Up to the next step on the Airy Cardigan:



Finished the edging, picked up alllllll those stitches, and am now knitting the body.

***

And a question, for you medical types:

I gave blood yesterday. I felt fine going in, had enough iron, all that good stuff. Right after giving I continued to feel fine (but I did eat a couple cookies and drink a glass of apple juice just for insurance). About an hour later, when I was standing up preparing to do something in the service, I suddenly got really lightheaded - I mean, like, if I hadn't sat right back down and got someone to cover the duty for me, I would have passed out. (I got someone to get me a glass of water and that helped). I also felt slightly nauseated. I was OK to drive home, and OK (pretty much) the rest of the afternoon.

I ate ok after I got home, but this morning, I find I have no "wind" - I feel like it's really hard to get my breath (it is humid here today as well, so that could be part of it).

Is this something to be concerned about or is this just a (maybe rare for me) aftereffect of blood donation? I tried to do my usual exercise routine, got 10 minutes in, and decided there was no way I was going to be able to do more.

I'm not normally a "wilting flower" in any respect so it scared me a little bit.

****

I did cook for myself last night (and I was fine throughout the standing-to-stir-the-pasta and all that, so I guess the lightheadedness was a short-lived thing). I made a baked pasta dish, altering it from a Rachael Ray recipe I had.

Back when I lived in Illinois, there was a wonderful Italian place a couple towns over from where I lived, called The Brick Oven. (The original one, at least, has since gone out of business; there may be a newer restaurant there by that name). They had a fantastic baked ziti dish - it was a tomato cream sauce - that was done in their brick oven. Reading the recipe made me realize it was kind of similar, so I wanted to try it.

I altered the recipe in part to use stuff I had on hand (didn't feel like running out to the store just for a pint of cream) and also because I didn't want all the fat of the cream in the original.

So here's what I did:

I boiled up a pound of penne. I cooked them for 7 minutes which was just barely enough for this particular pasta. While they were boiling, I chopped 1/2 of a sweet onion and sauteed it in olive oil. (I drained the pasta at the end of the 7 minutes).

To the sauteed onion, I added about 1/4 t of garlic powder (you can use real garlic, I just didn't have any on hand), salt and pepper, a can (14.5 oz.) of "petite diced" tomatoes and stirred until it was bubbling.

Then I added a small can (5 oz., just over 1/2 cup) of the low-fat evaporated milk (which is a reasonably good substitute for cream in soups and other cooked dishes) and about 1/2 t of cinnamon (which sounds strange but is really good in it).

At the last, I thought it didn't look tomatoe-y enough, so I added one of the little (6 oz.?) cans of tomato paste. You might use less. Or leave it out altogether, it wasn't in the original recipe, but I liked what it added.

Then I dumped in the pasta and heated the whole thing through.

To make it "al forno," I then put it in a buttered casserole dish, topped it with some cheese (just some shredded mixed Italian blend I had on hand) and popped it into a 500* oven for about 10 minutes, long enough to melt the cheese and cook the sauce down some.

It was really good. The original recipe called for prosciutto as well, but I didn't have any, so I left it out. I think it would also be good with strips of cooked chicken breast added, or maybe shrimp gently heated and put in after the "oven" step.

The original recipe also said it would serve 4. Maybe, if they were football players - it looked more to me like it would serve 6, especially if you had a salad and garlic bread with it. (Maybe even 8, if it were a big salad, like antipasto.)