Butternut Squash Stew with Black Beans

This recipe is one of our favorites. It's a delicious way to serve up some squash. Enjoy!

From: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Slow Cooker Cooking, 2nd ed. Ellen Brown

Butternut Squash Stew with Black Beans
Ingredients:
3 TB. olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 TB. paprika
2 tsp. ground coriander
2 tsp. ground cumin
red pepper flakes
1 (approx 2 lb) butternut squash, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
3 cups vegetable stock
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
3/4 cup chopped dried apricots
2 TB. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 (3-inch) strip lemon zest
1/2 cup slivered almonds
4 cups firmly packed baby spinach leaves, rinsed
Salt
2 or 3 cups cooked couscous (or rice)


1. Heat olive oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic, and cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes or until onion is translucent. Add paprika, coriander, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Scrape mixture into slow cooker.
2. Add squash, stock, tomatoes, beans, apricots, lemon juice, and lemon zest to the slow cooker and stir well. Cook on low for 5 to 7 hours, or on high for 2.5 to 3 hours or until squash is almost tender.
3. While squash is cooking, toast almonds at 350 in oven for 5-7 minutes until lightly browned.
4. If cooking slow cooker on low, raise heat to high. Add spinach and season with salt. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes or until spinach is tender. Remove and discard lemon zest, and serve immediately over couscous or rice.

Variations:
Use dried currants instead of apricots, or use Swiss chard instead of spinach.

Project Saturday

A few weeks ago my husband and I declared it "Project Saturday." We both spent the majority of the day working on our own projects. I dug out my sewing machine and tried my hand at applique. I made pillow covers for the couch throw pillows. I bought these pillow forms awhile back and I've been trying to decide what to do with them. I read some blogs and watched some YouTube videos about applique. It wasn't as difficult as I imagined. I started out making sketches of the designs I wanted. I traced these onto some iron-on transfer. Then, I cut the shapes out of the fabric and transfer. I arranged the design on the background fabric and ironed it all together. It was pretty slick! The hardest part was using my machine to stitch the edges around the shapes. They aren't perfect, but my skill had improved drastically by the end.






While I spent most of the day at the kitchen table, Sam spent it out on the porch.



He was constructing a case from the organ he assembled. He also built a TV antenna. Both endeavors were successful. He has since built a second antenna, which doubled the number of channels that we were getting with the first.

Here are our successes from the day:

Baby Cardigan

I'm always looking for babies to knit for. My peer group is at the age where many people are getting married, but it will be a few years before very many start having babies. None of my close friends have babies and I have only one nephew, but he's a year and a half old now, so he's moved on from baby to toddler. Needless to say, I was VERY excited when I found out my cousin and his lovely wife were expecting their first child. I REALLY want a little girl to knit for, because there are many more cute patterns for little girl clothes than for boys. My cousin and his wife have chosen not to find out the gender of their baby, so for now, I had to stick to gender-neutral patterns. I decided to knit this cardigan. I was very happy with how it turned out. I happened to have two skeins of gender-neutral yarn that my former roommate gave me when she didn't use it for it's intended project, so it worked out perfectly. I only had to shop for buttons! The new baby isn't due until December, but I look forward to seeing how it looks on a real model!

Raclette

Three years ago I studied abroad in Lausanne, Switzerland. Most people in the US are familiar with Swiss fondue, but my favorite melted cheese dish from Switzerland was actually raclette. Lausanne is located in the canton (similar to US state) of Valais. Raclette is a cheese which originates in this canton. For the meal, the raclette cheese is traditionally served on top of boiled baby potatoes and accompanied by small dill pickles, pearled onions, and dried meats. Fondue is delicious, but it is very rich, which is why I prefer raclette.

Raclette is a very social meal; it's not one you'd just eat at your home by yourself. It's somewhat of a "fair food," but much fancier (and better) than the "on-a-stick" foods that shows up at state fairs in the US. In Switzerland, raclette was very popular at Christmas markets or other events where there were lots of people milling about. To make raclette in this atmosphere the edge of a giant cheese wheel would be held close to a heat source. Then the melted cheese would be scraped off the wheel directly onto a plate with the potatoes and pickles.

Raclette can be made at home too, but the process differs slightly. Instead of having an enormous wheel of cheese, one would just buy a wedge and cut it into slices. These slices would then be put into personal trays in a grill in the middle go the table. Each guest would have their own tray, and when the cheese got nice and melty, it would be scraped directly onto the plate. I like to put bits of onion in with the cheese while it is melting. There is also a grill surface on the top of the raclette machine where meats, vegetables, or bread can be heated.



We received a raclette grill as a wedding present from one of my best friends I met while studying in Switzerland. I was excited to find the cheese at Ladonna's Fancy Foods, which is really just blocks from where I live. Last night, my husband and I served raclette as our first dinner party as a married couple. It was a lot of fun to use all of the new (matching!) dishes that we got as gifts. We even hung up the Swiss flag for the occasion! We invited our neighbors over as well as my friend M, the other member of Old Ladies' Club. M and I considered this an OLC meeting, and my neighbors became our charter members (they may not know this). The dinner was such a blast! The food was delicious and the company was superb. It's nice to start hanging out with people in Tulsa. It always takes awhile to build a base of friends whenever you move to a new place, but I am really lucky to have such great neighbors and co-workers.

Labor Day Camping Trip

My husband and I spent labor day camping. We had been talking about going for a few weeks, but mostly in passing. We actually made no plans until about an hour before we hit the road. We had found out that Oklahoma state parks do not accept reservations during holiday weekends, so campsites are available only on a first-come-first-served basis. We had little confidence that we'd get a campsite, so we didn't spend much time preparing. We thought, at the very least, we'd just spend the day at the lake and come home in the evening. We left the house at about noon and made a quick stop at my friend's house to borrow a tent.

The drive from Tulsa to the campsite took about an hour and a half. Once we got off the highway, it was a pretty fun drive. The road was windy and the the scenery was beautiful along the Grand River. We were lucky enough to get a campsite and it only cost us $12 for the night. Once we set up the tent, we realized that we probably should have spent a little more time preparing for the trip. I made a run to the gas station (only store in town) and bought us some matches, food, and bug spray.



The weather couldn't have been more perfect. We were neither hot during the day, nor cold at night. We weren't bothered by mosquitoes either. The tent we stayed in was pretty neat. The "roof" was mesh like the "windows" so we could see out of the top. It had a separate rain cover, but we didn't need that. It was such a beautiful night. We could see the sky and the stars as we were lulled to sleep by the music of the frogs and the crickets.




Oliver really loved camping. It has been so hot lately, that he hasn't spent many extended periods of time outside during the day. He spent the first few months of his life on a farm, so I think he enjoyed being out of the house all day again. He was really content being outside chasing bugs in the shade of the trees surrounding our tent. We also took him in the lake to go swimming. He didn't love, but he didn't hate it either. He kept biting at the water. It was pretty funny to watch.

Running a 5K

My list of projects is growing faster than I can complete anything. I have 3 knitting projects on needles, 5 stuffed animals in queue, an unopened can of paint for a dresser, a sweet but stubborn puppy, a half-finished sun dress, pillow forms with no covers yet, and many more ideas rattling around my head. So, what do I do? A rational person would complete some things before taking on anything else. Am I rational person? I like to think so, but my actions seem to prove differently. Instead of checking a few things off the list, I have decided to add one more thing to it, and it's a big one. Are you sitting down? Wait for it....

I HAVE REGISTERED TO RUN 5K. :-0

What!? Who am a I!? I'm certainly not a runner. I usually prefer biking to running, but I've been considering doing this for awhile. I've done the Couch to 5K program in the past, though never to completion. Now that I've paid the $30 registration fee though, I feel the need to get my money's worth. I have about 9 weeks now until the Tulsa Run. Even for a complete novice (ahem...yours truly), 9 weeks of training is long enough to at least complete a 5k. I'm not going for the gold or anything, but finishing sure would be an accomplishment. The last time I ran competitively was in Middle School track (10 years ago). It was a "Thrower's Relay." In short, this means the coaches put all of the people who don't do running events on a relay team together and make them run around a track. Who comes up with these things, seriously?

Anywho, the Tulsa Run is October 30, and today is my first official training day. Wish me luck!

A monkey for my nephew

The first stuffed animal I ever knit was Mr. Dangly. I made him as a baby gift for my cousin's little boy. Later, when my cousin had a girl, a two-tone pink Mrs. Dangly was created. I was pleased with this monkey as my first knit animal.



I always enjoy the adorable outcome of knitting animals, but it can be a frustrating process. I really hate stitching seams. I wish everything I knit could just be made in one piece with no sewing afterward. Although, seaming is a small price to pay for the cute animals, I suppose.

Now that I have a nephew, I have ample opportunities for knitting animals. For his first birthday, I knit my nephew a Francis the Fish (must sign up for free membership to view pattern.) I made the fish from the same yarn as the original Mr. Dangly, and I paired it with the book Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. Honestly, I think my brother-in-law may have been more excited about the fish than my nephew!



My most recent knit animal was another monkey, but a different pattern than my first. This new monkey was also a gift for my nephew. This is probably my cutest animal thus far. See "Little a" and his monkey below. The poor little guy wasn't feeling well, but I hope his new friend kept him company!