EXTERMINATE!: DIY Dalek Cosplay

Hey guys! Guess who wins the "best sister ever" award, alongside the "best wedding present ever" award, and is eligible for the "best nerd-themed joint bachelor/bachelorette party ever" award?

That's right, this girl.

For those of you just joining us, my brother got married this weekend. That's right, the same weekend as New York Comic Con. The biggest nerd event on the East Coast. In an attempt to still go, I asked my now sister-in-law if she would like to have a Comic Con bachelorette party. Her answer, of course, was yes (and then we let my brother come along, so it became a bachelor/ette) party. We pulled out all the stops: a limo into the city, a group Doctor Who cosplay, I made TARDIS corsages for the entire party...

The maid of honor was like, "Kim, I didn't know you could do this!"

I told her I didn't know I could do it either.

And a boutonniere for my brother

...out of dollar store flowers and mini papercraft TARDISes (I got them here, just resized them to make them a little bit bigger), and I even bought photo ops and we did autographing, even though that's not what I usually do at Comic Con, I wanted to make sure they had the true con experience.

(Fun fact: when I walked up to Brent Spiner to ask for his autograph, he asked if he could take my picture. Freaking Commander Data asked for my picture! That really actually happened and I have witnesses. I think I may be doing autographing more now.)

The bride insisted that I be a dalek for our group cosplay (so I was unable to just reuse my TARDIS Dress and Top Hat from last year. Le sigh), and you guys know me. Instead of just buying a dalek dress from Her Universe, I had to go and craft it up.

To start with, you want an a-line style dress in any color. I just happened to already have a blue skater style dress that had been one of the TARDIS dress contenders last year that I couldn't return since it had been on sale. I paid about $17 for it originally, I think. I also bought a petticoat skirt to wear under the dress, a cheap costume-y one, to give it a little more fullness. That's optional, but I think it helps make it look a little more dalek-y.

As always, cotton or cotton blends are best for a dress you plan on modding, and always wash clothes first since they are treated with stain resists that will also resist glue and fabric paint

The next thing you want to do is hunt down some craft foam balls, mine were about 3 inches in diameter, but smaller works too. I found them at the dollar store, two to a pack for a dollar. (In contrast, the ones at Michaels around the same size were 6 to a package for $6, so double the price). I bought out their entire supply since there weren't a whole lot left, and you never know if you'll be able to find something again at the dollar store, so I didn't want to chance coming up short. The cashier looked at me funny. The amount you'll need depends on the length of your dress, but I think I used around 15 (30 halves).

Measure the foam balls against the dress to determine the approximate number you'll need (I figured out the minimum and maximum I'd need, so I knew the actual number would fall somewhere in the middle), then using a large, sharp knife, cut the balls in half. (I may or may not have used my big chef's knife to do this. WHAT. My utility knife was too short) The foam balls I used had a seam around the middle, so I used that as a guide.

Now, the foam I was using wasn't very porous, so I was able to skip right to the painting. If you're using a more traditional styrafoam, you'll want to glaze it first using mod podge or school glue thinned with a little water, this way all the paint won't soak into the foam. Then you want to buy my new favorite thing: metallic craft paint. It's inexpensive ($1.50 for 2 oz. at Michaels), works on multiple surfaces, and actually does look metallic. I used the gunmetal color.

You're not going to cover the foam balls in one coat, so don't try. It's better to go with lots of thin coats than thick, uneven coats. It took about 4 coats of paint before I was satisfied with the color, and then I went with one last thin coat to cover any last brush marks or imperfections. And the good thing about thin coats was that by the time I finished painting the last foam ball, the first one was dry enough to paint over, so you could theoretically do it all in one sitting.

Watching Doctor Who on Netflix helps make this part less onerous.

I'm liking Pertwee.

While your foam balls are drying, you'll want to take some thick, black ribbon and glue it along the bottom edge of the dress. My dress was rather shorter than I would have liked, so I took the opportunity to add an extra inch to the length. I just took the ribbon I had left over from my TARDIS Top Hat, and lined it up with the hem of the dress. Don't try to glue it all at once, you'll make yourself crazy. Work in sections, and let them dry for a few minutes before moving on to the next section.

If you have a cat, he will want to assist you with this part.

Needy McSnuggles says your costume doesn't have enough cat hair

The next step is gluing the foam balls to the dress. Using the waist of the dress as a guide, space out the best arrangement for the top row. It just so happened that 4 worked for me. Then I took thin, black duct tape (left over from TARDIS Dress) and used that to space out the rows. Remember to put it on an angle to account for the flare of the dress. Then just space out the rest of the foam balls-- columns of three worked best for the length of my dress. Once you've got the spacing right, glue it on there (and remember that tacky glue dries clear if you make a mistake).

Let that dry completely (overnight is best) before working on the back of the dress. It's harder to do the back since you can't lay the dress flat, but it's also more important that the front looks good. :3

Watch some more Doctor Who while waiting for your dalek balls (heh) to dry.

Now all we've got left is the waist. Now, I glued the same black ribbon I used on the hem around the waist, but take the benefit of my experience-- that wasn't a good idea. I ended up having to rip off the back half and I was literally hot gluing it back onto the dress mere minutes before I had to leave. The problem is that the ribbon doesn't stretch along with the dress, so it didn't want to go over my shoulders or around my bust. I thought I had planned for it-- I left room in the ribbon along the sides, but it wasn't enough. So instead you might want to go with black elastic ribbon or just paint it on with black fabric paint. Or hot glue yourself into the dress the day of the con. I am proof that that works.

Needy McSnuggles is judging my inability to account for the lack of stretch in the ribbon.

Now onto the eyestalk. This was the part that I think really made the costume. What you need are 1) a paper towel roll, 2) duct tape (the regular silver kind is best. I had white so I used it and painted it silver. Save yourself some steps), 3) a sheet of black craft foam, 4) a blue LED light, found in the flower arranging aisle at most craft stores (mine was left over from TARDIS Top Hat), 5) scissors and hot glue. My beloved tacky glue just doesn't work out here. I know, I tried.

The first thing you want to do is cut the paper towel roll open and measure it around the LED. You want the LED to fit into it, but not fall through it (please note that in the pictures, I had rolled the cardboard too tightly. I ended up having to redo it. The light should be able to sit in the tube without being held.) Wrap the tube in duct tape, and you're gonna want to cut a couple inches off of it. I found this easiest to do after being duct-taped. Hot glue the light into the tube, being careful to make sure you can still turn it on and off.

Cut a wide strip of the black craft foam long enough to go around the light, with a little bit extra. I found it easiest to cut a shallow curve along the bottom of the strip, so when I wrapped it around the light, I was able to have it flare out a bit, allowing easier access to the light. Hot glue it to the tube, then decorate with more thin strips of foam. I added foam around the top to give it more depth, and very thin strips around the sides, to mimic the look of a dalek eye. Then I just added a little bit more of the metallic craft paint, mostly to cover the fact that I am not a neat gluer.

FYI, cats enjoy lying on top of black craft foam.

And they can't resist getting in the picture.

Make sure to test that you can get your fingers in there to turn the light off and on. PSA: the LEDs are extremely bright, and you're basically making a flashlight, so you may accidentally blind a few people since it will be at eye level. Whoops.

Then hot glue the eye stalk to a headband. Glue a small, disposable plastic cup on either side for the "lights." I had originally intended to put actual lights inside the cups, but I thought I already had the two white lights, and I only had one and no time to run to Michaels. If you don't add actual lights, you'll need to add a counter weight of some kind to the headband. Everything that you use to make it is so lightweight that the LED at the end of the eyestalk made it kind of top heavy. I had to keep readjusting the headband all day. Or you might be able to get away with using a heavy duty headband.

As it was, one of the faux lights fell off, so I ended up taking the other one off as well. I'm sure that didn't help the weight disparity either

Fun story: I did a photo op with Stephen Amell (I was buying one for my brother with William Shatner when I thought, ah, what the heck, I'll treat myself), and when it came to be my turn, he jumped back and went "aah" all joking like, then he told me I looked great, and put his arm around me even though we'd been instructed that Stephen had asked for no physical contact (which, considering I'd contracted Con Crud last year, I found to be completely understandable) and you can see that my face is red in the photo, and it appears that Stephen Amell is in possession of the singular talent of being able to make me blush in under 10 seconds.

Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams) also said my costume was great, and Brent Spiner said I was "a vision" (direct quote. I have witnesses!), so despite being a little slapdash, I'd say my costume was a success.

As for the plunger, there is a Home Depot brand one for $3. It's smaller, with a shorter handle, so it's not ideal for actual plunging, but it's perfect for cosplay. The handle was bright orange, though, so I just gave it a quick sanding and painted it with silver metallic craft paint. I didn't have time to do anything for the whisk arm, but I was kind of happy to have a hand free for side hugs from Stephen Amell. Le sigh

Stuff and Things 7/25/14

Life as I know it
It's been a while since my last Stuff and Things post. It's been crazy, guys. I'm still working on getting settled and getting back into a blogging routine. I have already had to call 911 (I woke up on July 4th to this really loud crackling noise. I looked out the window and the recycle shed was engulfed in flames. Good times. And now I don't know what to do with my recycle)

Source

I put in a service call to our security company at work because one of the maglocks on our data center wasn't getting power. They sent out two techs-- the first one walked in with a ladder (?) and didn't appear to have any idea what he was doing. The second one fixed it, I think, but in the process took apart an emergency shut-off switch that was connected to the AC in the data center, and the temperature sky rocketed and it was really bad. G was there for five hours saying, "hey, you think the tech might have done something?" and everyone told her no, and then she texted me, and I was like, "that must be related to the maglock," but she told me no, and then the landlord found the switch and everyone was like, "Wow, G was right."

So I've decided this must be the employee motto of our security company:

Brought to you by Captain Hammer, corporate tool

They also manufacture tools (sort of a weird crossover, I know) and I hope those are good, because their security techs are not exactly the sharpest in the shed. (Get it? I made a funny)

I finally watched Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing, and I loved it. That's always been one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, so it was really fun to see some of my favorite actors in it (because Joss Whedon filmed it in like a weekend, so he just called up all his friends and said, "hey, you wanna do a thing?" And he apparently invites his actor friends over all the time to do Shakespeare readings, and I want to go to there. I'll bring cupcakes and just sit in a corner and be completely unobtrusive, promise.)

I also watched Magic Mike, and, umm, it just made me feel really uncomfortable. Like, really, really uncomfortable. And was there plot? Because I couldn't find the plot. Maybe Matthew McConaughey's character scared it away (he was so creepy). I'm sorry, but I just don't get the appeal. I will just take this as more proof that I don't know how to girl.

Source

Ayup.

Speaking of girling, the brother and sister-in-law are getting married the same weekend as NYCC. Which was super disappointing at first. I was like, well maybe I can manage to go on Friday, then I was like, no I'll probably have to do bridesmaidy things. And then it hit me: Comic Con Bachelorette Party. Aw yiss. And the sister-in-law said yes, so it's on like Donkey Kong. We even decided on a Doctor Who group cosplay (the sister-in-law insisted I be a dalek. She'll be Rose, my brother will be 9, MOH will likely do River Song, and then we might have a cyberman and a Captain Jack. Honestly, we spent more time deciding on our cosplay than on the bridesmaids dresses.) I'm going to make little somethings to identify us as a wedding party: a Tardis boutonniere for the brother, maybe a blue tiara and veil or something for the sister-in-law, and maybe mini blue corsages for the rest of us. I don't know. I still have a lot of brainstorming on that part. My dalek cosplay will be more stylized than screen accurate, a lot like my Tardis dress, I've just got to work out the actual crafting bits.

TV- Beyond this point, there be spoilers

Falling Skies- So I just totally marathoned the first three seasons of this show, and I was pretty impressed. Aside from a couple inconsistencies (like who the frack is actually taking time to embroider peoples names on their uniforms post apocalypse? And where do they keep finding all these military uniforms? And why aren't they using the mech bullets anymore? And why do the Espheni keep not killing Tom?) I really liked it.

But this newest season, with this whole Lexi storyline, I'm not loving so much. I mean, the half human/half alien messiah child with the accelerated aging process and magic powers? That's straight out of Stargate. And let me tell you, Adria was annoying, but a lot less so than Lexi. And WTF is with Lourdes being all crazy stalker fangirl? Wasn't she devoutly Christian? Isn't she supposed to be smart? Is this like that Doctor Who episode where when your faith is shaken, the minotaur takes it over and makes you praise him before he eats you? Is Lexi the minotaur? Whoa, I think I found a new headcanon.

Posts from this week

Cocoa Pebbles Grilled Bananas

Stuff and Things 4/18/14

Life as I Know it
Did you guys know I'm really bad at helping with wedding planning? I mostly suggest ways to work storm troopers into the ceremony, and how the ring bearers should be dressed up as little secret service dudes, and that a dalek should be the officiant so he can go "OFFICIATE. OFFICIATE," and how zombies should totally attack mid-ceremony.

...I'm not helpful. I'm just trying to give them the awesomest wedding in the history of awesome, but nooooo.

Did you know the bestie's fiance nixed a video game themed wedding? He writes a video game blog. I was like, I could totally make that elegant. An orchestral version of the Mario theme playing as the wedding party walks down the aisle, some power-up cufflinks, and the centerpieces would be so much fun to design. But nooooo. He doesn't even want a theme. He wants a "wedding themed wedding." I told the bestie she should could totally do some meta-theming with that. She didn't find that helpful.

Other than that, not much to report. Closing date has been moved up a day (for me, anyway. The sellers are still closing on the 30th). The date has been moved around so many times, that my attorney already has that date booked solid. So I'm closing the day before I actually close. It never goes smooth.

I just want it to be over at this point. Honestly, if I could close tomorrow, I would. I just don't like this lingering stuff. Plus, I have to pick out paint colors. Like, that's been eating at me, because I want to paint before I move in. I know the color scheme I want in the kitchen (purple and gray, with brass accents), and the bathroom has blue tile, so I'll probably just paint it white, but the living room feeds into the hallway, which is really long and goes down to the bedroom, so the color in the living room will effect the color of the entire house, and how do people make decisions like this? What color is your living room? How did you decide on that color? How did you not completely stress yourself out picking that color?

No, I am not getting overly crazy about paint colors. I'm normally this way.

Source

This is my color inspiration for the kitchen

I found this on Pinterest, and I can't stop laughing:

Source

Start with Homemade Cake Mix, you must

Also, Peter Capaldi's not even really the doctor yet, and he's already melted my heart. Why is there water on my face it must be raining I'm not crying.

TV
Supernatural- I was SO EXCITED when I saw Gabriel was back,and then it wasn't Gabriel, and NOW I REALLY WANT GABRIEL BACK WHY DID THEY DO THIS TO ME I WAS FINE BEFORE.

(Funny story, I watched this ep. with my mom, and I was explaining who Gadreel was, and then I said, "Well, he's not technically evil, he's just really super gullible," and that was right when he walked into the Winchesters' trap)

But I think I kind of hate Metatron more than any other baddie on the show. Dick Roman killed Bobby, and I still hate Metatron more. I don't know why. I just do. Maybe it's because he burned a book. That makes me angry.

Also, Mark of Cain. Not loving this. What's it doing to my Dean? (Also Cas, srsly, you are not married Dean. And stop doing exactly what Metatron told you he wanted you to do. You should not do what the psychopath told you to do.)

Arrow- First of all, Ollie, you need to go to Star Labs and get that gun that the lab techs used against Slade. Because, dude it totally worked really well.

Second of all, Thea, I know it sucks that your dad wasn't your biological dad, and that your mom and your brother kept it from you, and your boyfriend broke up with you for no reason you can see. You've had a sh***y couple of days, I get it, I do, but trust me, you don't want to go from billionaire to broke, so just sign the papers, okay? Pretty please?

Thirdly, Starling City doctors apparently don't believe in doctor-patient confidentiality. When a patient's sister comes to see her in the hospital, it's fine to tell her about the current injuries, especially since they're minor, but don't follow that up with, "Oh that's nothing compared to her old injuries." WTF. And Laurel, if you haven't figured out that Black Canary is Sarah yet, especially now that you know Ollie is the Arrow, and that crappy doctor told you all about her old injuries, you are too dumb to live.

Fourth, SUMMER GLAU HAS BEEN DOSED WITH THE MIRAKURU. EVERYBODY RUNNNNN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVESSSSSSS!

Posts from this week

Homemade Strawberry Cake Mix

Christmas Tree Cookie Stacks & the Year in Review

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!

Can you believe that 2013 is over you guys? It had its ups and downs, but I have to say, it was a better year than 2012, for many reasons. Still no series 3 of Sherlock, though (but soon, very soon).

Top 10 Most Popular Posts of 2013:

1. Easy Apple Cobbler
2. Bananas are Good Frozen Nutella-Covered Bananas
3. Lemon Bubble Ring
4. Individual Elvis Pies
5. Peanut Butter Cookies
6. Peanut Butter Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies
7. Dalek Cupcake Tutorial
8. DIY TARDIS Dress
9. Doctor Who Round Up
10. Bad Wolf Cupcakes

I'm definitely noticing a theme here. That's five Doctor Who themed posts (one more subtle than the others), 3 peanut butter recipes, and 2 so-easy-they-barely-qualify recipes. And lemon bubbles, which are just awesome. I have one rule when I write this blog: I assume there is at least one other person out there just like me, who wants to read what I want to write about. By the looks of this list, that rule pays off.

And the Bad Wolf Cupcakes were a bit of a surprise, but I'm starting to suspect Rose Tyler had something to do with that...

Honorable Mentions (My Top 3):

Black Forest Icebox Cake

Bowties are Cool Blueberry Goat Cheese Pasta Salad

Neapolitan Cupcakes

My Family's Favorites:

Cherry Almond Oatmeal Cookies (gluten free)

Raspberry Red Wine Sauce

Sfogliatelle Scones

Most Pinned on Pinterest:

Doctor Who Round Up

Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows

These both kind of went viral on Pinterest (the marshmallows thanks to a pin from Recipe Girl *starry-eyed fangirl moment*) shocking the crap out of me.

My Favorite Search Terms:

1. My brain is leaking
2. Why is Nathan Fillion getting fat 2013
3. Don't involve me
4. Nathan Fillion singing peanut butter song
5. Nerdy Nummies helping hands fanfic The Nerdy Nummies helping hands videos are funny, but not so much I'll write a fanfic for them. Watch them here
6. Non-sucky homemade gifts
7. Velvet Elvis Castle fanfic
8. Dalek shower
9. Epic bean dip
10. Bad Wolf Okay, so not funny, but it's one of my TOP search terms, which tickles me

As I have each year since the beginning of the blog, I've also included a recipe with your Year in Review round up: These super cute, super easy Christmas tree cookie stacks

Except, it's not really a recipe. More of a method. You just start with any roll-out cookie dough (I used LilaLoa's End-All Chocolate Cookie Recipe (These are my go-to roll out cookes because a) chocolate b) no chill variation c) yum) plus 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract).

Using graduated star cutters (I got mine at Home Goods. They're an imported brand, I think Italian?), cut two of each size for each cookie stack (3 of the smaller stars so you can put one on top)

Melt some white candy melts (I like the ones they sell at Candyland. They taste better and melt smoother) with a splash of peppermint extract (flavoing oil is better because it doesn't have water, but if the chocolate seizes, just add a little shortening or vegetable oil. The Candyland chocolate didn't seize, but the Wilton's did). Dip the face of the cookies in white chocolate, and stack to look like Christmas trees.

Add sprinkles if desired, and stand a star on top. Et voila. Christmas tree cookie stacks. A unique and fun way to give out cookies, and easy enough for the kiddos to help.

And you know, my stats for the year show that you guys are a lot like me, so don't ever hesitate to reach out. Facebook, Twitter, email. Do you have a fandom you want recipes for? Do you have a question about baking? Do you think I got something wrong? Do you just want to talk? I'd love to hear from you guys more.

Here's to more geeky, sugary goodness in the New Year. Happy 2014, lovelies!

Stuff and Things Christmas Edition

Life as I Know it
MERRY CHRISTMAS YOU GUYS!!!!

I feel like I've barely had the chance to breathe since last week. Holidays be cray. I thought I would have the time to crank out a little Christmas post on Wednesday, but no. I haven't even turned my computer on since last...Thursday? Friday? It's been a long week.

I GET MY CAR TODAY FINALLY!!! HOOOOOORAYYYYYY!!!!! Merry Christmas to me!

Did you guys get anything good for the holidays? My aunts have decided to enable my obsessions, and I got the Recipe Girl cookbook and a sampler of all-natural extracts (did you know that mango extract exists? Well I now own it. What do you think I should make with it?). Plus a Dr. Horrible/Doctor Who mash-up (Dr. Whorrible?) t-shirt because REASONS.

I also got a custom-art shopping bag designed by my super talented 6-year-old cousin AJ. Be jealous. (He loved my present-- a helicopter that transforms into a velociraptor. Luckily, the things I think are cool are things that 6-year-old boys think are cool. I had to tear myself away from the Avengers toys. I wanted the Captain America plushie)

And if you ever want to see a whirlwind of pure Christmas joy and destruction, let two 2-year-old boys loose on some wrapped presents. CC and little B are only one or two weeks apart in age, and they're totally already best friends. And when it came time for presents, the two of them just went completely bonkers. It was the funniest thing. Screaming, running, hands in the air, no present left undemolished. I can't even imagine what they were like Christmas morning with the presents from Santa.

I also made lots of homemade mixes for presents. I made my yellow cake mix (chai tea version), red velvet cake mix, and devil's food cake mix, along with this brownie mix, this hot cocoa mix, and I mixified this chocolate stout cake recipe for a beer-loving uncle.

I also made gingerbread for the very first time. I didn't actually have any, because I'm not a fan, but everyone said it was very good. Of course, they could have just been talking about the browned butter icing I slathered on top. :D

I don't normally do traditional cut-out cookies for Christmas, but I had some extra roll-out dough from something else I was making, so I broke out the cookie cutters. I didn't know what to do with the gingerbread men, so I used red sanding sugar and said they were red shirts. Because I'm a nerd, and if you understand that reference, you are too.

TV
Doctor Who- The Christmas special was...

Buffalo Chicken Dalek Pizza

Warning: If you haven't watched the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special, there will be spoilers.

Weeee, the 50th anniversary special was so cool!!! Although I will never not be mad that Christopher Eccleston didn't agree to be in it. I mean, David Tennant does a great wounded Doctor, but there was definitely a step missing between John Hurt and David Tennant. The Doctor, hardened by his loss. I think that would have been a truly beautiful moment. Plus, I would have loved to see him sass Matt. I think that Nine and Ten would have totally ganged up on Eleven. But Matt and David were brilliant together, and I wish this was something they could do more often.

Although I thought how they worked Billie Piper into the storyline was very deft and unexpected. I thought it was very well done, and I totally believe the Moment was actually Rose. If you think back to Bad Wolf, Rose controlled all of time and space for a single moment and she did that to save the Doctor. Well, there's an awful lot someone can do when they control all of time and space, and of course she would do what she could to help the Doctor. Every Doctor. So I don't think that the Moment chose Rose's form, I think that the Bad Wolf is the Moment. And there were no Moffat-sized plotholes, which made me happy. *cough* Angels Take Manhattan *cough.* It actually helped explain some of what happened in The End of Time, so yay!

My one problem: the vortex manipulator. Captain Jack still had it in Miracle Day. They could have had Jack pass it along to Kate or Clara with a grin and a wink, and then John Barrowman would have been a part of the special. No plothole, happy John Barrowman, happy fangirls.

And, okay, but I think that Clara should have had less of a role in it. Because she's such a new companion, and the only one really to be a part of it (Rose wasn't really Rose, you know?), it was almost not fair to past companions. And it's not like there were a lot of them they could conceivably work into the episode. It just feels like they forget about the previous companions a lot, and it should have been all or none, you know? But that's just a personal gripe; otherwise I loved it.

To celebrate, I put together a full Whovian menu. Bowtie pasta salad, fish fingers and custard, last minute jammie dodgers (aka, leftover sugar cookie dough I had in the fridge and blackberry jam), and the star of the show, dalek pizza. Buffalo chicken dalek pizza, to be exact. It was a huge hit, and super easy to make. I had some leftover pasta sauce, so I mixed it with some buffalo sauce. Then I made some shredded chicken and tossed it in more buffalo sauce. Then I assembled it to look like a dalek.

Just roll out the dough in a vaguely dalek-y shape (think hydrant) and use a sharp knife to clean up the edges. Sauce it, add the chicken, some red onions, and the mozzarella cheese. Then add the details. I used green peppers, golden tomatoes, diced celery, and cheddar cheese. Then use the dough you trimmed off to make the lights and eye stalk. Then just pop it in the oven, 450 degrees for about 15 minutes. That's it, kiddies: simple, easy, and effective.

This is the second one I made, since there was enough dough for 2. I think this one actually came out a little better, since I knew what I was doing.

There wasn't a scrap of this pizza left by the time we sat down to watch the special. Cookies were leftover, the salad, and the fish fingers, but this was gobbled up in no time. The spicy buffalo tomato sauce really makes it. I used extra mild buffalo sauce, so I got to play with the spice, adding some smoky chipotle to just get that extra, deeper layer of flavor. Then I added a little bit of cilantro, because I like it and it works really well with those spicier flavors. In short, it's some good pizza. You will want to EXTERMINATE it with your mouth.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza
Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients
6 tbsp prepared tomato sauce
2 tbsp. buffalo sauce
1/2 tbsp. chipotle hot sauce (optional)
1/2 tsp. cilantro paste
Pizza dough
Shredded chicken, tossed with more buffalo sauce (I used this method)
About 1/2 a small red onion, sliced thin
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Optional: bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, diced celery, cheddar cheese

Directions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Mix together the tomato sauce, buffalo sauce, hot sauce, and cilantro paste. Roll out the pizza dough on a pizza stone or cookie sheet (I didn't have to grease it, but you may want to), to your desired thickness. Spread your desired amount of sauce on top, then sprinkle with the shredded buffalo chicken and red onion. Top with the mozzarella cheese and any other desired toppings. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the edges start to turn golden brown, and the cheese is bubbly. Serve hot.

Recipe by Kim