Misfits box, sassy doll, lasagnas invention

 I credit blogista and local friend Marilyn with the idea of rolling lasagna noodles to bake instead of the usual lasagna dish.

I had to change things, though. Great opportunity to use leeks. Ever since I accidentally ordered enough leeks to feed the Eastern seaboard, I've been alert for ways to use them.

And I found I had lasagna noodles, to my surprise. I checked a couple more ideas on YouTube, ended up doing it with my own inevitable changes. No ricotta, nor mozzarella, used plain whole milk yogurt, no spinach, tired of broccoli, used a mass of steamed leeks. Nutmeg, seasalt, great fun rolling up the noodles and finding the filling which I hadn't measured, was the right amount. 

Here's where the invention came in: instead of the planned bechamel sauce, I thought it would be interesting to use the rest of a recipe of pancake batter, thinned a bit with milk. Just to see  

Added in plenty of parmesan and cheddar to the batter, grated on my cheese grating board (!)

heated all through, added to the noodles. Sprinkle of paprika. 20 mins at 400°f. Done. Enough for the foreseeable future 

The verdict: very good thing I used the tangy yogurt instead of ricotta and mozzarella. The yogurt tang, along with the strong leek flavor worked fine. It would have been bland otherwise. The pancake batter worked surprisingly well, upped the stick to your ribs aspect, and held down the richness.

In September when it cools down, I'm going to start the dinners with Handsome Son again. This is a likely menu item. 

A bit more work on the doll happened, and here she is with legs, rocking lace stockings. Fiberfill courtesy of Helen who doesn't read in here, hem lace courtesy of Judy who does.

The head looks disproportionate right now, but once she's dressed in big skirts or whatever, it will work.  Her face will be much smaller than you might think now.

Usually makers work on the head first, and attach it to the body later but I'm working in a different order. I'll soon be trying my hand at sculpting the face, watch this space.

And it's Misfits box day. So here's this week's haul. 

Lovely fruit, even including apricots. The season is only a week or so long in this region so some years they aren't available at all. These look very good. If they aren't excellent eating, there will be a bit of apricot jam. Or maybe an apricot pasty or two. I tasted the cherries, really good. Different variety from local ones, smaller and sweeter.

Not too much prep this time. My knives are now sharp, in fact I sliced a bit off my thumbnail cutting the cauliflower. No harm done, just a shorter nail than before. And it was much easier to carve out the cauliflower core.

 Very crisp romaine lettuce, not too big. Salad this evening. 

Good day, pretty much. Now to read a newly downloaded Bess Crawford, on the sofa, keeping cool.