Sunday Night Experiments

I often reach new heights of culinary excellence during thin times of the cupboard. Some of my best dishes were invented out of necessity.

Tonight was not one of those nights.

Some nights ago, I was experimenting with pizza dough. I've been using the same recipe for years, but I've been pining for a crust more like the one I have when I eat pizza at Vicente's in Portland. A bit more crisp and thin.

Anyway, I added more oil to the dough; too much oil. Luckily, I tried out a small amount before making pizza with it, and it was all wrong. So I saved it. I'm now reminded of a line George Carlin used in his "Ice Box Man" routine: "it's still good, put it back [in the refrigerator]. It'll turn up in something."

A couple of mornings I've tried making cinnamon rolls with it, and that was OK, but still not quite right.

So tonight you can probably understand that even though I was hoping for the piece de resistance, I think I was more resigned to knowing that it was probably just a coup de grace...I used the rest of the dough.

I decided it might be nice to use the dough as a base, some smoked mussels and feta cheese as a topping. Even now it doesn't sound bad. Well, it wasn't bad. But it had no flash, flair....or flavor.

Well, at least it didn't involve Blue Cheese. I still have nightmares about my last adventure in that direction.