Lasagna

 

I love Italian food.  True, I love most foods, but Italian food seems to be the one I turn to the most, especially when cooking.  I have never made lasagna before, but I LOVE to eat it, so I finally took some initiative and found a recipe that looked simple and tasty.  I was not disappointed!  This was pretty easy to make and it was delicious.  It was so good that it didn't last very long, even though there are only 3 of us.  Here is the link to the site which walks you through with step by step pictures... http://mylasagnarecipe.com/ 

The site has a lot of lasagna variations and recipes, but the one I used was the No. 1 Lasagna Recipe.

Here is the recipe with my few changes:

Ingredients

• 1 pound of sweet Italian sausage
• 1 pound of ground beef
• 1/2 cup of chopped onions
• 2 cloves of garlic chopped
• 1 (28 ounce) can of crushed tomatoes
• 2 (8 ounce) cans of tomato sauce
• 2 (6 ounce) cans of tomato paste
• 1/2 Cup of Water
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon fennel seed
• 2 teaspoons fresh Basil leaves chopped
• 4 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
• 23 ounces of ricotta cheese.
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg 
• 1 egg
• 1 pound shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 12 Lasagna Noodles  

Directions

• Start with the following in a pot.

1 pound of sweet Italian sausage
1 pound of ground beef
1/2 cup of chopped onions
2 cloves of garlic chopped 

Brown the ground beef, Italian sausage, onions and garlic in a pot. 
It takes about 6 to 9 minutes to brown the meat.  I like to use a Dutch oven to cook this
portion of the recipe.  I use a medium low temperature to brown the meat.  It is optional
to remove the grease from the meat once it is finished browning, your choice.  (I didn't use a Dutch oven and I didn't remove the grease either...it wasn't noticeable in the end)

•  Add the following:

1 (28 ounce) can of crushed tomatoes
2 (8 ounce) cans of tomato sauce
2 (6 ounce) cans of tomato paste
1/2 cup of water

Gently stir this into the cooking meat.  

•  Add the following:

2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon fennel seed (I left this out because I didn't have any)
2 teaspoons fresh Basil leaves chopped
2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
 

Gently stir these seasoning into the sauce.
Cover the pot and let the meat sauce simmer.  Simmer on low heat for 1 hour and 30
minutes  

• Soak 12 lasagna noodles.

The lasagna noodles need to be soaked in hot tap water for 15 minutes. (This was a great idea and kept the noodles al dente) 

• While the noodles are soaking you can make the cheese filling.

Put the following in a mixing bowl:
23 ounces of ricotta cheese. (I actually added more ricotta cheese, so I had about 32 ounces instead)
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg  (I didn't use fresh nutmeg, so I added about 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg from the spice cabinet)
Grate fresh nutmeg over the Ricotta cheese.    

• Add the following

1 egg
2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley chopped
Mix these ingredients together with a spoon 

• Now we start building the lasagna layers.

Use a 9×13 inch baking pan. 
Spread 2 Cups of meat sauce on the bottom of the pan.
Remove your lasagna noodles out of the water bath.  Shake water off wet noodles.
Lay 6 noodles across the layer of sauce.
Spread half of the ricotta cheese mixture over the layer of noodles.
Spread 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese over the ricotta layer.
Sprinkle half of the Parmesan cheese over the mozzarella layer
Spread 2 cups of meat sauce over the cheese layer
Lay down the next layer of noodles
Spread the remaining ricotta mixture over noodles
Spread the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses saving  some cheese for the top of the
lasagna
Put the last layer of meat sauce on the cheeses
Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. 

• Cover with foil

Bake in preheated oven at 350 for 25 minutes
Remove foil and bake uncovered for another 25 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow to cool for approximately 15 minutes. 

–Serves 12 people 

The grass is always greener...

Cat in dog crate, dog in kitty bed...need I say more?

We came home earlier than usual the other day because I was starving and had to eat something...NOW.  Normally when we walk in, Jack is at the door ready to greet us with his favorite toy in tow.  Anytime he doesn't meet us at the door, we know he did something bad and he is hiding from us.  

This was one of those times that he was not ready and waiting when we walked in, so we started the routine search of the apartment for Jack.  After looking in all the usual places we were a bit baffled because he was nowhere to be seen.  That's when I noticed the laundry room door was shut.  The laundry room door is constantly propped open a few inches so Tigger can get in and Jack can't.  Jack isn't allowed in there for 2 reasons:

1. He likes to eat Tigger's food
2. He likes to raid Tigger's litter box

This particular morning I was in a hurry and didn't stick the doorstop under the door as tight as usual and it seems Jack took advantage of this and pushed his way into the laundry room, not realizing that the door would swing shut behind him.  

We opened the door to a super guilty looking face and he grovelled/ crawled all the way to his crate without us even saying anything.  Sure enough, her food was gone and there was evidence of Jack disturbing the litter box.  Personally, I don't see the attraction, but Jack just can't seem to stay away!  

What are we going to do with him?

St. Patrick's Day

You may be cool, but are you Irish popped collar cool?!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from my Irishman!  I know this is late, but this picture has to be shared.  We didn't do much to celebrate this year, thanks to me and baby Baker.  We spent the weekend at the Renner's house and had a great time socializing and testing my "morning sickness boundaries".  I was just happy to get out and feel somewhat normal after being cooped up in bed and the bathroom for so long!

We are having a baby!

That's right, we are now making this exciting news public!  It has been hard to keep it quite, but we wanted to wait until the first trimester was over before spreading the word (just in case something went wrong).  Anyway, I am now almost 16 weeks pregnant, so almost 4 months and everything is going well.

The due date is September 5, 2011 and we will find out if it is a boy or a girl next month.  One of the reasons I haven't been posting as often is because the only things I have had to talk about are pregnancy and morning sickness.  This has not been an easy pregnancy thus far, but I am still optimistic that things will improve and I won't suffer from morning sickness much longer.  I will post an update on the first 3 months later, but I wanted to let everyone know how excited both Trip and I are about this new step in our lives!  We will keep you all updated.