fall food and vintage knitting

so, my columbus day weekend was filled with cooking, knitting, the zoo, and a new yorker festival reading (t.c. boyle and andrea lee.  t.c. boyle was an amazing reader and i’m definitely going to be reading more of his work soon.  andrea lee was jetlagged, so i’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt and leave it at that). 

aside from the orange cauliflower soup mentioned earlier, i made butternut squash lasagna.  i’d made this recipe back in a’s vegan days (adapting it, of course) and was very excited to make it in it’s full dairy version.  it did not disappoint, mainly for two reasons: homemade pasta, and joe’s dairy fresh mozzarella. 

first, the pasta.  i decided to make a food processor pasta dough because, as it’s been thoroughly discussed in comments on this blog, i’m a slacker.  it was loads easier than hand kneading, and the results were great.  i have an atlas pasta maker and it works great and rolling out the dough through the press is a very satisfying process.  also very exciting (for me) was adding fresh sage leaves to the pasta as i rolled it out so the leaves were actually pressed into the pasta.  i’m not sure if it made any actual difference in the taste of the overall dish, but the concept was very appealing.  i think i’ll do that next time i make ravioli–imagine each ravioli with a sage leaf centered on it!

on to the mozzarella.  i’m a giant cheese fan, and fresh mozzarella is a favorite.  mild, milky, spongy, versatile.  i’ve been using the fresh mozzarella from russo’s or from blue apron, and they’ve both been entirely serviceable.  this weekend i picked up some joe’s dairy mozzarella from union market and i was amazed at the difference.  milky, creamy, dense, and just delicious. 

on the knitting front, the clapotis is on hold until more yarn arrives.  i’ve been working on a scarf for myself with that blue manos yarn i got at purl.  i’m doing the whole thing in a vertical drop stitch which i’ve decided gives it a vintage look.  maybe i don’t really know what vintage is, but i’m still saying it’s vintage.

can you tell i’m still having a hard time with the pictures?  either too small or too big?  i think i’m finally figuring it out…