Our Favorite Lasagna

Several years ago Mike saw this recipe on a Martha Stewart Everyday Food show and asked if I would try it.  I've been making it ever since.  We've found we like it much more than the traditional lasagna with either cottage cheese or ricotta.  I generally use Johnsonville Italian sausage, but this time I used some Italian Style ground turkey I found at the store.  I also substituted crushed tomatoes instead of whole because that's what I had in the pantry.  And lastly, I've been trying to use whole grain pastas lately, so I went with that for the noodles.  All that being said, the original recipe is outstanding, but I didn't receive any complaints last night with my changes either.  And you don't have to cook the noodles!

Tomato Sausage Lasagna

12 dried lasagna noodles (about 10 oz) I used whole grain this time
2 tsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp red-pepper flakes
1 lb ground Italian sausage, I used Italian style ground turkey
2 cans (28 oz each) whole peeled tomatoes in puree, I used crushed tomatoes
Coarse ground salt and pepper
6 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (I didn't have quite this much and it turned out fine)
3/4 cups shredded Parmesan cheese

1.  Fill a 9 x 13 baking dish 2/3 of the way with hot water.  Add noodles and let soak while preparing sauce.

2.  Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium.  Add onion, garlic, Italian seasoning, and red-pepper flakes; cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned.  Add meat, and cook, stirring and breaking it up, until just cooked through.  Add tomatoes, breaking them up; bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 20 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.

3.  Preheat oven to 350.  Drain noodles and transfer to a baking sheet.  Spoon 1 cup sauce in bottom of dish.  Put 4 noodles on top of sauce.  Cover with 2 cups of sauce, 2 cups mozarella, and 1/4 cup Parmesan.  Repeat with another layer, then top with remaining noodles, 3 cups sauce, and the rest of the cheeses.  Cover dish lightly with foil and bake 1 hour.

4.  Remove foil, and continue baking until bubbly and browned, about 30 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Let cool and serve.

As usual, my little shadow wanted to help.

What's in the box Wednesday?

Today the girls' LunchBots are the same other than the fruit.  They include black bean quesadillas (every time I hear or see that word I think of Napoleon Dynamite), pumpkin muffins, and blueberries or unsweetened applesauce.  For the quesadillas, I mixed black beans, On the Border Salsa (the best store bought out there in my opinion), and mozzarella cheese (I would have preferred colby jack, but that's what I had on hand).  As for the muffins, I had some pumpkin left from the pumpkin cookies so Caroline and I made these last night.  You can find the recipe here on King Arthur Flours website. Obviously, mine are not in the shape of a cute little leaf, but it works just the same.  I used my white whole wheat flour.  I had a couple of these for breakfast and they were delicious and moist.  And I do want to try the maple cinnamon butter recipe listed with the recipe, I'm just out of cinnamon at the moment.  Happy Wednesday!

Pumpkin Cookies and Keurig House Party

I made these yummy cookies for my Keurig Vue House Party!  Have you heard of Houseparty.com?  I learned about it through some friends in my playgroup.  I went to a couple of parties they were chosen for, and then signed up for myself.  There's no selling of anything involved.  It's just a way for companies to advertise new products.  They usually have several parties available at any given time. I've been to or hosted parties for Digiorno Pizza, Johnsonville Sausage, Silk, Nicholas Sparks books, Philadelphia Cooking Cream, and Pullups.  You choose which ones you are interested in, fill out a short application, then wait and hope you are chosen. If so, they send you a party pack of products and/or coupons to use at your party.  I was so excited to be chosen for this one because Keurig sent me this Keurig Vue machine to use at my party and keep!

Houseparty also sent ALL of this coffee (except the decaf, I bought that) to serve at my party plus an apron, two tumbler cups (I gave away as door prizes!), mints, cookies, and 50% off Keurig Vue coupons to give my guests.  I still have some coupons, so let me know if you want one!

I decided to combine my house party with my Literary Mamas Book Club.  We usually meet at Hastings and have coffee anyway, so this time we met at my house and enjoyed this fun coffee machine.  I love it!  It heats up fast and we were able to make cup after cup in no time.  It has a touchscreen where you can choose the size you want, and if you'd like to make your coffee stronger. You can also make Cappuccinos, Lattes, Herbal Teas, Iced Teas, Iced Coffee, and Hot Chocolate. To go along with the coffee, I made the Pumpkin Cookies pictured above.  Ann from my home church in Oklahoma brought these to a church function years ago and I've been making them ever since.  

Pumpkin Cookies

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup butter flavored Crisco
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup pumpkin

Icing
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
Powdered sugar

Mix dry ingredients and set aside.  Cream sugar and Crisco.  Add egg and mix well.  Add dry ingredients.  Mix in vanilla and pumpkin.  Drop by large tablespoons on cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 10-12 minutes until lightly browned.  For icing, boil brown sugar, butter, and milk.  Add powdered sugar until thick enough to spread.  Add vanilla.  You may have to thin with milk as you ice.  This made about 30 cookies.

Cranberry Chocolate Cookies

My Blogger has been broken for several days. :(  I was getting a strange message that I'd logged out from a different location, did I want to log-in again, yada yada yada.  I checked the forums and it wasn't just me.  There were lots of folks with the same problem, so I just had to wait it out.   Finally today it was back to normal. It reminded me, I need to take Brittney's advice over at Razorbackbritt.  After she had a blog scare, she put up a great post about how to backup your blog.  Anyway, I've been wanting to post this cookie recipe for awhile.  I'm hosting a house party/book club tonight and I'd already planned on posting about that tomorrow with another cookie recipe, so it's gonna be cookies two days in a row!  I was happy to find that Walmart now carries King Arthur Flours.

I bought a bag of unbleached white whole wheat and it happened to have a cookie recipe on the bag that Addie thought sounded good, so we tried it out.  Caroline helped me.  Here she is packing down the brown sugar.

These whole-grain cookies were very tasty.  We made some with walnuts and some without.  I think I might try them sometime with some white chocolate chips added in.

Cranberry Chocolate Cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tblsp orange juice
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 1/4 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350.

Cream together the butter, sugar, orange juice, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Beat in the egg until combined; scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl.  Add the flour, mixing until smooth.  Stir in the chocolate chips, cranberries, and nuts.  Drop onto a lightly greased cookie sheet (I use Silpat liners instead).

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until just beginning to brown around the edges (they won't look done in the center). Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Feelings of Fall

Fall leaves photo by Mike

Fall is in the air! My favorite time of year. I took a long walk at the park this morning and I could feel it.  I could've stayed all day just walking and thinking and listening.  When I walk I listen to music and I think.  I had my music playing on shuffle and a Ricky Skaggs song came on.  Bluegrass is one of my favorite types of music.  And it just seems to fit the fall season too.  There's something about the instruments and harmonies that I love about it.  After that song, I changed my phone to shuffle through just my bluegrass collection.  So today I was joined on my walk by Ricky, Rhonda Vincent, Allison Kraus, and IIIrd Tyme Out.  If you've never listened to Bluegrass, try it.  We've seen Rhonda in concert several times and she's great.  I wish I would've learned to play the mandolin or banjo, or even the tall bass!

Rhonda Vincent and the Rage photo by Mike

The bluegrass made me think about Silver Dollar City, Dollywood, and the Smoky Mountains.  The Smokies are one of my top 5 vacation destinations.  And I've been 5 or 6 times.  Can't get enough of the place.  2nd recommendation of the day....Go there!  And skip the strip, go to the mountains and hike and see the waterfalls.  You won't be disappointed.  One thing I have not done that I want to do is go there in the Fall.  All of those beautiful leaves....on 2nd thought maybe I shouldn't....I may never go home.

Mountain Path in the Smokies photo by Mike

And from the Smokies, my thought process took me to this book.

Can you guess why?  Actually my Mom named me after this book.  The description on the back says, "Christy Huddleston left home at 19 to teach school in the Smoky Mountains.  There she came to know and love the wild mountain people with their fierce pride, their dark superstitions, their terrible poverty, their yearning for beauty and truth.  Christy found her faith severely challenged in these primitive surroundings; and confronted with two young men of unique strengths and needs, she found her own growing yearnings challenged by love."  Great book.  So my last recommendation of the day...Read it!  I think it's time I read it again.  And it was fun to find this on the inside.  I'd forgotten...

Get out and enjoy this Fall season!  Then go home and curl up with a good book.  Happy Fall ya'll!

What's in the box Wednesday?

The girls choose a few days each month to eat in the school cafeteria and today was one of those days for Caroline. Addie's Lunchbot has an egg salad sandwich on flower shaped whole wheat bread (I used a cutter), "fancy" (as Addie calls them) cucumbers, yellow tomatoes, blackberries, and a pepper jack cheese stick (this kid is all about spicy stuff). 

I have made a lot of egg salad in my life, but I've never measured the ingredients.  I've had people ask me how I make it so I thought I'd try measuring this time to get a recipe.  Ha!  Let's just say I should stick to NOT measuring on this one.  Little heavy on the salt.  To chop the eggs, I like to use my pastry cutter, pictured above.  The other tool is the crinkle cutter I used on the cucumbers.  It just adds a little fun and fancy to the lunch.

Egg Salad

2 hard-boiled eggs
3 tablespoons Hellmann's Mayo (if you like the tangy zip of Miracle Whip, then by all means...)
1/2 tsp mustard
salt and pepper to taste (I won't be using the measuring spoons on this anymore! Ha!)

Chop the eggs and mix in the other ingredients.

This amount makes enough for 2 or 3 sandwiches.

Do you know how to get the perfect hard-boiled egg?  Put your eggs in a saucepan, cover with cold water and set to boil.  As soon as they start to boil, remove them from the heat, cover, and let sit for 15 minutes.  Then dump out the water and run cold water over them a minute or two to get them to stop cooking.

Chickens and Sheep and Kids, Oh My!

Whew!  We had a busy weekend. Thankfully, soccer was rescheduled to Friday, but then eventually rained out, so that was one place we didn't have to be.  I love to watch Caro play soccer, but it was nice to have a break this weekend.  The girls have been practicing for months for a Children's Musical called "We Like Sheep" at church.  It was about The Good Shepherd parable.  This was the big weekend for the performance.  They had dress rehearsal Saturday morning and then performed the play Sunday morning and evening.  It was wonderful!  I was so proud of them.  Addie had one of the main speaking parts, a vocal solo, and she played guitar during one of the songs.  Caroline was a supporting cast member with a small vocal solo.  Here are a few pictures.

I stole this group photo from my Pastor's wife's facebook.  She was one of the directors and tagged me in it, so I think it's okay. :)

When I was a kid, I despised doing anything in front of people.  Who am I kidding?  I still despise it.  I remember one Christmas play at church where I was supposed to hold up a letter and say a part.  I was so nervous, I never even made it on to the stage.  I think my Mom just had to hold the letter out from behind the curtain.  At my high school graduation, I had to give a Salutatorian speech and I was so scared, that I cried through the entire thing.  Then in college, I put off speech class as long as I could.  When I finally had to take it, I got stuck with a theater teacher for a professor.  She had us walking on tables, putting on hats and "becoming the character" and a bunch of other crazy, embarrassing exercises.  I was never so glad for a class to be over.  All of this is one of the main reasons I was so proud that they both participated in this musical.  I think Addie surprised everyone with her voice.  I got SO many comments and compliments from people about how beautiful she can sing.  Okay, okay, okay, maybe she does take after me a little bit.  Not the voice!  The nervousness.  In all the practices I saw, as soon as she started her solo, she would commence into an awful coughing fit.  I knew it was just nerves (kinda like the crying thing I do when I'm nervous in front of people).  So I may or may not have bribed her with 5 bucks if she would get up there and belt that song out without coughing.  And Caroline was so funny.  She definitely has rhythm.  She was moving and swaying throughout all of the songs. Dancing was not particularly part of the play, but I think it worked.  Now if I'm part of a group, it doesn't bother me as bad.  I love singing with other people, just not by myself.  Maybe if my Mom had bribed me more......    Here are some blasts from the past when my two friends and I competed in Spanish competitions in High School.  We harmonized in Spanish to "Besame Mucho" and "Guantanamera".  Fun times!

 I still have this black dress.  Can't seem to part with it.

 My parents, sister, and brother-in-law drove over for the musical and Mike cooked lunch afterwards.  Woo hoo!  Everyone loves when he cooks.  He came up with this "Confetti Chicken" recipe years ago.  He's one of those cooks who just throws things together and it comes out great.  He also grilled yellow squash and I roasted asparagus with olive oil, salt, and pepper. It was a very colorful and delicious meal.

Confetti Chicken

Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper and grill.

Chop a green, red, and yellow pepper into small pieces.  Saute in a non-stick pan for about 10 minutes.  Then add about 1/3 cup of honey and cook for 5 more minutes.  Top the chicken breasts with the pepper and honey mixture and serve.