Recipe: My Fabulous Margherita Pizza

Margherita Pizza

 

Ingredients:

• 6 Roma Tomatoes
• Mozzarella Cheese
• ¼ Teaspoon Garlic Powder
• ½ Teaspoon Minced Dried Garlic
• ½ Teaspoon Minced Refrigerated Garlic
• 1½ Teaspoons Salt
• Olive oil
• Basil
• Pizza dough
• Corn meal  

A few things to know before you start:

• You’ll notice I use a variety of garlics in my pizza. I like the flavor the mix gives versus just using one type. Feel free to substitute my variety with whatever you have. 
• My version of the margherita pizza has a lot of garlic and a lot of salt. I usually don’t measure it, but just dump in what I think looks right. You can try the tomatoes straight of the marinade to see if it is to your liking. 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees (or whatever your dough recipe or package says).

Wash your tomatoes. Slice them into approximately ¼” thick discs.

Combine about 1/8 cup of olive oil, tomatoes, salt, and garlic in a bowl. Let marinade while you continue on. Be sure to stir the tomatoes every few minutes while working on the crust because the oil and spices tend to drip down to the bottom of the bowl.

Spread a bit of corn meal onto your baking stone to help prevent stuck dough.

Roll your dough onto your stone.


 
Make a crust by rolling the edge of the dough.

 

Brush a thin layer of olive oil onto the dough. I like to sprinkle a little bit of garlic powder on top of the olive oil for a little extra flavor.


 
Spread about 1 ½ cups of the mozzarella cheese onto the pizza. I add a little bit of salt onto the pizza for more flavor.

Spread the tomatoes over the pizza. Pour the rest of the juice left in the bowl over the top.



Sprinkle about ¼ cup of cheese over the top of the pizza.

Pop it in the oven for approximately 12-18 minutes depending on the type of crust you used. You want to pull it out when the cheese is melted and the dough is golden brown.



Sprinkle basil over the top when it is fresh out of the oven. Cool. Slice & enjoy!

Sewbot's Favorites - July 18, 2010

My favorite recipe for summer!  Margherita Pizza.



Check back tomorrow and I'll share the recipe with you.

Yum! Sorbet!

Do you subscribe to Martha Stewart Living?  If so, pull out this issue.



It's the July 2010 issue.  Within it, there's a super easy recipe for raspberry sorbet.  All that's in it are berries, sugar, and water.  Simple! 

Jason and I have been making this tasty treat lately.  We've been substituting frozen mixed berries for the raspberries and leaving out the whipped cream. 



It's a super easy recipe.  As Jason's grandma would tell me, "even you could do it." 

We use our blender instead of our food processor.  Our food processor is too small to make a decent sized batch and the blender works beautifully.  So, pretty much you blend the berries, add the sugar water, and then freeze.  That's it! 

"All that work" and then you get these little tasty treats. 



We've recently upgraded our Tupperware stuff to Pyrex.  We have a combo pack from Walmart and a combo pack from Sam's Club.  The glass is easier to clean, doesn't melt in the microwave, freezes, and you can bake it!  What's not to love?

If you're looking to replace your gross old plastic containers, get the Pyrex combo pack at Sam's Club.  It's a few dollars more, but you get a lot more pieces.

Jargon of the Week - Jelly Roll

A jelly roll is a pastry, right?  Wikipedia says a jelly roll can be any of these things:

Swiss roll, a pastry

Jelly Roll Morton, a jazz musician

Jelly roll, a slang term for a lover, intercourse, or the sex organs

Jelly Roll (producer), in hip hop

Jelly Roll (protein domain), a protein domain structure of cylindrically-arranged Greek key motifs

Jelly Roll (battery), a cylindrical battery with layers of anode and cathode material, see battery (electricity)

Jelly Roll, an option strategy involving the buying and selling of forwards with differing maturities usually at a monotonically decreasing price

Jelly Roll, a set of 40 textile strips rolled up and tied in a bundle

Jelly Roll, a volume of poetry, see Kevin Young (poet)

"Jelly Roll", a song, see Blue Murder (band)

"Jelly Roll Gum Drop", a song, see Cruising with Ruben & the Jets

What are quilters referring to when they use the term jelly roll?  Well, it's similar to a charm pack in that it's a little bit of each fabric in a line packaged together.  A quilter's jelly roll is made up of a 2.5" strip of each fabric rolled up and packaged with a cute ribbon.  Here's a few fun jelly rolls:
 

Moda Lauren & Jessi Jung Botany Jelly Roll 2.5" 42 Piece

Moda PARK AVENUE JELLY ROLL Fabric Strips

Moda HALF MOON Jelly Roll 2.5" Fabric Strips

Moda 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS JELLY ROLL Fabric Strips

Just like I mentioned with the charm packs a few weeks ago, you can find all sorts of books and patterns to use with jelly rolls. 
















Scoop up a jelly roll for yourself and have fun with it.  For more (and free!) ideas visit the Moda Bake Shop.

Happy Bastille Day!

Just wanted to pop in and tell you all Happy Bastille Day! 

For those of you that may be curious about the Baby Bastille who I made this quilt for a few months back...

he came on Monday.  And he now has a real name.  Welcome to the world Logan!

And in case you're waiting for it... I'm still working on the quilt-along for this quilt and hope to have it up sometime relatively soon.  Like maybe next month.  I know I said July, but this girl got a little busy working on other projects.  So, look for it in August.  Hopefully.

365 Days of Free Motion Quilting Filler Designs

Have you seen this machine quilting website?  The website I'm talking about is called 365 Days of Free Motion Quilting Filler Designs.  It's awesome!  Each day (more or less) Leah shows you a picture of the new quilting pattern and explains a little about what it is a variation of or how she came to create the pattern.  Then, she gives you a short video of how she creates it.  She gives some tips on the level of quilter she thinks this is good for, where to use it, that sort of thing. 

I used the Echo Shell quilting pattern I found on this site to machine quilt part of the mini I told you about yesterday.

This website is a really great resource for anybody who likes to machine quilt their own projects.

The binding is on!

I can't show it to you yet. 

I am participating in the July Mini QT Swap.  The theme for this month is Beach & Underwater.  How could I pass up the chance to make a mini quilt in one of my favorite themes?

Before I mail it out to my partner, I need to make a label for the back.  I have a really fun idea, but I think I should keep it a secret until my partner gets it. 

I can't wait to share this one with you.  It has all sorts of machine quilting.  I think you'll love it, too. 

DQS9

I have my fabric all picked out for the DQS9.  What do you think, partner? 

Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my 26th birthday.  I'm feeling like I'm over the milestone... probably because I'm not in my early 20's anymore.  Yikes!

So, here's a project I've been working on lately for myself.  I'm using up a bunch of my scraps to make these.  I have fallen in love with English Paper Piecing!  I'm not exactly sure what it will end up as.  We'll see how long until I'm ready for something new.

Robot Quilt - Block #2

Robot Quilt Block #2.  I used a flying geese pattern I found online and used this tutorial to create the cirle.  Awesome, eh?




What do ya think?

Bee Block for Nikki

This is the block I made for Nikki in the KC Scrappy Bee. 



I started by using this online paper-piecing pattern for the flying geese.

That was all going just dandy until I got about 7/8ths of the way through.  I ran out of the white fabric.  And then I couldn't find anymore of it anywhere. Oh, no!  What's a girl to do?  Raid her mama's stash, of course! I'm lucky she often has the same fabric I do. Thanks mom!

So, I finished the block and decided I didn't love it.  There was way too much white. 

Then comes this tutorial.  What do ya think?  I think it turned out pretty snazzy.  I hope Nikki feels the same.

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone is having a safe holiday.  The weather here in Kansas City is a bit wet today.  Jason and I beat the sprinkles this morning and went for an early fishing trip.  I caught 2 drums; he caught 7 drums and 1 little cat fish.  It was fun to get out in the not-so-hot weather and play with my new reel.  We had a lot of fun.

We also went and saw Toy Story 3 today.  It is very cute.  I ate way too much popcorn!

We were hoping to head to Parkville's carnival & fireworks, but we'll see what happens with the rain.  Hope your 4th is filled with lots of fun and celebration!

The right way to thread a needle?

Did you know there is a right way to thread a needle?  I didn't either.  I learned this trick at a recent guild meeting.  Want to learn it, too?  Read on....

Pull the thread from the spool.  Cut the thread to the length you want it to be.  Thread the FRESHLY CUT END through the eye of the needle.  Fantastic isn't it?  No more annoying fraying. 

So, why does it work?  It has to do with the way the thread is made.  There is one strand that acts as a core for the thread.  The other strand(s) coil around the core strand.  When you thread a needle using the old cut, it is separating the strands.  When you use the fresh cut end, it slides right on like magic. 

Cool trick, eh?  I also learned that there is a right and wrong way for pulling the thread off the spool so it doesn't twist up on itself.  I haven't quite figured that out yet.  When I do, I'll be sure to share it.

Jargon of the Week - Charm Pack

What on earth is a charm pack?

A charm pack is an easy way to get a sampling of each fabric in a fabric line.When you buy a charm pack, you get at least one 5" square of every fabric that is included in the line.  It's a fun way to buy a little of a lot of different things that are already paired together. 

Here are a few fun charm packs:

Moda HAPPY DAISY 5" Charm Pack Fabric Squares

Moda HALF MOON 5" Charm Pack Fabric Squares

5" MAKE LIFE Moda Fabric Squares Charm Pack

Plume Charm Pack - Tula Pink for Moda Fabrics

Frolic Charm Pack - Sandy Gervais for Moda Fabrics

Another fun thing about charm packs is there are a ton of books and patterns available to make some really cool projects.

Here are a few that catch my eye:













You can find free patterns for projects using charm packs at the Moda Bake Shop.