Cooking is good for the soul(s)

I love to cook.  It started in high school.  French club, I think.  My school's French club hosted a "French cafe" each year but all it offered was croissants and other pastries.  When I became French club president, I reasoned "hey, it's either a cafe or it's not..." Therefore, I pulled out my mom's International cookbook, selected a savory crepe recipe, a quiche, a side dish (I can't really remember now but I think it was some preparation of green beans) and a dessert.  My club divided up into teams for cooking, loaded my parents' microwave into my '74 Volkswagen and set up a real cafe in the courtyard.  We sold lunch plates and made a killing.  

Here I am a "few" years later and I've been cooking ever since.  I enjoy it.  I like it for many reasons...it's therapeutic for me, I like to take care of others through food and I really, really like to try to  impress my husband.  And then there's our daughter, who I want to feed healthily and have her develop a sophisticated palate.  We're well on the way with that, thank God.

Unfortunately, one of our friends was recently found to have cancer.  She is young and healthy, has a beautiful one year old baby and a husband who loves her.  She's been started on chemo right away and is on medical leave.  She is in good hands... 

I wanted to prepare something that they could keep in the freezer and just pop in the oven on those days when she doesn't feel well and her husband doesn't want to fool with the kitchen. I decided to go with The Pioneer Woman's lasagna rolls. I really love her site and so many of her recipes are just awesome.  I made enough for 4 meals for our friends and one for us. I had leftover filling and a little bit of sauce, so I stuffed some shells for our dinner.

So, on to the lasagna...

Getting all the ingredients ready to rock & roll

 

I am an herb-chopping machine

This is about 2 lbs of hamburger and chopped onion

The sauce is simmering away.  Smells divine!

Since these are rolled, you must cook them first

Spread the ricotta/parmesan mixture on the noodle

Roll 'em up!

Four rolls will fit in a standard size loaf pan

Look at all these...from ONE recipe!

Everything is better with cheese on top

Using up the leftover filling & sauce for our dinner

Stuffed shells ready for the oven

Call me an old Southern girl but food is what I do when someone has a problem.  Making these dishes was fun for me and I felt really happy about the possibility that these lasagnas might make life a little easier for our friends as they go through this tough time.  Food is more than fuel for the body. That's what I think anyway. 

The Altruism Project

They say people cook with love, with the heart...

So, my petit gourmand is in 3rd grade now. She's got a really great teacher who I hear nothing but good things about...from Viv as well as other kids we know who have already had her.  That's a good sign because kids will take any opportunity to tell you how much or what they didn't like about a teacher, but they all love this lady. The class is studying altruism right now.  An assignment came home to go along with this unit.  The kids are to come up with some sort of altruistic deed that they will carry out.  Then, they have to write a descriptive paragraph about their project, how it affected the people they helped, how it affected themselves.  This is awesome and it's only 3rd grade.

My daughter heard at church that our Youth group is always asking for lunch to be donated since they meet immediately following the 11:00 service.  They don't have much of a budget for lunches. So Vivian decided she wanted to make lunch for them.  The plan was for me to act merely as her assistant and she would cook, assemble and cook a lasagna all by herself.  I took the job.  I really just stood back and gave instructions and some occasional advice.  I posed the question "Ground beef or Italian sausage?"  I was really curious to see how her thought process would work here.  She considered it and decided the sausage would have a "richer" flavor. So we made a special trip to Publix to get ground Italian sausage.  I think she made the right call!

Preparing the onions

Browning the Italian sausage

The onions started getting to her; thus the "onion goggles"

I'm here to tell you, as the proud mama I tend to be, my sweet child did this project all on her own.  She chopped onions and then added them to the skillet as she browned her sausage.  She mixed Romano, cottage cheese, mozzarella, eggs and fresh parsley from our garden.  She assembled the lasagna and had it all ready for the oven on Saturday evening.  

Putting it all together

Ready for the oven

Sunday morning, we baked it partially then packed it in an insulated container before heading off to church.  Upstairs in the youth room, she finished baking the lasagna then she assembled a Caesar salad, making sure to finely grate fresh Parmesan. 

Grating fresh Parmesan

As the youth group arrived, they all commented about how good it smelled...they were right.  As I helped bring it all to the table, it was pretty evident to me that these teenagers were impressed by what they saw.  Viv had made a beautiful lasagna and salad.
  

Ta-da!

 The finished product

I'm not sure what they were expecting, but I know they were pleasantly surprised.  They invited us to stay and eat with them which was extra cool that the teenagers wanted their chef to also be their guest.  Many, many compliments later, we had a super easy clean-up because there wasn't a stitch of food leftover!

Everyone with full tummies

I left there feeling immense pride that she took on this project and she carried it out so successfully.  She's pretty modest, but I know her. She was feeling that sweet satisfaction that a job well done brings.  I'm so excited about her work that I can't wait for her to turn it in to the teacher!  And to the 3rd grade teachers at Rosewood, I thank you for creating such a meaningful project for our kids to experience the beauty of altruism.

Fresh Pasta

I am notorious for saying things like "uhh, I don't know" or "I haven't even thought about it" or "hmmm, let me think about it" when asked what I want for Christmas, my birthday, etc. Well, this year, I had a break-through.  When my mom asked, I had an answer!  Where did this come from?  The dark recesses of my mind had opened but how, why? My answer:  "I want the pasta machine attachment for my standing mixer."

There, I said it.

So you may ask, "Wow, where did that come from?"  For years, I've read a gazillion recipes calling for fresh pasta, if available. I've also read countless articles about how fresh pasta just can't be beat for lasagna, ravioli, you name it.  You may have come across recipes that describe to you how you can roll pasta dough out by hand and then cut into the shapes you want.  Yes, I suppose that is possible.  But rest assured, to roll pasta to true pasta thickness would take you about 2 hours of rolling pin work.  No thanks. You need a pasta machine.

As I'm sure you've surmised, mom and dad came through with the Kitchenaid attachment. I was elated!  As soon as I got it home I had to try it out.  Here's the coolest part of this story: it is insanely easy to make pasta. I made a basic egg pasta dough, then used my machine to create fresh spaghetti.  If you have a Kitchenaid mixer, you simply mix up the dough in the mixer.  Let it rest for about 20 minutes, then attach the pasta roller to the front.  You effortlessly roll the pasta to the right thickness, then switch to one of the cutter attachments (I have spaghetti and fettucine) and viola! you have pasta.  

I bagged some up for mom and dad then cooked up some for the three of us to try.  Vivi wanted hers plain.  Neil and I had it with a basic red sauce.  The noodles were so tender!  Store bought noodles never have this subtle tenderness.  Right out of the pot, they taste good from the simple salted water.  Since making the initial batch, I whipped up a little lunch for Neil using the fresh spaghetti, some cooked chicken I had in the fridge, leftover asparagus, parmesan and olive oil. He left not one noodle in that bowl!

My next attempt is going to be lasagna.  This is one of my mom's favorite dishes and I can't wait to make one with fresh pasta sheets.  We'll start with traditional but then I want to try out a recipe in one of my Williams-Sonoma cookbooks for duck lasagna with a cabernet sauce.  Oh yeah...

Delicious Delucca's

It seems that all I'm blogging about lately is eating out.  I do still cook, I promise.  It's just been one of those out on the town kinda weeks.

Today I was having lunch with my mom and dad.  Since mom and I work together and my dad is retired, the three of us lunch together quite often.  As we went through the "what are you in the mood for" conversation, Delucca's came up.  

We hadn't been there in awhile, so off we went.

Lasagna is on Everyone's Mind

Lately, I keep hearing about lasagna.  It's kind of weird, because in everyday life, you might hear about a celebrity, politics, events, etc on a regular basis, but rarely various people you know bringing up lasagna.  Most notably, I keep  hearing about "Crockpot Lasagna."  What the hell is this stuff?  I can't even imagine how it looks, or how you serve it?  But, I'm always willing to learn new tricks...

The first time I heard about it was a month or so ago, some of us were volunteering to make a lunch for the Youth Group at church.  My friend Cindy stepped up with the Crockpot Lasagna.  I was curious, but got preoccupied and forgot to inquire.  Well, fast forward and I saw it come up on Facebook.  Then again.  Then, just the other day, my friend Kathryn posted that she was making it.  So, I had to ask.  Apparently, the recipe is right there on Oprah's website.  And, thankfully for me, a photo.  

All this brings me to my own latest lasagna experience.  I was looking around the kitchen for what I had on hand and what I could do with it.  I know the Vivver likes lasagna, so I decided to "guinea pig" her with a vegetable version.  I'm pleased to report that my sweet little veggie lovin' pumpkin pie loved it. She ate a good dinner and asked to take some the next day in her stylish Hello Kitty lunchbox.  This is why I cook!

Here's how I did it this time:

• 9 lasagna noodles (cooked, rinsed & placed back in pot covered w/cold water)
• 3 large carrots
• 3 medium yellow squash
• 1 10 oz. box frozen chopped spinach (thawed & squeezed dry)
• 1 container ricotta
• 1/4 cup parmesan
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 1 cup warmed milk
• mozzarella
• sauce

I'm not the most rigid measurer, so use your judgment!  Ok, so, I used my mandolin to slice the carrots & squash at 1/4".  I tossed the squash with salt, pepper & a little olive oil, spread on a cookie sheet and baked at 350 for about 10 minutes just to pre-cook them.  Similarly, I steamed the carrots for about 5 minutes to soften a bit.


Sauteed the garlic in 1 Tbsp olive oil with the crushed red pepper.  Then, slowly mixed in the flour (basically  making a roux). Gradually whisk in the warm milk.  Remove from heat and add in the ricotta, 1/4 cup parmesan & spinach; mix well.  Set aside.


For convenience's sake, I used a jarred sauce that I had in the pantry.  Spread a little on the bottom of your lasagna pan. Place 3 noodles on top.  Spread with about 1/2 of the spinach mixture, layer of squash, some mozzarella, layer of sauce.  Then, 3 more noodles, the rest of the spinach mixture, carrots, mozzarella, layer of sauce.  Finally, 3 more noodles, layer of sauce, mozzarella and parmesan on top.  

Cover tightly with foil, and bake at 350 or 375 for about 30 minutes.  Uncover & bake about 10 minutes or so until cheese is bubbly & just starting to get golden.  Basically, until it looks good to you!  I always let mine sit for about 15 minutes to "set up" before trying to cut into it.  You'll get better looking pieces that hold together better.

I have to admit, I'm curious now about this crockpot recipe.  The photo convinced me!  So, until next time,  Mangiare, bere e divertirsi!  (If you want to know what this says, go here)