Well for the most part it’s most enjoyable to win and if you’re seriously trying hard to do something by yourself it won’t be fun if things don’t go well. Another reason not to live your life alone, sometimes the most amusing situations between people occur in the midst of failures at non-critical tasks. What I mean by that is, two people mashing away at pizza dough that won’t hold together can have some fun but when you screw up in the middle of surgery it’s not likely. But one person mashing away at pizza dough that won’t stick together…
That said my pizza did not go well. Eventually I managed to get something into the oven and because the toppings were all tasty it turned out passable but not presentable. Which is more than I can say for my attempt at risotto.
And so I continue my series on cooking failures with this lesson to impart to you poor children of the world: don’t try to do other things while cooking. Just like not following the instructions for whatever reasons, such as trying to change or add things, this is another mistake that amateur cooks make. For the most part I myself only leave the kitchen or undertake other tasks during more leisurely meals like when stew is in the pot or while a roast is in the oven. My mistake in this case was not observing the yeast for the pizza! Since I had to wait for it I just left and perhaps I was gone too long as well but in any case I did not see what happened with it. And then later when trying to knead the dough and having it be a sticky sloppy mess that wouldn’t do anything that it reminded me of what happened to Kawachi in his match against Kanmuri from the Pantasia Newcomer’s contest/battle/competition (I don’t remember the exact term) in the manga series Yakitate Japan! Which is an amusing series indeed, I recommend it. I’m not sure how correct a lot of its culinary information is though since it is first and foremost a gag manga. In any case unlike Kawachi who was making bread I was able to just keep adding more flour and eventually my mess stuck together. Unfortunately the crust later did not rise while baking at all and tasted terrible but that’s how it goes. Actually I somewhat call into question the recipe because things were so off but since I wasn’t there for the whole thing I don’t know.
In any case my point is that you shouldn’t stay away from things too long when making food. At least come back and check at the supposed halfway point if not every half hour, whichever is less. I realize that there are occasions when you feel obligated to leave the kitchen; kids, pets, the phone, but it is necessary to focus as much as possible. Actually so saying if your food often does not turn out right and you get distracted often while cooking that could be the problem so you should switch to things that need less input (and so did stews and roasts become common).
Well since my pizza went so badly I might attempt it again with a new perspective (or a prepared crust….). Since I’m not a huge fan of that type of food I’m honestly only going to attempt it because I’ve still got a lot of stuff for toppings left.
