Run! Fire Alarm!!!!

That is what tonight's excitement was all about.

I tried a new recipe. It involved a baking stone. Uh oh. My experience with my poor baking stone has not been stellar.... I usually burn whatever I am baking, or it is undercooked and sticks to the poor stone. Or a little of both--burnt and dough-y. The stone is now stained, with burnt goo that smokes when I use it each time--Lovely reminders of my skills ;)

So tonight I wanted pizza. The kids wanted pizza. With dad out of town for work and just the 3 of us at home, I thought it would be a great idea to try a new recipe.

And when I need a new recipe I rely on my favorite blog for recipes: The Smitten Kitchen. Deb has a way with food. She even has made me enjoy vegetables! Surprising, I know!

So anyway, pizza.

I made the dough. Just as I was kneading it my friend calls--there has been an emergency. Long story short--she's at the ER with her husband (who ends up being okay) and needs someone to come get her kids. I throw the mostly-kneaded dough into the oiled bowl and leave it to rise....

The problem is, it never rises. I even used brand new yeast, too! I still don't know what happened, but whatever--I need pizza. The kids are starving(and now there are 3). So I roll out the dough (I didn't take pictures because I expected a total disaster at this point). I make the pizza according to the directions. I even have corn meal for the baking stone (hoping for a non-sticky experience--fingers crossed!).

And you know what?

It was just BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

It's like the moment when you realize your brand new baby is just perfect, after months worrying about whether they will be a mutant child with 11 fingers and four toes.

Anyway, I actually wanted to eat this pizza perfection. So that's when I took a picture :)

And see? I am proud! Thanks Deb, for the great recipe! And then....I wanted to stick in another pizza....I thought I should heat the stone a bit more, so left it in there to heat up a bit more. I was just thinking how I didn't want a dough-y middle to my pizza. So after 5 minutes, in chimes the deafening, "Beep, beep, beep, beep....." you get the picture. The baby starts screaming, the older 2 kids start screaming and running all over the house, "Run!! Fire alarm!!" My friend's poor little girl keeps shouting, "Mommy says this is when you run out of the house!!" Meanwhile, the kids can't hear my explanation over all the beeping, their screaming, etc. so I focus on fanning the smoke detectors. It's comical, this scene. I am sure my neighbors noticed. And to all of you neighbors, I am sooo sorry!! To top it off, the jacket I grabbed to fan the detector swats my oldest in the side with its zipper as I'm flailing it around the hallway. So now there's a new crier.... Oh, it was great. THIS is life. Never dull. So, it was smoky because I still had some cornmeal left on the stone. So please, if you make this recipe, shake off the excess cornmeal before placing another pizza on the stone! :) Thank you. Lesson learned. Oh, but the pizzas were amazing!