dontcallmebecky

Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival

Thank you, Amy, for hosting this quilt festival! It's so much fun to click through all of the links for great quilting inspiration!

Here's my favorite quilt (of the moment):

I based this quilt on a pattern from Amy Butler's quilt patterns cd and selected colors to match my living room. This is my favorite color scheme of all time, so I love seeing whenever I walk through our living room throughout the day. Originally, I was going to save time by stippling it instead of doing straight line quilting, but I opted for cross-hatch quilting at the last minute and I love how it turned out.

This quilt is the perfect weight and size for afternoon naps and reading on the couch...which basically has been my life for the last few months while I'm working away on schoolwork.

Here are the details:

Original pre-cut block size:
8" x 8"

Four yards of fabric in four different colors are needed (1 yard each color). You will be able to cut 20 blocks from each color.

Then, the 8" blocks are cut in half on the diagonal (40 triangles of each color).

Sew the triangles together to opposing colors. You will have 80 blocks total. Arrange the blocks in 8 columns and ten rows and sew together.

Binding (for 2.5" strips): 1/2 yard
Backing: 4 yards

The quilt is 54" x 68"

(Psst: Here's my other favorite quilt from the spring blogger's quilt festival)

Soup Swap: Mediterranean Lentil Soup with Spinach (slow cooker recipe)

Thanks to Jessica for doing the soup swap again this fall! Check out her site for lots of links to tried and true soup recipes.

 

Here's a delicious recipe from my new, favorite slow cooker vegetarian soup cookbook, 125 best Vegetarian Slow Cooker recipes. I checked out lots of vegetarian soup and slow cooker cookbooks from the library and this one was my favorite, by far.

 

Mediterranean Lentil Soup with Spinach (slow cooker recipe)

It doesn't look pretty, but it is such a delicious, thick and hearty stew that's perfect for fall and winter months.

Ingredients:
1 cup green lentils
1 TBS vegetable oil
2 onions, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1 clove minced garlic
1 tsp cumin OR 1 tsp toasted cumin seed, crushed
zest of one lemon
1 potato, peeled and grated
6 cups of vegetable stock
8oz fresh spinach leaves
2 TBS fresh lemon juice

Directions:

Place lentils in a colander and rinse thoroughly with cold water.

Heat oil over medium heat. Cook onions, celery, and carrots, stirring until softened for about 5 minutes. Add garlic cumin and lemon zest and cook for 1 minute.  Transfer mixture to slow cooker, add lentils, shredded potato and stock.

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-6 hours. When vegetables are tender, add spinach and lemon juice. Cover and cook on high for 20 minutes until spinach is cooked and mixture is hot and bubbling.

My notes:

I just realized that I should have chopped the spinach before adding it to the soup. I just placed whole spinach leaves into the soup. It's a little hard to chew whole, cooked spinach, so I would definitely recommend chopping it first.

The book recommends toasted cumin seeds. I've tried both toasted seeds and regular cumin and the toasted, crushed seeds were definitely tastier. I was surprised that I could tell the difference, but I'd definitely stick with the toasted, crushed cumin seeds.

root vegetables

I should have posted questions about the loom and quilt sooner...you guys were so quick to answer my call for help! Thanks to Patty for coming up with the directions to the loom. And thanks to John (Quilt Dad) and Becky for directing me to the name and directions for making the block. It's called a Flying Swallow, and there are directions for making it right here.

• • •

I had some fun in the kitchen today when I set out to use up a bundle of root vegetables hanging out in our vegetable drawer this week. I usually stick to recipes closely, but this time I got a little bit creative. I roasted some turnips, carrots, onions, garlic and parsnips with some olive oil, rosemary, thyme and sage at 450 degrees for about an hour. Then I added the vegetables to  6 cups of vegetable stock and some canned whole tomatoes. Once everything was boiling, I pureed it with my immersion blender and let it simmer for a while.

The soup was delicious! It has lots of flavor and depth to it. Many thanks to Jessica for introducing me to the roasted root vegetable soup that I based this pot of soup on.

And, while I had some peeled turnips on my hands, I made up a batch of turnip fries. Melissa blogged about these fries this summer and I finally got around to making some myself. I highly modified her recipe due to lack of the spices it called for in my collection. I covered the fries in smoked paprika, aleppo pepper and a dash of turmeric. Turnips are one of my favorite vegetables and this batch of fries were really delicious.