Monthly Archives: August 2012

Aug12

Weasley Blanket

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I made a small blanket for Elijah when he was about four, and it came out as a distorted parallelogram.  If any of you use Photoshop, you know exactly what this looks like.

When I frogged it out it became a pile of small balls of worsted weight acrylic yarn, which I never use any more.

Now I hardly ever go to movies.  I think it’s because I watch them so much on my laptop that I get used to having a (mostly) purely cinematic experience.

Watching a movie in any of our local theaters is sort of like seeing them at a bus stop.  I just find it hard to tune out all the cell phones, the conversation in the seats behind me, the feet up on the seat next to me, etc., etc.

So one weekend I decided to catch up with the rest of my family by watching ALL the Harry Potter movies back to back.  By the time it was over I was sure I had been living at Hogwarts for two days.

Ron in his room at Hogwarts

every boy needs a blanket.

Then somehow when I was trolling my usual sites I came across a wonderful project by Jackie Wierzbicki— The Ron Weasley Blanket.

You can read about her journey at http://penguineerspurls.blogspot.com/2011/12/potter-pattern-done.html.

So I found yet another destash project, this time using those orphaned balls of worsted.  I’m averaging about three squares a week and hope to finish this by the time Eli needs a blanket on his bed.

I ran out of stitch pins, so I substituted whatever circular needles were hanging around, just transferring the squares and letting the needle tips dangle on either side.

I also had a hard time keeping up with where I was, since I didn’t QUITE have all the colors I needed in progress (Ravelry, Listia and eBay to the rescue, of course) so I stuck the squares up on the wall with pushpins.

My daughter likes the look of this, so I told her for my next project I will knit her a wall.

 

Aug11

Eggplasagna

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Eggplant is just an amazing thing.  I love it breaded with cornmeal and fried, or made into a casserole with bread crumbs or even in chili.  But this may be my favorite way yet.  It makes being wheat-free a little more happy.

INGREDIENTS:eggplant
Olive oil
1 Vidalia onion, chopped
1 T. minced garlic
1 lb. fresh ground meat (pork, beef or turkey)
Seasoned salt to taste
1 T. chopped parsley
1 jar prepared pasta sauce (I used Classico Tomato & Basil)

1 large eggplant, peeled and diced
1 lb. sliced fresh mushrooms
1 large bag clean fresh spinach
1 c. grated parmesan
4-6 slices provolone (enough to cover pan)
2 c. grated mozzarella

Heat 2 T. olive oil in skillet and saute onion with garlic until onion is soft. Transfer to LARGE bowl (you will be adding other stuff to this).

In same skillet, brown ground meat until pink is gone. Drain fat if necessary and stir in seasoned salt and parsley. Add to bowl with onion and garlic, add jar of pasta sauce and stir until mixed well. This is your kitchen gravy and it’s great with pasta or French bread, too. But back to the plan.

Prepare a 9” x 13” pan. I lined mine with foil that I then sprayed with cooking spray.

Put enough gravy in the pan to cover the bottom and reserve the rest for the top.

Back to that skillet. Heat more olive oil if necessary, add eggplant and stir occasionally until eggplant begins to sweat and soften. Spread out on top of gravy in 9” x 13” pan. Layer mushrooms on top of this.

This is the last thing for the skillet: the spinach. It will be a huge pile but as it cooks it will shrink down to nothing. I promise you. Once the spinach is wilted and soft, stir in the parmesan cheese. Then spread this on top of the eggplant and mushrooms.

Cover with a layer of provolone cheese.

Then cover with the rest of the kitchen gravy.

Top with mozzarella.

You can put this straight into the oven or stick into the fridge and heat up later.  Either way, it takes about 30-40 min in a 350 degree oven.  You might need to turn on the broiler to brown the cheese on top if you’re in a hurry and you like it that way.

Serves four hungry people, more if you add sides/and or bread.  We had fresh corn on the cob with ours.