Knitspiration

Welcome to Fall.

Yesterday was the official first day of the autumn season.  This is a knitter's dream :)

Weather starts cooling down and your warm cozy yarn stash starts to look more and more inviting.  I, like many others, took a major vacation from knitting during the warmer spring and summer months, but now that fall and winter are upon us, it's hard to resist the lure of warm drinks, cozy fires and new knit projects.  To also keep my inspired, someone else just bought my glove pattern on Etsy! :)

I recently spent a long weekend in Seattle, taking in the sights and weather.  It wasn't too rainy, but the weather was definitely cooler and rain was definitely present.  One of my favorite discoveries, however, was the abundance of big cozy sweaters and cute knit hats.  I started feeling rather inspired to pick up my needles and make a hat for myself.  I even found an awesome over-sized sweater pattern online...

Do you need some knitspiration for your fall?  Here are some awesome patterns I've found online!  Happy knitting!

Lucy Hat

Baggy wave-sweater

Mac & Cheese

I recently took a week off from work so I could get some rest and recharge before my next busy work project.  While I was off, I took some time to knit some gifts as well as some personal projects I'll probably keep for myself.  It was refreshing after having completed several items for my etsy shop (those should be up soon!).

But one of my proudest moments of my week off was making mac & cheese from scratch for the first time.  Most of my friends and family know how much I love the creamy, cheesy pasta dish, but many had no idea that I had never made it from scratch!  Recently, my favorite mac & cheese restaurant (Homeroom), released a cookbook with all their recipes!  I bought it right away and the first recipe I tackled was one of my faves: the Gilroy Garlic Mac.

The hardest part about it was the timing.  You have to be really precise with the timing of how long you cook everything.  There is definitely a greater possibility of ruining sauces, textures and consistencies if you don't time it right.  The most difficult timing portion is making the bechamel sauce, which is made with a simple mix of flour, milk, butter, and salt.  But it's all about timing.

For the Gilroy Mac, you simply start with the bechamel sauce and then add in your cheeses and a garlic compound butter (minced garlic mashed together with butter).  I used Pecorino Romano and a five-year aged Gouda for the cheese.  For fun, I also added in some bacon.  Who doesn't love bacon in their mac?

Bechamel Sauce Ingredients (plus some panko and the pasta)

Gilroy Mac ingredients: butter, minced garlic, Pecorino Romano and Gouda

Garlic compound butter

Finished product before adding the panko bread crumbs

For the finishing touch, I added on baked panko breadcrumbs.  To get the toasted look, you actually toast them in the oven for a few minutes before placing them on the mac and putting it all back into the oven.  It was great to pull it out and share it with friends.  Goes great with a white wine.  The authors suggest a chardonnay, but after making the dish twice, I found that any wine of choice seems to go well :)

Finished product prior to serving

Absolutely delicious!

With fall around the corner, I'm looking forward to more warm dishes, coffee and lots more knitting!  Should be a great fall!