half baked

I’d say that one-in-four or one-in-five of pizza nights don’t quite work out. Considering that this number translates to a once-a-month, and easily forgotten, failure it hasn’t caused too much misery on The Hilltop. The kids’ pizza is always fine because their bits are a standard set of meat and olives (and mushrooms, of late). The problem is with the weekly veggie offering that can end up as a mismatched mess, or more likely, too dry. What I’d been doing over the last month or so is to take things like stuffed peppers and enchiladas (separate weeks) and constructing them in pizza form. What I realized last night, while eating, was that I should have taken the idea a bit further and into this week. I went with baked eggplant (rosemary, s & p, smoked paprika) over pesto, mozzarella, mushrooms, and garlic. I topped it with a Jarlsberg-like cheese (I actually wanted a Gruyere but failed…) and olive oil: in the end it was way too dry. That kind of cheese with the breaded/baked eggplant didn’t work well – I should have gone the route of turning it into an eggplant parmesan pizza and doused it all with a nice red sauce. Lesson learned.

About a year ago we had the big protest on the Mall. I was working at the LOC on that Saturday and was humbled by the roar of stupidity. I know that sounds harsh but it should be. Riding in on the Metro that morning with that shopping bag of whackjobs may have been the most telling review of American in 2009 (and now 2010). Until now: I was wrong. Enjoy this from DCist.com.

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