Howdy y'all! When I started The Quilt and Needle, I really wanted it to be an "online quilting pub" - with great friends, awesome quilting, and yummy food ideas.
Over the years, we've had tons of phenomenal quilters come and go, making lasting friendships along the way. We've enjoyed crazy-cool patterns and grown together in our quilt-making abilities, seeing many of our novice quilters go professional and start to make a name for themselves out in the quilty world. (Jami, Lizzie, Dorian, Nikki, and Cindy... to name a few.)
I'd like to start adding some foody stuff here. All my life I've had a love affair with food - I love to putter around in my garden and my kitchen, making new foody stuff for my friends and family. I've traveled around a bit, and I'm addicted to trying new foods.
Recently, when I was diagnosed with a not-so-fun autoimmune disease, I was given the choice of starting a drug that is known to cause cancer OR go on a very strict, quite radically healthy diet. For me, that is a no-brainer. My diet didn't cause my illness, but it may be the key to dealing with it sans cancer pills. Frankly, I'd rather eat grass than take those pills, so there you have it.
I'm afraid the foody stuff I'll post about won't be very pub-like, but I've got some great recipes, some awesome tips, and a lot of healthy eats to share. Diving right in, here's a pizza recipe that I really enjoy:
Ingredients:
100% whole grain pizza crust
1/4 cup pizza sauce
five cherry tomatoes, halved
1/8 red onion, thinly sliced
2-4 artichoke hearts, quartered (I like the small jars of marinated, quartered artichokes)
1 small bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup fresh chopped pineapple
crushed red pepper to taste
1-2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (use a low fat pizza cheese here if you prefer)
(Optional: add a bit of lean chicken breast or turkey bacon)
Carefully spread the sauce on the crust, then add all of the toppings except nutritional yeast. Cook according to crust directions (I like mine directly on the rack for 8-12 minutes). Place under the broiler for a couple of additional minutes to really make those veggies taste snazzy. Carefully remove the pizza from the oven, and add the nutritional yeast while hot. Slice and serve. Nummy.
Piece out,
Jess
