Sweet Pea, etc.

Oh my blog, I haven't been ignoring you. I've just had a lot of things in progress and very little finished, and therefore nothing much to post. I've been working on matching striped raglan sweaters for my friend Sara, who's having twins (a boy and a girl) in October, although I set them aside while I worked on Sweet Pea, my version of Ysolda Teague's Gretel beret. I should mention that I'm not really so crazy with how this hat turned out. The cables were tedious (in hindsight, maybe I should've tried learning how to do them without a cable needle, as the pattern recommends), and this yarn (Rowan Summer Tweed) has terrible stitch definition. And also reinforced my distaste for cotton-y yarns. Someday when all of my WIPs are finished (haha yeah right), I'd like to redo this pattern with a lovelier yarn...something woolly and smooth and solid-colored. Until then, on to Avalon: yesterday I received 15 balls of RYC Cashsoft DK in a lovely pale gray, for knitting Ysolda's Coraline. I'm trying to convince myself to finish the twins' sweaters before embarking on my own, but it's that sweet sort of temptation that's so hard to resist. Like ice cream or kisses.

[ raveled. ]

Otherwise, I've just been watching a lot of movies lately. Today I finally got around to seeing The Dark Knight, which was incredible. And last week I signed up for Netflix, so I've been spending a lot of time filling my queue with old movies (like the Thin Man series and anything with Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, or Fred Astaire). If anybody has any movie recommendations, I'd love to hear them!

P.S. I shall be making these blueberry crumb bars quite soon...perhaps tomorrow! Rainy days are always good for baking, I think. And any day is good for blueberries.

Miss Adventure

This hasn't been a very recuperative weekend for me. I did a lot of running around yesterday, and today I had lunch & went antiquing with my cousin (one of the coolest people on the planet, fyi) and also took my big girl to the vet. And through it all, I managed to miss out on seeing The Dark Knight, my one big definite Plan for the weekend. I also didn't buy yarn for Gretel--well, not at my LYS, anyway. I ended up buying some Rowan Summer Tweed online last night. But I did find lots of yummy Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK--8 balls, in fact--for a couple of new baby sweaters. My friend Sara is having twins--a boy and a girl--due in October. Last night I started on the boy's sweater, and I'll start on the girl's as soon as I get an extra pair of size 6 Clover bamboo needles (coming with my tweedy goodness on Friday). Here's a sneak peak of the stripe pattern (on the girl's sweater, the red & teal will be swapped out for pink & purple):

Tonight I'm going to sleep for 12 hours. Well, maybe not quite that long, but definitely a good long while.

Is This Pizza?

Every time I make pizza, my sweetheart says the same thing: It looks nice, but it's not really pizza. Well, what else should I expect from an Italian? This time, however, I think I've come quite close to What Pizza Should Really Be. Sunday morning I was at the grocery store, dawdling in the pickle/olive aisle, and I spied with my little eye a jar of sundried tomatoes. Yum!! I instantly wanted to slap them onto the thin & crispy pizza crusts I'd found at Target a few days before. Anyway, so I backtracked to produce to pick up some fresh basil, and a couple days later...a pizza is born:


Now I'm off to my LYS to look for some Gretel-worthy yarn. Later this afternoon/tonight, I'm finally going to see The Dark Knight.

Little Stars

Ysolda Teague is a genius. I'd love to kidnap her brain for a day to help me with the technical-schmechnical side of pattern design (I've got no problems with the abstract design process...it's the nitty-gritty nuts & bolts stuff that makes my head spin). Anyway, I'd been taking an extended vacation from knitting and crafting in general. Half-finished knitting and embroidery projects are piling up in my living room. An Ysolda beret was just what I needed to pull me out of my slump (although now all I want to do is find a yummy pink tweed for knitting Gretel).

So here's Stelline ("little stars" in Italian), my version of Ysolda's Estella. I used Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran in #137 Empire and Silkroad Aran Tweed in #118 Dusk, 1 ball of each.

[ raveled. ]

Holy crap, The China Syndrome is on AMC! I haven't seen this in like 6 or 7 years!!

The Lazy Blogger Strikes Again!

This has been a torturous week so far. I feel like I'm being dragged through each day, kicking and screaming, wishing for the weekend to start Right Now. I'm having trouble sleeping, I've barely talked to my sweetheart, and work...ughhhhhhhhhh. So that's my excuse for not updating in the past few days. But coming up during my weekend: sundried tomato & basil pizza and a knitted hat. Maybe some other things too.

P.S. I'm on the hunt for a recipe for homemade applesauce (like from real apples and everything). So if you have one, please share!!

P.P.S. My nephew is turning sixteen on Tuesday, so I'm feeling really old. I remember when this kid was a baby and I used to push him around the house in a laundry basket (propped up by my stuffed animals, of course)!

Blueberry Crisp

After my success with the apricot crisp last week, I decided to try it again...this time with blueberries. I love blueberries. Love. Love. And when I saw a lovely pint of them at the grocery store on Sunday, I knew I had to try this recipe ASAP. And what a success it was!

Original recipe at smitten kitchen. Substitute apricots with about 1.5-2 cups blueberries (I only used 1.5 cups because that's all my baking dish would hold...this would definitely be better with more blueberries, though, so if the dish you're using is slightly larger, use the whole 2 cups). Also, I used cinnamon instead of nutmeg because I don't have any nutmeg. And I omitted the almonds because...gross. Last but not least, 30-40 minutes in the oven is ridiculous. Mine was done after 13 minutes. I think in the future I may bake it longer, but at a lower temperature (like 350), because the blueberries didn't have enough time to break down and release their juices (this wasn't a problem with the apricot crisp because the apricots were in pieces to begin with). I served this for dessert, warm with whipped cream (or vanilla ice cream).

Mushroom Lasagna

I've been trying to take better care of myself lately, head to toe (from using moisturizer on my face to wearing more supportive shoes on my feet). And a big part of this is eating better. To me, that doesn't necessarily imply eating healthier (although I'm trying to do that too)...it means to eat more natural foods with less processing and fewer unnatural ingredients (I'm not a big fan of artificial sweeteners, for example). So I'm trying to cook more. But nothing is more tiresome to me than a fussy recipe with lots of ingredients that I have to drive across town to find. That's why this lasagna is one of my favorite things to make. The most time-consuming part of this recipe is cutting up the mushrooms, but if you like big pieces of mushrooms you can totally skip it and have this whole thing done in 40 minutes (5 minutes for prep, 30 minutes in the oven, and 5 minutes to cool).

Mushroom Lasagna (serves 4-6, although my family of 3 managed to polish off the whole pan)

two 4-oz. (net drained weight) cans of pieces & stems mushrooms
two 10-oz. cans tomato sauce (use already seasoned sauce if you can find it, or add Italian seasoning)
4 oven-ready lasagna noodles
1 cup ricotta
3 cups mozzarella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drain mushrooms and chop them into smaller pieces, if desired. In a bowl, stir together mushrooms and tomato sauce (and Italian seasoning, if using). Grease a 9x9 square baking dish. Spread a thin layer of mushroom sauce on the bottom of the pan. Place a layer of uncooked noodles on top of the sauce (for this size pan, this is 2 noodles). Spread approx. 1/4 cup ricotta on each noodle. Sprinkle approx. 1 cup mozzarella over the noodles/ricotta. Spoon half of the remaining mushroom sauce mixture over the cheese, making sure to cover the corners/edges (this helps to prevent the noodles from drying out). Place another layer of uncooked noodles over the sauce, spread with remaining ricotta, and sprinkle with another cup of mozzarella. Spoon remaining mushroom sauce over the cheese, and sprinkle with last cup of mozzarella. Place baking dish on a cookie sheet (in case it bubbles over in the oven) and bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes, or until cheese starts to bubble and turn golden. Let cool for a few minutes. Rejoice at your impending feast.

Notes: The first time I made this lasagna, I mixed 1 can of pieces & stems with 1 can of portabella pieces. I wanted to do that again, because the portabellas give it a little bit of a "beefy" flavor, but I couldn't find them. But the lasagna is still delicious with just pieces & stems. For the noodles, I like to use Archer Farms whole wheat oven-ready lasagna noodles. I like the texture & flavor of whole wheat pasta, although if you know someone who isn't a fan (like kids?), this isn't a bad recipe for trying it out. You really can't tell the difference. Also, if you have regular (not oven-ready) lasagna noodles on hand, go ahead and use them. Cooking them is an extra step, but it doesn't change any of the other steps in this recipe. If you have a pan with rounded corners (like mine), another way to avoid dry corners (and make the noodles fit pretty perfectly) is to just snap the corners off! For the ricotta, I recommend the whole milk kind because ricotta lowfat & part-skim are so flavorless. And if 3 cups of mozzarella sounds like a lot...it is! This lasagna is extremely cheesy. If you prefer your lasagna to be less cheesy, sprinkle less cheese in each layer (although it's important to keep the number & order of layers the same).