Lasagna

After making this lasagna I realized that I am simply not the type of girl who is going to prepare lots of freezer meals like casseroles in preparation for our new arrival.  While this was divine on a chilly, lazy Sunday, and delicious the next day for lunch, after the third day of seeing this lasagna that just would. not. die, I wanted to throw it out the window.  I just can't eat lasagna for three days straight.  Why do all lasagna recipes make enough to feed a family of 8?  What I should have done was freeze half and pull it out next year, and then I would have been happy to see it.  But I am a total skeptic when it comes to food lasting too long in the freezer.  I've never been a fan of frozen food - the tastes get altered, and I don't think food should sit in a freezer more than just a few weeks, at the most.  So we'll have to figure out another way to manage in those first few blurry eyed weeks, and having my mother on speed dial may just be the way.  But back to this lasagna, that perfectly hit the spot on a Sunday evening.  Evening is actually being a little generous.  This meaty, cheesy, bubbly dish came out of the oven at 4:45pm and my husband and I proceed to eat dinner 15 minutes later.  I dare anyone to not dive into freshly baked lasagna after it's cooled off.  The smell was intoxicating.  Now before I share the recipe the disclaimer is I can't quite recall how I made this.  It was a few weeks ago and I'm running on pregnancy brain these days and if I don't write something down I forget it.  I was all set to make this in the crockpot, actually, as slow cooker lasagna sounded like a fantastic idea, but after realizing the meat would need to get precooked anyway I read a few other recipes and since I had the time I figured I'd just do it the old fashioned way.  This is a pretty basic recipe, and I had very simple ingredients purchased from Trader Joes the day before, so when I decided last minute to make a bolognese I just had to make do with what I had, which is to say it was not a true bolognese but just a simple meat sauce.  I think that's what I loved about this dish - it was incredibly easy and simple, not labor intensive at all, but with ample rewards of a slow cooked comfort meal.  Lasagna is also a forgiving dish that doesn't need a precise recipe as the basic elements taste good no matter how assembled.        

Lasagna

~1 lb ground beef (85/15)

1/2 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 can Trader Joes marinara sauce (28 oz)

1/4 c cream

1 container Trader Joes ricotta (15 oz)

1 egg

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 c grated parmesan

16 oz Trader Joes shredded mozzarella

1 package no bake Barilla lasagna sheets

In a dutch oven heat some olive oil over medium heat.  Sautee onion until soft and add garlic.  Toss in meat, salt, pepper and brown, brown, brown.  Pour in crushed tomatoes, marinara, whatever you've got.  If you have some red wine in the fridge pour that in as well.  Add whatever seasonings you like such as dried herbs (thyme, etc) or a dash of cinnamon and garam masala which I did and loved.  Finish off with some cream.  Mix up your ricotta with a beaten egg and add parmesan as well as some salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Pull out your 9x13 inch pan, get the  mozzarella and lasagna sheets ready, bring over pot of meat sauce with a ladle.  Before assembly, watch this video for inspiration.  Drizzle some olive oil on bottom of pan, overlap 4 sheets of lasagna, spread some ricotta mixture then meat sauce, then cheese.  Eyeball this all.  You'll have four layers, I believe.  So keep repeating, finishing off with some meat sauce and cheese on the top.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Bake at 350 for one hour.        

A Fresh Look

Now that the weather has cooled a bit and it's starting to feel more like fall things have finally quieted down in our house, just in time for me to relax and put my feet up these last few weeks of pregnancy.  Our summer was a whirlwind of redecorating and repainting and purging, purging, purging.  I suppose you could call it nesting, though I'm a constant nester.  Our kitchen got a nice face lift as we redecorated our sitting room, repainted and installed new granite counters and a new sink, which added so much more life to the kitchen.  I had no idea what a difference a better designed sink would make.  For weeks after install I would remark out loud "I love this sink". 


With the new look of the kitchen came the opportunity to add a creative print.  Easy Canvas Print offered to created a lovely canvas print for me of any one of my food photographs.  This is a look I've always loved so I happily obliged.  I decided to select a photograph of food from one of our travels as opposed to one of my dishes I spent hours preparing so I chose my photo of churros con chocolate in Madrid.  I loved the idea that I could look at the print while in the kitchen and think fondly of our trip to Spain.  And drool just a bit.         

I would definitely recommend giving the process of creating your own print a try.  It couldn't be easier, and the quality is perfection.  It's still a crisp photo but with more texture.  I think it adds a nice artistic element to the kitchen.  I foresee canvas pictures of baby having her first bites of food added to the kitchen wall some day.