The other week I bought a new wallet, thus wrapping up that whole lost/stolen wallet trauma from early last month. I wanted to buy another one of those flat hinged wallets you can find nearly everywhere these days, and remembered that the Frock Shop blog mentioned having some back in April. I wrote to Suzy to see if she had any left and she was kind enough to email back a photograph and reported they were very popular and she would probably be getting more in. I took a trip to the store and chose a white one for the simple reason that I've become frustrated with digging around in the bottom of black bags to find black accessories. The wallet is happily very easy to find, yay for the Frock Shop!

Also pictured is a little notebook with plastic covers and an elastic band to keep it all shut which Laura sent me (it's holding up really well to the abuse of the interior of my bag so I ration the use of it's pages), some Lakerol pastilles, a trusty Envirosax bag, and a double-zippered makeup bag from American Apparel. Not pictured is a particularly slim umbrella and a small tape measure which I carry with me just in case I stumble across the perfect couch.

The first time I made lasagna in my Baker's Edge pan I forgot to take the lasagna recipe from their site with me to the store so I used the recipe from the back of a lasagna noodle box. I had consulted my friend Maggi, a fantastic cook and a long time owner of a Baker's Edge pan, on the best noodles to use. She recommended Ronzoni (and warned that DiCecco and no-cook noodles simply won't fit). I cooked the noodles according to the instructions on the box and when I was ready to assemble the lasagna discovered that they were, tragedy!, too wide for the pan.

I re-consulted Maggi and discovered that she uses a method from the Barefoot Contessa of soaking the lasagna noodles in boiled water just until they are pliable. With this method they don't cook enough to get too wide for the pan. I decided to try again and this time I took the lasagna recipe from the Baker's Edge site (third from the bottom) with me to the store. Their recipe says to use uncooked lasagna noodles. Although it calls for a lot of sauce and only three layers of noodles, I was a bit concerned that the noodles wouldn't cook. After a short struggle (soaked? dry? soaked? dry?) I decided I really wanted to find out if dry noodles would actually work.

The recipe filled the pan up to the very top:

Turns out I had no reason to worry, everything cooked perfectly and it tasted better than the recipe on the noodle box while managing to be easier to make and creating fewer dishes to clean. Bravo! The small spatula that comes with the pan was perfect for cutting and lifting pieces out out the pan without any trouble.

Maggi recommended that I make sure to spread the sauce all the way to the edges and corners of the lasagna noodles to avoid getting dry or crispy lasagna bits, and we didn't have any. But for those of you who do like the crispy bits of lasagna (and I know you exist since many of you left comments in my first post about brownies) you could try a little less hard to get the sauce spread all the way to the edges, but if you do I would recommend cooking the noodles first. That way they'll also be every so slightly too wide and the ruffled ends of the top noodles will stick up out of the pan just a bit. Sound good?

Here is a picture of a good reason to make lasagna in a Baker's Edge pan, behold what just out of the oven lasagna looks like when the weight of 9" x 12" of sauce and melted cheese aren't creating enough pressure to cause all the goodness to ooze out:

And look! Baker's Edge is going to be coming out with a lasagna pan soon!

I have never made a softie, but glancing through Softies, Simple Instructions for 25 Plush Pals by Therese Laskey (Softies Central) reassures me that I certainly could.

The beginning of the book goes through material (fabric, filler, embroidery floss), sewing techniques, dealing with curves, takes you through a bunch of hand stitching and talks about how to use the patterns inside. The patterns are tucked neatly into a pocket in the back of the book.

Each project is photographed well, gives a list of materials and what stitches you'll need to use and has hand drawn illustrations where they are needed as well as an artist bio. The project steps are laid out clearly and the finished size of each object is given. All of the projects are adorable and will have you longing to pull out some materials and thread. The projects are arranged from easy to difficult in the book. While many are made from that favorite material for softies, felt, there are a few which are crocheted, machine felted or needle felted, with instructions on those techinques as well. There is a list of resources in the back of the book including sources for materials and inpspiration.

The book is spiral bound so it's easy to keep open in front of you as you work (a feature I love in craft and sewing books, and Chronicle Books is really great for making books like this). It also has an elastic loop to keep the book shut, and perhaps keep your place. The tone and photos are friendly while proving clear instruction.

There are projects from names you'll likely recognize if you follow along with the softies or plush movement such as Teresa Levy of Sewing Stars, Alicia Paulson of Posie Gets Cozy, Heidi Kenney of My Paper Crane, Shawn Smith of Shawnimals, Drissy Harris of Bigger Krissy, Lizette Greco, Hillary Lang of Wee Wonderfuls, and the book has a foreward by Leah Kramer of Craftster.

And hooray!, I have three copies to give away! If you'd like one please leave a comment for this entry with your email address (which I'll be able to see even though it won't show up when published).

Small print: You have until noon on Wednesday, September 5th. I'll use the random number generator to pick three people, whom I'll contact via email. If I don't hear back from one of the winners by Wednesday, September 19th I will choose another random number.

Good luck!

update: Congratulations to the winners Lilfish and Elizabeth!