Cooking, Ecstatic Style

So tonight is mah very first FEATURE NIGHT!!!! (and there was much rejoicing.) We had some peoples over for food and gaming, and The Ecstatic proposed pizza night. (For those White Wolf players reading, you'll get the reference.) This was met with hearty approval. He said he'd make the sauce, Boris brought a multitude of toppings, and I was provided with a recipe for the dough, courtesy of The Ecstatic's mama. Now an hour before they were to arrive, I decided it was naptime. Thank goodness I did. Had I tried to make the dough myself, we would have had a delicious impromptu pasta dinner and lumps of goobread.

Not even 5 minutes into his sauce making (complete with red chile WIN), the house smelled amazing. The best chefs and cooks always say "Taste, taste, taste," so we did just that.

That shit was MONEY. Like, I'd like to buy this Maserati straight up cash. I went to work on the dough, when a friend I hadn't seen in about 3 or 4 years called. I, of course, abandoned my post as she and her GORGEOUS little girl and her totally awesome, chill friend were in town and came to drop in. I put on another pot of coffee (they had to book ass back to LA tonight, super sad panda) and got to visiting. Not long after, the distress call came from the kitchen...."Do you have a rolling pin?" After a short but mad scramble, we came up with this:

That, my friends, is a Kahlua bottle. Undaunted, The Ecstatic began working his magic in the tiny ass space he had available. After the pizza assembly and ovening, we all got to visiting and watching the darling little one paint two tiny pumpkins I had out from Halloween. I sent her home with one, and she let me keep one with green drawings on it. It was the most precious thing. By the time I had gone outside and exchanged hugs and  "see you laters", there was no intact pizza to snap a pic of. There were, however, two delicious slices of OMIGOD on my plate.

I took a moment to consider this delicious creation, and realized all I had done to help was slice the peppers and mixed the initial dough ingredients. Well, I didn't really even finish mixing. So, hats off to The Ecstatic for making seriously one of the best damn pizzas I've ever had. He even gave permission to list the dough recipe he got from his mom. It was crispy where it needed to be and thick and chewy and held that fully loaded sauce like a man's man.  Aaaand what. So, here it is.

Pizza & Sopapilla Dough  
1/2 Cup milk
3 Cups Flour
1 1/2 Tsp baking Powder
1 Tblsp Sugar
1 Tblsp Shortening
1 Package Yeast
1/2 Cup warm water 

Scald milk and cool to room temp
grease pizza pan thoroughly
combine dry ingredients and cut in shortening
Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water and add to cooled milk
Mix all ingredients well
Knead dough 15 to 20 times
Let dough rise for 10-15 minutes
shape into pizza pan. 
Preheat oven 425 deg
bake at 420 deg