that time we made pizza...(happy 100th!)

we've made it to post #100! wahooooo.

since it's a bit of a milestone, i wanted to do something EXTRA special, SUPER delicious, and a little out of the box. 

with all the growing and evolving that has occurred throughout the past four years, there have been few constants, among them kappa, a complete and utter lack of shopping in state college, and gopper's pizza 

(now technically called corrinado's, it will forever go by it's original name to me). 

every college town has a pizza shop or two to feed the ravenous, ever-hungry creature that is the drunk undergrad, and while state college has it's fair share of choices, nothing beats the crispy, perfectly tangy slices made by the gop himself. i'm salivating just thinking about it. so when gop offered to give me a lesson in how to make the perfect pie, i jumped at the chance. 
so on a sunny afternoon, i grabbed my sous chef, katy, and we headed to hetzel street for our lesson.
first up, the dough.  to 'pay' for our pizza, we were made unofficial employees for the day and placed in charge of weighing and shaping dough for pizza crusts. hello, arm workout. 

then, onto the good stuff

order up! katy decided to add green peppers, mushrooms, and black olives to her half of the pie.  i opted for classic with a twist: a mix of mozzarella, provolone, smoked gouda, asiago, and romano.

 making a sorry excuse for pizza crust/becoming a hot hot mess

gop's signature pizza (green peppers, red onions, sausage), pre-oven

oh just hangin' with the pizza of the day while our masterpiece cooks

tah-dah! 

things i learned:

1. making the dough too thin and not working out the air bubbles = easy to do but not actually a good thing

2. my arms are not nearly as strong as i thought

3. just a ladle of sauce does the trick...a little goes a long way!

4. i will demand fresh pizza from now on. nothing is better than the  melty cheese, crispy crust, and extra-flavorful taste of pizza straight out of the oven

thanks for the lesson, gop! later, pizza; you were deeeelish!!