Welcome to Thursday Art and Dinner Date! Today’s optional art prompt is “Elves”. Bugs is playing the role of Buddy the Elf today from the movie “Elf” starring Will Ferrell. There is such a great scene in that movie where Buddy is walking through Central Park and the tv cameras are capturing him for the news.
It’s a brilliantly funny scene where Will Ferrell is imitating the Patterson Gimlin film footage of Big Foot.
After watching the movie again, I found the scene I wanted to draw and sketched it out in my drawing pad. I outlined Bugs with a fine-tipped black marker and uploaded the image to my graphic design tablet. I fixed up the colors and the outline in Photoshop and transposed my elf onto a royalty-free background I found on Pixabay.
Rain Frances Art For Kids! Holiday Wreath
This week I’m sharing a drawing lesson I created for my YouTube channel Rain Frances Art For Kids!
Dinner Date: OMG A PIZZA OVEN!!!
Guess what Santa brought me early this year??? Yes. My dream come true, a pizza oven! It’s electric and it goes up to 850F and it comes with a pizza stone. It fits a pizza that’s no bigger than 12 inches in diameter. (For those in Canada, it’s President’s Choice brand. We got it at Atlantic Superstore; which is either Loblaws or Provigo in the rest of Canada. It was $250 on sale).
It’s been a learning curve though. We were following a recipe for traditional Neapolitan pizza. In a pizza oven, you are supposed to be able to bake this style of pizza at 810F for 60-90 seconds. Well, we tried and (photo NOT shown), the pizza caught on fire after 10 seconds. Kinda scary….but the fire went out as soon as we anxiously pulled the pie out of the oven. So we lowered it down to under 600F and it seems to be getting better. A little burned here and there, but wow…great pizza.
At about 575F, we baked the pizza for a minute and a half, then turned it and baked it for a minute and 45 seconds. That’s all it took! The signature of a great Naples-style pizza is the “leopard spots” on the bottom of the pizza….. a thin, soft middle layer of dough; and a nice airy, bubbly and crunchy crust – the “cornicione”. When we have it down pat, I plan to share a post and video about the entire process!
I received this book as a gift a few years ago and it is a great lesson in pizza making and pizza history.
The photo on the cover of the book shows a classic Naples-style Margherita pizza. I say “style” because there are actual formal (and legal) rules to follow to make an authentic Naples pizza, otherwise you are not legally allowed to call it that. Kind of the same as a cognac. It’s not a cognac if it’s not made in the Cognac region of France…you get the idea!
The Naples-style pizza isn’t heavy on the digestion. It uses less than half the yeast called for in North-American style pizzas; and much more water.
I’m learning a lot about the structure of the dough and how much hydration is needed to make a perfect pie!
They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Well, the way to my heart is through pizza! 🍕🍕
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That’s all for now folks! Please join us again next Thursday for Thursday Art and Dinner Date! Next week’s optional art prompt is: “Cheers”. If you’d like a heads-up, here is a list of all of the art prompts for 2025.
If you’d like to share your post, just link up below! We’d love to see your foodie post and/or your art post! Remember, the weekly art prompt is optional, we’d love to see any art you’ve created!
Enjoy your pizza oven 🙂
I like your elf art.
All the best Jan
Love your bunny elf
Happy pizza baking days
Much❤️💚love
Bugs the Elf looks cool.
Oh, a pizza oven. I’ve never seen one before.
Enjoy
Oh bugs, you’re such a good elf! I love your pizza oven. Hope you enjoy it for many years. Aloha!
Cute elf and yummy pizza. Wow on the oven.
WOW! If anyone needs and deserves a pizza oven, it’s YOU, Rain! I didn’t even know President’s Choice made these. Oh, the wonderful pizzas you are going to bake in 2025!
And speaking of 2025, your list of prompts ends at Dec 25/25. Is that deliberate or are you going to add prompts for the remaining week of next year?
Hey Debra! Thank you!!! The pizzas…oh and the weight gain….more of me to love!! ☺ I think the last Thursday of 2025 is the 25th, I’ll have to recheck my calendar! Thanks for bringing that to my attention. ♥