Roasted Butternut Squash Lasagna

Any Downton Abby fans out there? Season 4 started this evening, and we were so looking forward to it. We didn't discover the series until the last episode of Season 2, so we bought the DVDs and got caught up before Season 3 started. We loved it from the first episode. It astonishes me how popular it's been. Now there's a quilt fabric line for Downton Abby, and I came across a book of knitted garments for it also.

We are supposed to get more freezing rain tonight, but the high tomorrow is supposed to be 45. Must be the January thaw. Too bad it's only going to last one day. The low tomorrow night will be 8 degrees. If you haven't already figured it out, I love Weather. A Weather Geek, as another blogger once told me.

My husband does most of the cooking at our house because I've hated to cook since I was a kid, but once in a while I get the urge. This afternoon I made a pot of spaghetti, which we haven't had in ages, for supper tomorrow night; and we also made a roasted butternut squash lasagna for supper tonight. My favorite knitting pal shared some absolutely fabulous butternut squash gnocchi a month or so ago, and I've had butternut squash in my head ever since.

The recipe came from the Oct 12, 13 issue of the little Parade magazine that comes in the Sunday paper. I stashed it away in my pile of recipes and came across it a couple days ago, so decided to try it. It was so good! Here's the recipe. It's also available free online if you google it. One note: we cut this recipe in half, baked it in a bit smaller baking dish (8 x 11?), made two layers instead of four, and it was enough to serve 5 or 6 people. We had it with Caesar salad. Also, I didn't use a food processor to puree the squash. I just used a potato masher and a wooden spoon to mix in the milk.

Roasted Butternut Squash Lasagna

Ingredients

• 1 large butternut squash (about 4 lb) cut into ½-inch pieces
• 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 5¾ cups milk, divided
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 7 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 7 Tbsp flour
• 12 no-boil lasagna noodles
• ¾ lb fresh mozzarella, sliced ¼-inch thick

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Toss butternut squash with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Divide between 2 parchment-lined baking sheets. Roast, rotating trays halfway through, until tender and golden, about 40 minutes.
2. Transfer to a food processor along with ¾ cup milk, thyme, and ¼ cup water. Puree.
3. Make white sauce: Melt butter over ­medium heat in a medium saucepan, then whisk in flour and cook, whisking constantly, until tan, about 5 minutes. Slowly whisk in remaining 5 cups milk and cook, whisking, until thickened, about 10 minutes. Season with 2 tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper.
4. Spread about ½ cup white sauce evenly across bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Top with 3 noodles. Dollop 1 cup squash over noodles and use the back of a spoon to carefully spread into an even layer, covering ­noodles completely. Top with 1 cup sauce, using back of spoon to spread evenly. Repeat the noodle, squash, and sauce layers 3 more times.
5. Arrange mozzarella slices on top and ­season with pepper. Cover with foil; bake 50 minutes. Increase heat to 475°F, remove foil, and bake until mozzarella is golden in spots, 5 to 10 more minutes. Let stand at least 15 minutes before serving.

Knitting Finishes

I've been doing a lot more knitting than quilting the last several months, and I finished this sweater this morning--for the third time. I tried a loop and button for the closure but didn't like it, so I ripped out the trim around the neck and reknit it with the tie.

This is the V Neck Cardigan from Knitting Pure and Simple, top down, pretty easy to do. The yarn is Berroco Remix, a blend of cotton and silk with a tweedy effect and very nice to work with. Last spring or summer I  took a class at my LYS called "Knit Your First Garment". We made a vest with a chunky cotton, so it was quick to knit, and I learned a lot, but it really doesn't fit well because it's too big. This is my first knit sweater, and it fits just right. I'm tickled.

The pattern for the Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket was nutty to follow because I adjusted the size. The pattern was confusing in the first place, but trying to figure out the stitch count for the alternate size made my head hurt. Nevertheless, it turned out very nicely, although it's probably sized to fit an elf.

I used Noro Silk Garden, which I think is awfully itchy, but the colors are every bit as intense as they look in the photo. One of my knitting pals made a scarf in Noro Silk Garden, and it was considerably softer than this sweater, so it must soften with use or perhaps laundering.

I'm tempted to make one of these in an adult size for myself, but Zimmerman only gives you a vague description of the math involved to make one, so it seems you have to write the pattern yourself, which might make my head explode.

The Quick Slip Cowl, which takes about 10 minutes, is knit with Berroco Brio, a chunky weight yarn. It doesn't really take 10 minutes, but it's a pretty fast knit. I've never been much of a scarf person, but it's been arctic in the northeast and getting colder still, and it's very nice to have a bit more warmth around my neck.

I finished the Leftie scarf, by Martina Behm, well before Christmas. I used an Ella Rae Lace Merino in a sock weight plus a purple sock weight yarn for the leaves. This is a fun little scarf to make and wear, and making them is getting to be an addiction with the ladies I knit with at the yarn shop. One of my pals has made three, another pal is finishing up her second and is starting a third, and I'm getting ready to start another as well.

I've had one of these patterned socks done for quite a while and finally finished the second one the other day. I forget which book they were from, but they weren't as hard to knit as I thought they would be. Making a patterned sock was on my bucket list--mission accomplished. I started a grey pair too and also have one more sock to go. Next up on the sock bucket list is toe up.

My LYS also offered a class for Dreambird, so I took that one too. It's been slow going because I was trying to finish up other projects. So far I have eight feathers done. I think the pattern calls for 28, but I suppose you can do as many as you want.

I don't think the pattern is particularly well written (but English is not the author's primary language), but neither do I think it's terribly difficult. It only took a couple of feathers to get the hang of it; but after 8 feathers I can watch tv but not carry on a conversation. I used a fingering weight yarn with alpaca in it for the main color and a Mille Colori for the feathers. It's interesting to see that the two colors in the yarn are alternating every other feather. An interesting pattern indeed.

Happy New Year



Happy New Year to all. Hard to believe another year has come and gone. The month of December went by in a flash because there was so much to be done to get ready for Christmas.

The weather was no help either. The northeast was hit with an ice storm Christmas week, and we were without power from Monday noon til about 7:00pm Christmas Eve. I was thankful to get it back then, and many others spent Christmas Day without power. We have a generator, which allowed us to have some essentials--heat, a few lights, frig, freezer, microwave and internet, but our activities were still quite limited. I spent many hours knitting contentedly. We had lots of down tree branches in the yard, but thankfully no damage to the house or to the garage.

It's also been extremely cold here in Maine, the coldest temperatures we've seen in years. We've had another foot of snow since the ice storm, and the last several days have been near zero. Tonight they are predicting a low of 10 below zero.

I finished part of Part 1 of Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice mystery and never really got back to it. Hubby came home two weeks before Christmas and said that his team at work adopted a family to help out for Christmas, and did I have a quilt I could donate. Uh, no. The father was a disabled Marine Corps vet, and no one on the team was shopping for the father or grandmother, just the kids; so I took that as an opportunity to make a Quilt of Valor for this man, something I'd wanted to get involved in for a long time. 

I made this quilt from start to finish in 6 days. The center of the quilt is a pre-printed panel, so it was just a matter of piecing the star blocks and adding multiple rounds of borders. I spent a few days sewing the top, a day quilting it on the longarm, and a day finishing up the binding. I was so pleased with the way it turned out, and I plan to make some more Quilts of Valor. I have one more pre-printed panel for another quilt like this one, then I'll be using some other patterns. Fons and Porter puts a Quilt of Valor pattern in each issue of their Love of Quilting magazine, so I have plenty to choose from.

I quit making New Year's resolutions years ago because I never keep them, but there are a few things I'd like to do this year, along with making a few more QOVs. I'd like to finish up a few more quilts from the perpetual UFO list, make a few quilts from a list of quilts I've been wanting to make for years, make some miniature quilts, and get a little smarter with EQ7.

I'd also like to finish up ALL of my knitting UFOs. I promised myself when I started knitting that I wouldn't stash shop and have a bunch of knitting UFOs--hah! didn't happen. But I do LOVE it all. I added another list in the sidebar for my knitting projects, mostly for myself so I can keep track of what I've gotten done during the year.

Hope everyone has a happy, prosperous, and healthy new year!

Credit where credit is due: "American Valor" designed by Nancy Rink.

Celtic Solstice Part 1

Autumn is always a very busy time of year for me, and this
year was no different. We grappled with health issues in the family, some of which have been resolved, some not. Fall classes started up in September at my Local Yarn Shop, so I've been doing lots of knitting. Hubby sided the house this summer with cedar shingles, and that work had to get finished before winter. We had 9 cords of wood to cut, split, and stack; and there was the fall clean up in the yard.

All in all, not a lot of quilting has gotten done since August. I did finish the Turning Twenty quilt (renamed Rainbow Jungle), and I think that's the last project I worked on seriously. I've tried to get back into my sewing, but nothing really moved me. . . until Bonnie Hunter sent out a newsletter that her annual mystery was starting at the end of November. Nothing like a good Bonnie Hunter mystery to get you back in the swing of things!

So far I've only made 30 of 92 orange-blue triangle units for Part 1. I'm taking my time because I am experimenting with each of the four methods Bonnie mentioned in the first clue--using the Inklingo software to print on fabric, using the Inklingo software to cut templates, foundation piecing, and cutting out pieces using the TriRecs rulers. The units I pieced with Inklingo went together Perfectly, but foundation piecing is my preferred method right now. I'm cutting slightly oversized shapes with the TriRecs rulers, then paper piecing them. Extra work, I suppose, but I'm enjoying it instead of stressing whether or not they'll finish to the right size, and I'm really not in any hurry.

Bonnie didn't disappoint with her colors for the Easy Street Mystery last year, nor with the Lazy Sunday Mystery in Quiltmaker magazine, in January; so I decided to go with her color choices again this year. I am Lovin' the orange-blue combination so far.

See what other mystery quilters are doing on Bonnie's blog here.

We had a little snow yesterday, an inch or so, and it was a gray, cold, raw day today--a perfect day to stay in and sew.

August Finish

I haven't sewn a thing this week except a handful of border units for the Lazy Sunday mystery. I'm still not finished with Part 3, but all I have left to do is the border units, and I have nearly 60 left to make. I've done all the cutting for Part 4 though, so once I finish the border units, I'll be able to start sewing the top together.

This is not the final layout. There's a row missing across the bottom (because it wouldn't all fit on the design wall), and there's sashing that goes in between the blocks.

I want to have the top completed by the end of the month.

The Curvy quilt is now quilted, bound, and labeled. My quilt chapter has decided to do it as a workshop, but not until next year, so I have some time before I have to start on the second one.

The Turning Twenty has been quilted as well but I'm still working on hand stitching the binding. One side done, three to go.

The fabric I used on the back was one of those what-was-I-thinking purchases, and I think I bought 10 yards of it. It actually worked out well for the back of this quilt, and I got rid of 6 yards. It was called Rainbow Jungle on the selvage, which I think is a pretty good name for the quilt.

This pantograph from Linda Taylor was the most jungle-y looking design I had, so I used it for the quilting.

I plan to have this one done by the end of the month too.

The Bugs in a Jar strippy was quilted with a dragonfly pantograph. Such a cute print for a kid's quilt, and I love the bright colors. The back is a lime green flannel. I've got another one of these made up, only with yellow strips where the orange is. I never get tired of these strippys, and they are all donated.

I doubt I'll get the binding on this one done by the end of the month.

Credit where credit is due: Curvy designed by Mark Lipinski, from Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting May/June 2013

Reader Problems. . . Again

I am SO annoyed that, after I hunted down another blog reader before Google Reader ceased to exist on July 1, the new web based blog reader I chose is also threatening to shut down. I went with The Old Reader, because it was the most like whoever I used before Google Reader (can't even remember now who that was). When GR shut down, about 2000 people migrated to TOR, overloaded their system, threw their lives into utter chaos; and less than a month later, they're threatening to dump all the new users unless some other entity takes over the reader. It just figures I would pick them!

Since blog readers seem to be dropping like flies, I exported all my feeds to Bloglines AND Feedly (I thought a backup might be a good plan), but it's getting to be a chore to keep finding new readers. Not to mention that I'm having more than a little trouble navigating the new readers and managing my blogs. I suppose I'll figure it out eventually. Enough already!

Monday Sew Day

I finished all 23 green and purple blocks today, and I'm done with Part 2 of the Lazy Sunday mystery. Yay! My goal was to get that done by the end of the month. I got the latest issue of McCall's Quilting in the mail today, so that tells me Quiltmaker magazine will probably arrive within the week, and that issue will show the last part--and the reveal.

There are purple corner squares in two of these blocks that look like a white/purple plaid, which I didn't notice until I put the photo up. I find them a bit distracting and may have to take them out.

Barb and Sandy came over today, as they do every Monday. Barb did not work on her longarm today, but cut out pieces for a Turning Twenty instead. Sandy finished her little Halloween quilt today, and I thought she did a great job. Sandy has been quilting not quite a year and a half, and she is fearless when it comes to taking on a new challenge. She mentioned today that she is interested in paper piecing as a future project. I love paper piecing, so it will be fun teaching her how to do it, when she's ready.