Pizza Stones, a Duke, and Loop Starts
Loyal subject of His Royal Highness, the Pineapple
Happy Monday!
How was your weekend? Mine was filled with cross stitch and sheet pan pizza. (Not at the same time though!)
Have you ever made pizza at home before? My Mother has used the same pizza dough recipe for about forty years, and every time it turns out deliciously amazing. A few years back, my Mother and I went shopping at a thrift store and found one of the most amazing finds ever… a pizza stone! It was there on a shelf, and didn’t cost an arm and a leg! And it’s true, the pizza stone really does make a nice, crispy pizza crust.
Pepperoni pizza is my favorite, but I’m also rather fond of pineapple pizza. Some of you may gasp as you read this, but it’s my controversial food opinion, and I’m sticking to it! After all, the king of fruit likes pizza too. Naturally, pineapple is the king of fruit; he’s got the green crown to prove it!
WIP Updates
Pleased to report another page finish on Medieval Menagerie!
I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I thought the backstitch on this band would go by quickly, and I was right. It just zoomed by! But I really enjoy backstitch, so maybe that made it go fast as well. And doesn’t that backstitch just give it a certain something? The delicate lines really balance out that dragon band above it, and gives the eye a different texture to look at. I decided to backstitch with one strand instead of two strands of floss, and I’m pleased with that decision.
As you can see from the bottom right, I’ve made a start on band number five. This band is quite a bit larger than the other bands up to this point, and has two stags and lots of what appear to be Tudor roses. Or they could be normal roses. In any case, this band is big, and I can’t wait for the first stag to appear!
Next up on stage is Paris Market.
Oh so much green. I think my strategy for this week will be to fill in some of those blank spaces around the yellow flowers. Then I can fill in some of those gaps in the middle of all that green just above that red flower near the bottom.
Do you use the loop start method? I use it, and let me tell you, it saves so much time, and still secures the floss nicely. I find myself either using the loop start or the pin start method when I begin my floss. That’s one of the really fun things about watching stitch with me videos; you get to see how people start and end their floss!
Odds & Ends
Pizza science! Trust me, pizza stones are amazing | The Real Reason You Should Cook Pizza On A Pizza Stone | From the article:
Since most of us don't have the luxury of having backyard wood-fired ovens, home pizza cookers are probably working with a conventional oven or an outdoor grill. Unfortunately, according to Pizzacraft, home ovens and grills "lack the initial high heat" for crispy-crust perfection, while a pizza stone enables immediate "high heat transfer," like you'd find in an old-school brick oven. So, after preheating the stone, the pizza dough instantly comes into contact with a high-temperature surface, which crisps the crust, enables quicker cooking, promotes a more even distribution of heat, and creates overall more consistent pizza making results.
Someone shared this with me recently, and it blew my mind:
Can you imagine what this conversation went like? “Dear club owners, do you think you could install a mounting stone for me? Cheers- the Duke of Wellington.” | The Duke of Wellington’s Mounting Stone
Finally, some music for this Monday afternoon/ evening: