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Comfort Food Friday

1/13/2012

1 Comment

 
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Psst! Guess what- it's Friday!

Green Power Lasagna

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This lasagna is super good for when you need to eat more vegetables than you really want to. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE me some veggies, but these post holiday weeks have needed some serious greenage. There's still lots of gooey cheese and starchy noodle, but there's also zucchini, carrot, garlic, onion, mushroom, parsley, and arugula! Also, I don't cook my noodles beforehand, because that's how I roll. It works, I promise.
Ingredients

lasagna noodles
2 cups tomato or untomato sauce
1 1/2 cups mushrooms, chopped
1 large yellow onion, chopped small
2 cloves garlic, chopped very small
olive oil
3/4 - 1 pound mozzarella or chihuahua cheese, grated
2 cups ricotta cheese
1 big bunch Italian parsley
2 cups arugula
1 medium zucchini, grated
1 large-ish carrot, grated
3/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
salt and pepper
Directions

Cook onion in a skillet (cast iron, preferably) over medium heat.
When starting to brown, add mushrooms and garlic.
Once mushrooms have sweat a bit, add (un)tomato sauce and Italian seasoning.
Let it get all delicious-smelling, then stir in water and turn off heat.

Throw the parsley and the arugula in the food processor until it's in small bits, but before it looks like pesto. You might have to do this in a few batches.
In a pretty big mixing bowl, mix together ricotta, zucchini, carrot, half of the parmesan, and the greens you just processed. Salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 350.
In a lightly oiled 9 x 13 pan, spread a little of the tomato sauce before laying down the first layer of uncooked noodles.
Alternate between layers of the ricotta mixture and sauce w/ cheese until the pan is nearly full. End with a layer of sauce and top with the rest of the grated cheese and parmesan.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 min.
Then remove the foil and bake uncovered for an additional 20-30 min or until the cheese is beautifully browned.

Let cool a bit, or eat right away and burn your mouth (I usually choose the latter).

Time to Woop it Up!

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Have a Great Weekend!

1 Comment

Dal-icious Wednesday

1/11/2012

2 Comments

 

Would You Care for Some Soup, Dal-ing?

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Ok, two bad puns in a row, please forgive me!
This is probably my favorite soup, I really don't know why I haven't posted this recipe before.
Maybe 3 or 4 years ago, I decided that over the winter I would become an expert soup-maker. I tried to make a new soup each week. I mostly did, but I repeated this one a few (a bunch!) of times.
A couple of important notes-
I like to mix up my lentils, I often use a combination of brown and red. The different sizes cook at different rates, so if you're on a schedule, use some smaller ones.
The lentils should be soaked overnight (or just for several hours) before you make this soup.
Feel free to throw other veggies in here, the more the better (probably).
If your curry powder is already super turmeric-y, omit the additional turmeric.
Ingredients

4 tbsp oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
4 cups lentils
8-12 cups water (or broth/stock)
1 can coconut milk

juice of 1 lemon
a bunch of spinach or arugula
Directions

Heat oil in a large soup pot.
Stir in onions and cook until brownish.
Add in garlic, ginger, carrots, and spices. Cook for about a minute.
Add lentils and water, bring to a boil and simmer until lentils are soft (time will vary greatly depending on type of lentil)
Stir in lemon juice, coconut milk, and greens.
Salt to taste.

Serve over basmati rice if you wish.
Enjoy!
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This is 5's portion. A lot of it still ends up on the floor...

Singing to the Blocks

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Lately 5 and I have been all about the singing and dancing at home. I have yet to capture his sweet sweet moves on camera, but my favorite is a downward-dog-like move with 1 shaking/kicking leg. Such good stuff.
This series above shows 5 singing to his blocks (and a little bit to me). I'm not sure, but he may have been singing them to sleep- he tucked them all under the rug when he was done...
2 Comments

Let's Talk Butter

1/9/2012

1 Comment

 

Dutch Baby Goodness

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This is the pancake of all pancakes. When you need a breakfast, and I mean Breakfast, this is what you want. I call it a Dutch Baby, and that may be what it is, but mostly it's delicious.
This is what I ate on the morning of my wedding. 1) because your wedding day is kind of like your birthday, in that you should get to do and eat whatever you want, and 2) because I wasn't at all sure if I was going to get a chance to eat again that day.

This is also a cast iron only recipe. I guess there are other things that can go from stove top to oven, and I guess you could use them, but this pancake was made for a nice cast iron skillet.

I have experimented with switching out almost all of the 4 ingredients with varying success. You cannot mess with the eggs. Heavier/grainier flours work okay, but give it less loft (and fewer tasty bubbles, the bubbles always taste better, right?). Using non-dairy milk is ok, but it doesn't brown as nicely and you must then use a wheat flour. Nondairy milk + non wheat flour = not a good Dutch Baby pancake. Lastly, you could use margarine, but then really, what is the point?

Ingredients
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk (I use goat)
1/2 cup flour
2 Tbsp butter (I like it salted)
pinch nutmeg if you are so inclined

Preheat oven to 425
Heat cast iron skillet over medium heat
Beat eggs and milk together
Add flour, stir to combine (a few lumps are okay)
Put butter in skillet, allow to melt, but not to brown or smoke
Pour batter into buttery skillet and put the whole shebang in the oven on the bottom rack
Cook for 17 minutes
Serve!

This morning I covered this pancake with applesauce, but most of the time I like it with lemon juice and powdered sugar.
You could share, but I don't recommend it.
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5 approves

This week is going to be all about the cooking!
(The rest of them will have vegetables, I promise)

1 Comment

The Yoga Pants of Skirts Tutorial

1/6/2012

4 Comments

 
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So, I make a couple of different kinds of skirts for myself and I've had a few requests for a tutorial of some kind. Here it is! It's easy, it's changeable, it's everything to everyone! I made this from start to finish, including photography (which you can tell from my crazy white balances takes a LONG time), in under an hour. Easy.

Materials

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For this skirt you will need:
A shirt of any kind of stretchy material that you would like stretched across your bum that is big enough, when folded in half, to fit your pattern piece.
The pattern piece that I will show you how to make momentarily
super stretchy jersey at least 8 inches by the size of your waist (the long dimension should be the stretchiest direction of the jersey)
sewing machine
thread
scissors

How to Make Your Pattern Piece

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The piece above is obviously made from wrapping paper, but I also use freezer paper to make pattern pieces. You can use whatever kind of paper you want!
We're going to use the existing shirt hem for the hem of the skirt (yay!) so the bottom and top of your pattern piece will be parallel to each other. One side will be perpendicular to these as it will be placed on the fold of the shirt. So, as in the picture above, just one side of the pattern piece will be angled.
My pattern piece was 8 in across at the top, 11.5 in at the bottom and 16.5 in long. For the angled side I just drew a straight line from the top to the bottom measurement. I'm 5'3" and a size 4, so if you are significantly different, you'll want to adjust those measurements.

Cutting

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Now take your shirt, fold it in half, and make sure the side seams are lined up and the bottom edges are aligned.
Place your pattern piece with the straight long side on the center fold of the shirt (away from the side seams).
Cut around your pattern piece (don't add seam allowance, we're working with knits here!).
You can also cut out your waistband piece. Using a quilting square or some other way to measure and cut accurately, cut out a rectangle that is 8 in wide by however wide your waist is, making sure that the waist dimension is with the stretchiest way of the jersey. Don't add any length over and above your waist measurement, you could actually take an inch or so off if you like, you don't want the skirt to fall off!
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Your pieces should look like this. But maybe less wrinkly...

Sew it Together!

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Take your two skirt body pieces, place them right sides together, making sure to line up those bottom hems, and sew the first side seam! I use a 3/8 in seam allowance, but you should use what you're comfortable with, it's not a big deal.
When I'm sewing over the bottom hem, I sew perpendicular to the bottom of the skirt, disregarding our angled cut. That way the hem hangs straight when your wear it, not weird.
I use a plain old straight seam. Honestly, you don't need this seam to stretch at all, so no zigzagging. I do use a medium length stitch so it doesn't pucker.
When you're done with the first seam, do the other side.
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You should now have something that looks like this lovely trapezoid here. This is the time to make sure you can pull your skirt on over your hips and that it fits the way you want. Don't worry if it's not tight enough at the top, the waistband will change that.
If you want to make a change just redo the side seams until you're happy.
After you are pleased with the skirt body. Get out your waistband piece.
Fold it in half so the short sides are lined up, right sides together, and sew them together so you have a loop about the size of you!
Now take the two ends of the seam you just sewed and line them up WRONG sides together, folding the loop in half, giving you a 4 in wide loop with no exposed seam allowances.

Add the Waistband

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Find the middle point of the waist one of the skirt body pieces and lay your two seam ends of your waistband piece on top of it.
Using a narrow zigzag stitch and a wider seam allowance (I used 1/2 in) sew the waistband onto the skirt body.
You'll need to stretch the waistband fabric as you sew or you'll get some gnarly puckery gathers at the end. Stretch gently, but firmly and consistently, adjusting your tension as you go to make sure you end up with the proper amount of each fabric at the end.
Some people use pins.
That's not how I roll.
You now have a skirt! You can finish your seams if you want- serger, pinking shears, whatev. I don't usually do anything with cotton jersey, it doesn't fray.
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The End

Ha ha ha!
If you make this skirt, let me know what you thought! Better yet, share a picture!
Have a lovely weekend!
4 Comments

Coziness

1/4/2012

5 Comments

 

Look Ma, No Socks!

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We're doing our very best to be snuggly and cozy this week, although 5 DEFINITELY does not understand the link between wearing socks and NOT having icicles for feet...
In the spirit of coziness, I have a few things to share with you-

Mmmmm Quilty Goodness

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You may be thinking that this looks kind of familiar. Yeah, I *nearly* finished this quilt top way back when and it took me until Christmas to finally finish it! But! It is done now and just in time for a windy spell.
It is cold where I live. Not SO cold, but our house was (seemingly) insulated by a bunch of teenage boys with ADD so when it's cold and windy there are rooms where you can feel the breeze.... so new quilt=good.
A side note: you can see that we have a pretty serious brass bedframe in this picture. When my in-laws found themselves with some extra beds they asked us if we'd like one. I REALLY wanted this one just so I can sing that Bob Dylan song about laying ladies on his big brass bed. Ha, it never gets old, I'm chuckling right now.
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This is the quilt of all fiber dorkiness. It was my BIG Christmas prezzie for my Mom this year. I started work on it in September-
1. Dyeing the fabric
2. Screen printing the pieces
3. THEN making a queen-sized quilt out of it
Pretty awesome, it turned out almost exactly how I imagined. Thanks to Mom for taking a much better shot of her quilt than I did of mine...

Hot Drink With a Dumb Name

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I'm going to share the recipe for a drink I apparently didn't "invent" but more "discovered" as my husband claims to have invented the same drink 10 years ago. But I will point out that I'm the one who made up a dumb punny name for it.

Nocha (it's like a mocha, but with NOT coffee)
ingredients (to make 1 cup)

1 bag Roastaroma by Celestial Seasonings tea
2 Tbsp sipping chocolate mix OR
1 Tbsp cocoa and
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 mugfull boiling water
1/2 mugfull milk of choice (I've been using full fat goat, yum!)

I don't drink coffee and I'm not always in the mood for something as sweet as hot chocolate. The Roastaroma tea is great because it smell kind of like coffee, but is definitely not! This drink is hot, a little chocolatey, and not very sweet.

I boil some water in the tea kettle and then fill my mug with teabag up half way. I let it steep 5 minutes and then pull the teabag out.
Now it's time to add the sipping chocolate or cocoa/sugar mix. Make sure to stir in any lumps.
Add milk and drink! (Feel free to add whipped cream if you're feeling fancy...)
5 Comments

Handmade Holidays

1/2/2012

9 Comments

 

The Cats are Out of the Bags!

Whew! I hope everyone had a lovely xmas/new year's week! We returned home from our travels on Dec 30 and were SO glad to be in our own cozy bed again. Now that the holidays are past, I'm so excited to share some of my handmade gifts with you!
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This is the Black Apple Doll that I made for 5. Isn't it cute? I had such a fun time picking fabrics out of my (many) scrap baskets, and then agonizing over drawing a gender-neutral face. I think it's adorable. 5 thinks it's delicious. He likes to give it big kisses (and bites)- you may be able to see the gingerbread smeared on the chin... I also have to do some handstitching on the hair already. His little teeth have done quite a number on the hairline. If you want to make one yourself, you can download the pattern pieces and instructions here. You can also purchase an already-made, super nice one from the Black Apple Shop.
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This is our new rug. I made it. From old sheets. Yeah, it took a long time. No, 5 was NOT a big help. We worked on this every day for MONTHS and as much as I love how excited 5 was to crochet, he mostly just pulled stitches out which really sucked.
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I stored the rug in a transparent bin in the dining room all while I was making it. I was so sure that Fred had figured out what I was making, but he didn't! It was a surprise! On Christmas Eve morning, when we decided to do our little family gifties, I went downstairs first and laid the rug down in front of the tree. So great. I still have some pretty weird calluses from crocheting so much with that ginormous crochet hook for SO LONG....
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This is the mobile I made from the crocheted bracelets I talked about way-back-when. I love it! I got some kind of stove accessory to hang them all from for 25 cents from Vinnie's which was the full extent of my cash investment for this bad boy since I used yarn scraps and bracelets I bought more than 10 years ago. Yahoo!
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I think my favorite part was wrapping the metal with yarn though. I got kinda Zen about it. Good times. I was DEFINITELY in need of a little forced meditation in those last few days before xmas.
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Finally, I thought I'd share this Christmas Eve morning pic- it's not great, but I love that he's JUST opened his mittens (he figured out how to get them out of the toilet paper roll all by himself!) and some of my other handmade gifts are strewn about in front of him. I made the mittens from leftover fleece scraps, rick-rack, and fuschia ribbing, not even realizing that they would coordinate with his hat that you can kind of see at the bottom of the picture but can see better here. And of course I had to make him another pair of flannel pants with some Anna Maria Horner LouLouThi flannel (and Good Folks scraps for the cuffs).

Did you survive the holidays?
Make or receive any cool handmade gifts?

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    Author

    My name is Ansley Knoch. I am the creator of Rispok, a line of accessories for big and little people made from repurposed materials. I live in Madison, Wisconsin with my husband, Fred, and our son, also Fred, better known as 5.

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