head on home.  It is about 7:45 PM at this point.  We are hungry and tired.

We get home and start getting ready.  I put the stone in the oven and crank it to 11 (500 degrees).  While it heats up, I start making my pizza.  I make it on a large greased up cookie sheet.  As I am making the pizza, I realize that we will not have enough cheese for both my wife and I’s pizzas.  So I drop what I was doing and drive to the store to get more cheese.  This is about 8:15 PM.

An unstoppable force meeting an unmovable object…

I get home and finish my pizza.  When I try to put it in, I can’t get it to slide off the greased cookie sheet onto the stone.  What the hell was the night worth if I can’t put my stupid pizza onto the stone?!?  I decide to cook it a bit on the sheet and when it is firm enough, slide it onto the stone.  I put it in and about 7 minutes later, try to slide is on.  Well most of it made it on.  I cook it the rest of the way, and try to take it out.  It will NOT come off the stone. Using the will of God himself and a flat spatula, I managed to dig it off. With holes and all, i manage to finally have my pizza.  This is around 8:45 PM.

Now the wife. With my pizza done, she goes for it. She made her pizza’s crust a bit thinner than mine, so it is nearly impossible to get it off the silpat she used. She gives up and just rolls it up. If she can’t have a pizza, she will try to have a bastardized version of a calzone. She “somewhat” manages to get that onto the stone and off it goes. About 10 minutes later she attempts to flip it – it falls apart. She isn’t even having a calzone anymore, bur rather an unnamed italian dough dish.

But what about the stone? Did it prove itself to be worth the trouble? Well, my pizza was still a little bit soft. The stone started off being a shade of brown. Now the stone is a shade of black between nightfall and utter black death. So how was your Friday?

I am not Dan’s eyes

I am not Picasso. I am not Monet. On the other hand, I am not Mr. Magoo – I am just Dan. I do not claim to be a superman when it comes to aesthetics, but I am not blind to it either. I realize that my personal attempts to make beautiful web sites tend to fall a bit on the flat side. Because of this, I just accept it and use online resources. One such resource that I am starting to use more and more is ThemeForest. ThemeForest is an website where web designers sell their designs to the outside world. The templates tend to be very affordable and very pleasing to the eye as well. In fact, I am currently in the process of converting this very site into using one such theme. Hopefully it will be done sometime this week!