Lesson Learned: No Big Batch Cooking on Weeknights

I made four lasagnas tonight.  We did not eat dinner until 8:40... and the baby ended up eating leftover breakfast quiche and going to bed without dinner at all.  Will not batch cook on a weeknight again... lesson learned.

Really, it wasn't all that bad.  I have a lovely husband who watched the little one while I messed up the kitchen (and did the clean-up for me too - love him). And, I have always been one to enjoy trying new cooking methods and recipes.  While reading Real Food on a Real Budget by Stephanie Langford (great ebook and on sale right now!), I was inspired to try doubling what I cook and freezing the extra.  Then I thought - why double it when I can triple it! Great idea, right?

Hmmm. I went from deciding to do this, to shopping during my lunch break, to bringing home groceries and baby to an already dirty kitchen at 6:30pm, to breaking out every clean dish in the house and making them dirty.

  

I did not consider a few important details:

• We only have 3 working burners on our stove.
• My pots are not large enough to hold all that food anyway.
• I have done zero prep.
• I have a one year old.
• It is 6:30 pm... and this is a very detailed recipe.
• Tripling the recipe makes A LOT of food.... 

Delicious. Lots of Lasagna.  Lasagna Primavera from Everyday Food.

The price breakdown:

2, 30oz Ricotta $3.69 [$7.38]

2, Box Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles $2.19 [$4.38]

1, Gallon Organic Whole Milk $5.99

5, 12oz Frozen Spinach $0.88 [$4.40]

1, 2lb Mozzarella Cheese $6.99

1, 32oz Frozen Peas $1.99

1, Pkg Organic Carrots $1.59

1, Head Garlic $0.33

On Hand:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup olive oil

Salt/Pepper

Total: $33.05 or $8.26 each for 4 home made, fabulously overflowing lasagnas.

Overflowing..... There is a positive side to all this craziness.

A Sweater for Me

While I have promised myself that I will not begin work on this project until 2011... (please see previous goals).. that hasn't stopped me from commencing the planning and purchasing for this project. Every girl needs a sweater of her own.

The sweater I will be knitting is none other than Hey Teach, a Helene Rush pattern featured in Knitty in 2008.

If you are a member of Ravelry,  please please go view and drool over the many Hey Teach sweaters already worked up (1,872 to be exact).  There are oh so many, in so many different colors.. with short sleeves, and long sleeves, and no sleeves too!

I plan to make mine with 3/4 sleeves using the chart and sleeve instructions provided on the Stash N' Stitch blog.

I also picked up my special order Cascade Sierra Yarn in Moss from the local yarn hangout here in town.  Bless Julie and her buy one get one half price sale!  So now I wait for the new year... and it is possible that I will be picking up my needles at 12:01 to start this one!

Of Christmas Stockings and Bite Marks

I have decided on a pattern for Helen's stocking and have begun the process of crocheting the motifs.  The pattern is Starflower Hexagon a free Ravelry download.  With four colors in each motif, that means 8 ends to sew-in  per hexagon.  Oh! How I hate sewing in ends!!  But, I do love this pattern and think that it is going to make a beautiful stocking.

We are at home this morning, I think Helen has a sinus infection and to top it all off she was bit at daycare yesterday - on the cheek!  So, we have an appointment with our pediatrician to hopefully sort things out.