Packs, Punkins and Pizza

Last year I purchased two charm packs from Fabric.com. They were both Moda fabrics, one was the Nell's Flower Shop collection and the other the Sonnet collection. I really liked the color combinations of both collections and thought the idea of having a 5" square from every fabric in the collection was really neat. Plus I really like working with such nice fabric. I think I've already mentioned on this blog how much I rue that I am relegated to Joann fabrics due to funding constraints. It's nice and everything but quilt shop fabrics like Moda and Robert Kauffman are simply luxurious! Anyway, I just knew I would one day find something fun to do with the charm packs. Well, that day has arrived. On Wednesday I was browsing through some of my favorite crafty blogs when somehow I happened upon this tutorial for a disappearing nine-patch quilt. It is so ridiculously easy I nearly finished it in one afternoon! I absolutely dig the quilt top. Of course I haven't quilted it or put the binding on it. I figure that that will get done next year or the year after considering my history with quilts getting finished. Hey, since the last quilt I started ended up getting finished for Lily a year and a half after I started it, maybe this quilt will be finished just in time for the next baby!

Speaking of Lily the other day Ella snapped this photo of little "L" smiling at us. She is the smiling-est baby I've had so far.

OK, the last exciting thing I have to tell you about is that I have found the "pizza light". Have you guys ever watched Good Eats on FoodNetwork? That is my absolute most favorite show on television. Sounds crazy, right? Well, I like Good Eats because Alton Brown explains the science behind cooking and I really like to know why you do certain things to certain ingredients so I can apply it next time I'm using that technique or ingredient or whatever. So, one day I was watching the episode on pizza and Mr. Brown said that the key to good pizza is good crust and I heartily agree. He advised that to make a good crust you must make the dough 18-24 hours in advance and let it rise that entire time in your refrigerator for optimum flavor and tenderness. So, trusting Alton Brown implicitly with all my food I made pizza dough and let it rise for 18 hours in my fridge. I kid you not I've never had pizza that good!!! It was better than Pizza Hut, better than any pizza joint I've ever been to! It was simply divine! You know when you get a pan pizza from Pizza Hut they put 4 gigantic squirts of OIL in the pan so the crust is FRIED (thank Mike for the info Meagan)??? YUCK! Since I found that out I haven't been able to down a single bite of pan pizza. And also, most pizzerias smother their pizza with sugary sauce and barely any cheese or toppings. I put just the right amount of my own sugarless pizza sauce on my pizza and all the toppings and cheese I wanted. My crust was not soaked in icky oil, it was light and fluffy and oh so flavorful! I highly recommend Alton Brown for a culinary education and making your own super duper yummy pizza dough. I did not use Alton's recipe for pizza dough because 1) the recipe I like uses honey and not refined sugar, 2) it uses more yeast (I actually use less than that but more than Alton) and 3) he says to use bread flour and I just don't have the time or space for more than one type of flour.