How about a pizza for the night ?

Working and working and working on my projects almost everyday.  I decided to break away and enjoy my baking today.

I remember having this gourmet pizza with smoked salmon toppings at one of Soul Out snack bar the other day.  I just can’t wait to make that pizza again.  But I want to make an all-in-one seafood pizza with large prawn at one side and baked salmon at the other side.

After a day preparing my dough in advance, here is my savory seafood all-in-one pizza.

For smaller portion thin crust smoked salmon pizza, you can try my recipe below J

·         1/2 cup warm water (100° to 110°)

·         1/2 teaspoon dry yeast

·         2 tablespoons olive oil

·         1/4 teaspoon  salt

·         6 ounces bread flour (about 1 1/4 cups)

·         Olive oil for the baking pan

·         1 tablespoon yellow cornmeal (optional)

·         1 tablespoon capers, drained

·         4 (1/8-inch-thick) slices red onion

·         3 ounces cold-smoked salmon, thinly sliced

·         1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill

·         Black pitted olive

·         1/3 cup mixed parmesan and mozarella cheese

Preparation

1.      Combine 1/2 cup warm water and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer with dough hook attached; let stand 5 minutes or until bubbly. Add oil and salt to yeast mixture. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Sprinkle flour over yeast mixture; mix 2 minutes or until a soft dough is formed. Place dough in a covered container coated with cooking spray; cover surface of the dough with plastic wrap that is lightly coated with olive oil. Refrigerate 24 hours.

2.      Remove dough from refrigerator. Shape it into a ball, covered and let stand for an hour or until dough comes to room temperature and doubled in size.

3.      Preheat oven to 550°. Put the dough onto the baking that is coated with a good amount of olive oil, Punch dough down. Roll dough out to a very thin 14-inch, without raised edges. Crimp edges to form a 1/2-inch border. Pierce dough several times with a fork.

4.      Put the baking pan into the oven, bake for 4 minutes. Remove from oven; spread cheese evenly over dough. Arrange capers and onion over cheese. Bake an additional 5 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Top evenly with salmon, black olive and chopped dill.

 Relax and enjoy !!

How to choose the right batting for your bag project ?

Choose thickness based on size of your project counts !

It is very much depends on the size of the bag.  If your project is going to be big, you will need thicker and more compact batting to provide a sturdy support to your big bag.

However, use a thinner batting for your small projects like pouches, pencil cases etc. The thinner batting is enough to provide good support to your small pouch at the same time presenting very neat result (not bulky and heavy).  Apart from that, thinner batting makes it easier for your to bind the pieces together. 

Below are photos of thick and thing batting.

Thick batting

Thick batting

Cotton or polyester batting ?

Polyester batting normally produces better support compared to cotton batting when making bags.  


When making 3 D flowers ?

If the instruction calls for batting, always use thinner batting.  Thicker batting will make your flower looks very heavy and lifeless.  Or another way is to use thick fabrics for your 3 D flowers, you don't need to use batting at all.

When you can’t find thick batting at your place?

Well, you can use 2 thin batting together, just perform more quilting to your project.  Quilting allows your work to becomes more sturdy.

Below :  I use thin batting for this Sunbonnet Sue pouch below, see the background is quilted with beautiful square to provide further support to the thin batting of this project. 

(If you are looking for this beautiful sewing pattern, please visit my Etsy shop at the link below

    https://www.etsy.com/listing/162123330/make-your-own-sunbonnet-sue-pencil-case?ref=listing-shop-header-0  

When making big quilt project that requires larger batting

Simply bind the pieces together using your sewing machine.

Another funny idea, not for commercial use

This was suggested by my quilting friends in Taiwan.  For certain countries, some of you may not be able to buy batting that easily.   There is a good way for your to save your batting by binding the smaller pieces together.  Some of my friends used the batting as the cotton for varnishing their nail color.  Hahah..  I pretty love this no wastage, stay green idea.

But for this method, I would suggest you to use the batting for personnel use only.  ^v^