Yes. But, today is one of those days! And stupid post-season ticket deposits were due yesterday which I stupidly sent in for the stupid Braves. (In other words, I just sent my deposit for next year's regular season tickets.) Milwaukee and Pittsburgh tried to give us a playoff spot over the last 4-5 weeks, and we just Juiced the bed all over the field.
Out of all the shitty chain pizza places I respect Little Caesars the most. Why? Because they know they have a shitty product and sell a large pizza for $5. Comparing it to other pizzas is essentially like comparing McDonalds to any good cheeseburger. Of course it is shitty. That's why they sell it for 80% less. The only one I really refuse to eat is Papa Johns. Around here (not sure if this is true everywhere) the topping quality is terrible. In a blind taste test they could give you a cheese pizza and a supreme pizza, and you would assume both were pieces of the same cardboard box. There are a few bars around my house that make amazing pizza. I usually opt for those. But if I'm hungry and pressed for time Little Caesars it is. I agree with the love for Mellow Mushroom. For a chain their pizza is amazing. They also have an awesome selection of beers.
I use a rolling pin, It's the only way I can get it really thin. If you don't have one, you can use a wine bottle. I lay down the parchment paper on the counter, sprinkle with flour, roll out the dough, then slide the paper right onto the pan. I use the dough in this recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/white-pizzas-with-arugula-recipe2.html And Juice is right - gotta crank that temp up. I do 500 like the recipe says.
My girlfriend is trying to perfect her pizza crust and banana bread recipes (which I highly encourage) and we haven't tried those techniques yet. Awesome. If we're feeling lazy nothing beats getting a basic $5 Papa Murphy's take and bake, and then covering it with whatever fresh veggies, herbs, and additional meats and cheeses we want on it. That's a lot of bang for your buck.
If you have a Whole Foods around you can buy the pizza dough they make for fairly cheap and you can roll it out to whatever thickness you want.
We had that last night. My wife was astounded that I had never heard of Papa Murphys before. I had to remind her I haven't lived here in MN since '99. It was... ok.
I usually buy whatever raw dough is available in the bakery section of the grocery store but it's not exactly ideal. My efforts with yeast have been... unsuccessful to date. I am an excellent cook. I am a shitty shitty baker. Anything involving flour tends to go awry.
Papa Murphys is OK not great. My oldest brother lives on the west coast of Michigan and him and his wife really like it. But if I'm paying someone to make my pizza, I kinda want them to go ahead and cook it too.
You can roll it out but you get a different texture. Pulled doughs make way better pizza but if you gotta roll it, do what you've gotta do. Making dough from scratch is easy, just time consuming. Like if I know I want pizza for dinner on my day off, I need to start prepping dough around 11am or noon to give it plenty of time to rise.
I'm terrible at planning ahead, which is why my crock pot and bread machine (when I had one) would tend to collect dust. I'm getting better at it, though. One of the things I love about that dough recipe is that if I make it the evening before and refrigerate it, it still works just fine - just a little stiffer when rolling it out. Then on pizza night the most time consuming part of the process is preparing the toppings. The pizza cooks in about 6 minutes.