Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Hello,
 I haven't blogged much since 2013 started. All for good reasons though, mostly spending lots of time with my daughter and husband. We are loving that Will is on the day shift now and we are having the best of times.
 I am almost finished with my Patchwork Blanket. I finished joining all 621 squares and just need to get the yarn for the border. I will show it after I have put a border on it. That project consumed me. I didn't work on anything else while I was making and joining those squares, that is unusual for me. I usually have a couple of small projects and a couple of big projects on the go at the same time. It was kind of nice to concentrate on one thing only.
 Autumn also finished swim lessons in the middle of April and we also had some major flooding two weeks ago. Our basement, my room at work and almost every other building in Solon took on lots of water. So, we have been busy this month.
 I always make a big Sunday dinner and this week I made baked Macaroni and Cheese. I don't like the boxed stuff that kids like. My mom always made it from scratch and this is how we like it.
You will need,
16 oz. sharp cheddar (cubed)
4 oz. swiss (sliced)
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. flour
1 bag or box of croutons
1 lb. of macaroni
1 1/2 cups milk

I start by boiling a pound of macaroni. I take it off the burner before it is cooked all the way through, it is going in the oven for at least a half hour and I don't like the noodles to get mushy.
Next I chop up 16 oz. of sharp cheddar cheese and set it aside.

The next step is a white sauce. Melt 1/4 cup of butter then add 1/4 cup of flour. Stir until there are no lumps and then I add about 1 1/2 cups of milk (I used skim). Simmer over low heat until thickened, not too thick, kind of like a cream soup. Then add the cheese and stir until it melts.

You can use shredded cheese too, I think small cubes melts faster. Once I have the cheese sauce, I turn off the heat and add the drained noodles.

Next I pour half of it into a greased 9 x 13 glass pan. Then I layer it with about 4 oz. of sliced swiss cheese.

 Top with the rest of the pasta mixture. The last step before baking is too add the crunchy top. I use a bag of croutons and flatten them with my rolling pin and then pour it on top.

Bake at 375 F for about 30 to 40 minutes. Until browned and bubbly.

We all really like this, I serve it with veggies and the leftovers never last very long. I hope you enjoy this if you make it. Talk to everyone soon. :)

Patchwork Progress

Where have I been? This has been such a busy year compared to last year. My daughter is in swimming lessons in the evenings, she has homework this year and then we are all still getting used to the wonderful fact that my husband is now home every night,( he had been on the evening shift since we got married). I have also  been utterly consumed with working on my Patchwork Blanket.  I usually have 3-4 projects on the go at the same time. When I started this I found that I didn't want to work on anything else. I made 621 squares, which I finished last Sunday. I started to join them that evening.

I am using the join as you go method, even though I made the squares already. I just pull back the sides I need to join. I know that sounds crazy, but it helped me to be able to make squares anywhere I went. It also helped with square placement. I used all scraps and leftovers for this and wasn't sure how much of each color I would have of the completed squares. The project isn't portable anymore. I am almost half way there.

Yes, it is finally warm enough for bare feet and a dress, at least for me. It is supposed to reach 62 F today. I am so glad spring has finally decided to come to this part of the world. Back to the blanket, I have 13 more rows of 27 squares to join. Then I will border it. My friend, Tracy, is sending me some more Meadow (Stylecraft). I don't know what I will do for the border yet, but it will be in Meadow. This blanket will be all mine. My husband has a couch blanket, my daughter has a couple of couch blankets and I have none. I wasn't sure what this was going to look like until I started joining and I am really happy with it and can't wait to finish it. I miss regular blogging and I know that things will settle down soon and I will get back to it. I am still reading everyone else's blogs though. I will post the Ta Da of this very soon, hopefully this week. Talk to everyone soon. :)

Last Day of Spring Break

Hello,
 How is everyone today? Our last day of Spring Break looks more like the first day of Christmas Break.

I have spent most of the day inside making spaghetti sauce and finishing up and working on some projects. I finished my Spring Pillow that I was working on for a CAL with the Everything Zen group on Ravelry.

The pattern and details are on the link to the group. It was a fun project. I named it the Spring Pillow, hoping that spring will arrive here sometime soon.
 I haven't been blogging much lately. I have been enjoying having my husband around in the evenings since he started his new job. It has been great. I have also been working on a really big patchwork granny blanket. I have only a few more squares to go before I start joining them. I usually put them together as I go but, I wasn't sure of how much of each color I had left from my Stylecraft stash. This blanket is using up most of my dk and most of my Stylecraft. I will start to join them sometime this week. Here are the piles of squares I have so far. I have two colors left to finish.

There are close to 600 squares here. I really can't wait to put them all together. I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. I need to go tend to my spaghetti sauce now. I will talk to everyone later. :)

Liebster Award

Hello,
 Last month I was given the Liebster Award by two lovely bloggers. Unfortunately, I have been busier than I was before Christmas. I have not forgotten about the awards. Jennifer at Thistlebear was the first to give me the award and I want to answer her questions first. Here they are.

1. What was the first music concert you ever attended? Jimi Hendrix, no lie, with my parents.

2. Would you rather be hot or cold? Cold.

3. What is your favorite soft drink? Diet coke.

4. Can you whistle? Roll your tongue? Wiggle your ears? Yes to all three.

5. What is your favorite book? The Mists Of Avalon.

6. Coffee or tea? Coffee, I like tea too, but I love coffee.

7. Have you ever had a brand-new car? No.

8. Do you know how to dance? Not even a little bit.

9. Do you collect anything? Elephants.

10. How many pillows do you sleep with? Three.

11. What is your favorite pair of shoes? My crocs.

I love Jennifer's blog and always look forward to her posts. 

I also got the award from Gwen at Cottage In The Lane. Here are her questions.

1.  Do you have a favourite book? The Mists of Avalon.

2. What is your favourite food? Anything Mexican.

3.  If you could choose, where would you like to work? At home.

4. What places have you traveled to? I have been all over the world, literally. My mom and dad took us all over when we were young and then I went to University in England and traveled all over Western Europe and also went to Morocco when I was a student in Great Britain.

5. Are you a summer or a winter person? Winter.

6 What crafts do you enjoy? Crochet, knitting, cooking, sewing, embroidery.

7 What type of music do you like to listen to? Mostly classic rock with some 80's thrown in. That was when I was a teenager after all.

8 How long have you been writing your blog? About a year and a half.

9. Do you have a favourite flower? Tulips.

10. Do you have a treasured possession? My child. Not really a possession, but she is mine and I treasure her.

11. Do you have a pet? Not right now, we are looking for a dog.

Here are eleven random facts about myself.


1. I grew up all over the world and have lived in a lot of large cities. Now I live in a town of about 2,000 people.
2. I have a younger sister and brother.
3. I walk to and from work.
4. I get up at 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning.
5. I lived on a yacht for over a year with my family when I was a small child.
6. I went to 10 schools by the time I graduated from high school.
7. I can still do the splits. Yes, even at 45 and with an artificial knee. Can you tell I am proud of this fact?
8. My husband and I got married four months after our first date.
9. I read 3 or 4 books a week.
10. The only candy I really like is chocolate.
11. I can drive a stick shift.


I think those were pretty random.
I have given a lot of thought about who to pass this award on to in the last month and the truth is that everyone I would give it to, I either gave it to the last time or it was just awarded to them by Jennifer or Gwen. I love all the blogs I follow and am about to update my blog roll. Most of the blogs on my follow list have to be moved to my blog roll. I am going to do that as soon as I post this. So if there are blogs on my list that you haven't read, go check them out. Thank you very much Jennifer and Gwen. It is always so nice to feel that someone is reading and I am sorry it has taken me so long to post about this.

Checking In

Hi everyone,
 I have been enjoying some family time. My husband has worked the 2pm to 10:30pm shift at the University Hospital for the entire time that we have been married. Last month he was given the opportunity to accept a new position. It is wonderful. We see him every evening and every weekend now. Before, he would have every other weekend off and one day off during the week. We wouldn't really see him otherwise. Autumn and I would be in bed when he got home and he would be asleep when we left in the morning. I start work at 6:45am. We were on opposite schedules. We have had him to ourselves for the last three weeks and I haven't spent much time on the computer.
 I am still crocheting like a mad woman. I am in the middle of another giant blanket. Soon to be revealed and then there is my Bamboo Ewe blanket. That will be revealed soon too.  I am finishing up a CAL on Ravelry for the Everything Zen group. We always have something going on there. Right now a couple of us are making pillows with African Flower Squares.

 I will start posting again regularly, it has been nice to concentrate on fun family time. We have been making pizza.

We love pizza. I have been participating in a few swaps. One was with the We Love Lucy group on Ravelry. It was a lot of fun and here are the awesome things I got from my partner.

She made me the elephant, there is candy for Autumn, lip gloss and crochet hooks, some really soft yarn, and a book that I am loving. I recommend the book to anyone who is addicted to crochet. It is call Hooked For Life, The Adventures of a Crochet Zealot. The yarn is a bamboo, wool mix from Sirdar Yarn and it was really nice to work with. I made a little bag with it.

My friend, Tracy, and I also had our own personal swap. I didn't take any pictures of what I sent out on either of these swaps, but here is what Tracy sent me.

So much yarn. Most of it is 4 ply, which is harder to find here and expensive. I love it. There was candy and cocoa for Autumn in this package also. Then there was the Inside Crochet magazine from the UK. I am going to make several things in this magazine, and they are made of 4 ply yarn. Some Cider Brandy from the Somerset Distillery and a lovely card. Tracy is best thing that has come out of blogging and Ravelry for me. We have become great friends.
 I have to get dinner made now and then we have to go to Parent Teacher conference night at the school.
 The last thing I want to mention is that I was given the Leibster Award last month from Jennifer, she has a great blog. I look forward to each of her posts. I was also given the award from Gwen Ward. I haven't been able to log on to her blogs. I will put up the URL as soon as I can get through. I have been trying to go to here blog for the last month. Not sure why I can't view it. I will be back soon. Have a great evening. :)

Tote Bag Tutorial

Hello everyone,
 I love this house. We moved in here last July and it really suits us. Our computer desk sits right next to the kitchen window. I love looking out to see what is going on out in the neighborhood. Right now it is snowing, again. I love the snow. We are expecting another huge storm on Thursday. I work 3/4 of a mile away from my house, so it doesn't bother me when it snows. I walk to work anyway.
 I have been working on a tote for the Everything Zen group on Ravelry. I promised one of our members a while back that I would write the pattern and post a tutorial. I think she wanted a video tutorial, but that would have taken me forever and it would have been really long. So I made the bag and took a LoT of pictures. The rest of this post is about this bag.

The body of the bag is made in one piece and then the sides are sewn up. The straps are made seperately and then attached with buttons. I used white cotton, worsted wt. and an H hook. The stitches for the body of the bag are hdc.
 You start in the middle of the bottom of the bag and work off of both sides of the foundation ch.
 To start ch 48.  Hdc in the third ch from the hook (2ch in the beg. counts as the first hdc, here and throughout the pattern) and hdc across. You should have 47 hdc. Turn and ch 2, then hdc across. Repeat until you have 6 rows.

When you get to the end of row 6, ch 9. Fasten off.

 Then at the other end of row 6 attach yarn with a slip stitch in the last hdc and ch 10. Hdc in the 3rd ch from the hook.

Hdc across, there should be 65 hdc.

Turn and ch 2, hdc across. Continue until you have 8 rows with 65 hdc. This is where I changed color. I used scraps and have four colors in addition to the white. I did two rows of purple here.

Change back to white and crochet four rows. Then the next color change. All the way to the last color change.

Here I crocheted four more rows in white and then fastened off.

Now for the other side. Turn your work around, right side facing you still. Work into the bottom of the foundation chain. 47 hdc.

Kind of hard to see, but you can do it. :)  From here you follow the same directions as the first side. 6 rows of 47 hdc. The ch 9 and fasten off. Attach yarn to opposite end and ch 10. Hdc in to 3rd ch from hook and hdc across for a total of 65 hdc. Same as first side. 8 rows of 65 hdc. Then the first color change, two rows of that color and then four of white. Until you have something that looks like this.

Now you are ready to sew the sides together. This is easy. Fold the longer piece in until the ends meet in the middle. I used the whip stitch to sew them together. I used one piece of yarn for the bottom and sewed across to close, then, with another piece of yarn, I whip stitched up the side.

As long as your stripes match up, you are good to go. Once you get the sides sewn up and you have the body of the bag, then attach the white yarn, with a slip stitch to the top row and sc around. I did two rows of sc to finish it off.
Next are the straps. For these I chained 93. In second stitch from hook sc, then sc across. I changed color and crocheted 92 sc stitches across the top of the white row of sc. Fasten off. Then attach different color to the bottom of the white row and sc across, working stitches into the bottom of the white row. Fasten off. Then to finish the strap, attach white to either side of strap. Hdc to the last stitch in the row. Work three hdc in the last stitch and work three hdc evenly along end of strap. Then three hdc in first stitch of new color and hdc to the end of that row. Again, at the end of the row, three hdc then work three hdc evenly at end edge, thn three hdc in beg. stitch. Hdc to where you started and fasten off.

 Make one more strap. I then attached the straps by sewing buttons on with the cotton yarn I made the bag with. Here it is.

And the bottom.

I really hope you can follow this pattern. It wasn't hard to make, I just worry about my pattern making skills. If you have any questions at all, leave me a comment and I will do my best to answer. Happy stitching. :)



PS. I got the Liebster Award from Jennifer at Thistlebear. I will blog about that tomorrow. Thank you Jennifer.

Stash Busting

Here we are half-way through February. I have so many projects in my head that I want to make. I started looking around my basement and my living room and I have a lot of yarn. I have enough for several blankets and then some. I decided to clear out some of it, I always want to make room for more projects and more yarn. I have a bunch of Debbie Stoller's Bamboo Ewe. I love it, but it isn't being made anymore. I am using it up. When the yarn is gone this project will be done.

I like how this is turning out. I started with the granny rectangle pattern and then a row of granny squares. Six granny rows and another row of granny squares. I will continue until I am out of yarn. I really don't know if it will be afghan size or bed size. I am out of purple and yellow. I think the pink and teal will be next to run out. I am really enjoying this one and actually had to use my math brain a bit for it. People who know me well will know what a challenge using my math brain is. I think it looks kind of neat though, and well worth the figuring.
 The other stash buster is for all of my dk yarn. I have a lot of bits and bobs of Stylecraft left over from my Stylin Ripple and I was going to order more. Then I just started making squares with them and pulled out the other dk yarn I have and thought I should make it all up and see what I have before I order anything else. This is the Stlyecraft.

These are a mixed assortment of the other dk yarn.

I

Put it together and there may be enough for an afghan or blanket.

For once I don't have 10 WIPs either. Just these two and a bag I am doing my best to write a pattern for and make a tutorial for. The bag is simple, the tutorial is a challenge for me. I will have it done sometime this week and it will be for a CAL in the group, Everything Zen, that I help moderate.
 I hope everyone is having a good week and I will talk to everyone soon. :)