Well, it’s December and only a few weeks left to get Christmas shopping and preparations finished… Seriously, I tell myself every year that I am going to start early and then relax and ‘enjoy’ the holiday season. Well, that has not happened! I haven’t even been able to blog let alone cook much…too many holiday party invites or events going on or just plain tired from all this cold weather!

The other night I wanted a home-cooked meal and decided on lasagna, as it is a favorite comfort food of mine and the leftovers are amazing! I call it lazy because I don’t spend much time on the assembly but it will take at least ½ hour to cook the meat and get all the ingredients ready to assemble…it’s worth it!

I love the versatility of lasagna. You can be traditional or creative and it usually always turns out so tasty!  

Jarred sauce works great but it is also super easy to make your own. I usually do half/half depending on what I have around my kitchen. You can simmer the sauce while the meat is cooking then assemble.\

Here’s the recipe:

Lazy Lasagna Casserole

Serves 8

Prep time: ½ hour

Cook time: 1 hour

For the tomato sauce:

3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

½ onion, chopped

2 Tbs olive oil

1 can (28oz or 2 14oz cans) diced tomatoes

¼ cup cooking wine (I used red wine)

1 Tsp salt

½ Tsp crushed red pepper

For the meat:

½ onion, chopped

1 lb lean ground beef

2 Tsp oregano(dried)

2 Tsp basil (dried)

Dash salt

2 cups cottage cheese

½ cup parmesan cheese, grated

1 jar tomato sauce (I like using either chunky garden or 3 cheese but you can use any kind that sounds good!)

1 8oz bag of shredded mozzarella cheese (2 cups)

2-3 Roma tomatoes cut in rounds for the top of lasagna

Directions:

Pre heat oven to 350

For the sauce: sauté onion and garlic in olive oil and then add tomatoes, wine, salt. Let simmer for at least 20 minutes.

For the meat: cook onion, meat and herbs together until browned. Transfer meat to separate bowl and mix in parmesean and cottage cheese.

To assemble: In a large 9x13 pan break apart 1/3 of the noodles and lay evenly in the pan.

Cover with ½ of the jar sauce. Add ½ of the meat and spread evenly. Repeat this step one more time and use the rest of the jar sauce and meat. For the last layer, break apart the remaining noodles and spread evenly on top. Pour the tomato sauce that you made over the top (all of it). 

Place the sliced tomatoes on top of the sauce and put in the oven.  Cook for 45 minutes. Remove and add cheese to the top. Bake another 15-25 minutes, until cheese is golden.

Serve with parmesan cheese and a side salad or steamed vegetable! This makes great leftovers too!

**This can be easily made into veggie lasagna. Substitute mushrooms and spinach for the meat. OR for another variation, you could use Italian sausage and red peppers. Get creative!

I am like a proud mommy all over again. After 3 months of daily watering, weeding and watching I finally birthed my first tomato harvest! Granted, only one of the two plants that I started off with survived (hail storm in July…) but still, I am happy! The tomatoes are big beefy “mortgage lifter” heirloom tomatoes. Supposedly they got that name when the man who first bred them used the profits to pay off his mortgage…I have a looooong way to go until my gardening is that profitable ;-).

For now I am enjoying the fruits of the harvest, literally. The mortgage lifters are sweet and earthy tasting. Supposedly they are good cooking/roasting tomatoes. Since I had about 10 in my first harvest I decided to eat a few and cook a few so nothing would go to waste.

I made a fresh tomato sauce that is easy to freeze and take out as an alternative to canned sauces. It is a good recipe to make on a Sunday or a day that you don’t have to rush out of the house, as it takes a few hours to simmer. Here’s the scoop:

Garden Fresh Tomato Sauce

Makes about 3-4 cups

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time 2-3 hours

You will need:

5-6 large tomatoes , chopped (I used my heirloom tomatoes but any beefy variety will be fine, could also use double the amount of Roma tomatoes as they are much smaller)

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 medium zucchini, chopped (*optional…could substitute a number of different vegetables such as green pepper, red pepper, mushrooms, etc)

¼ cup olive oil

1-2 teaspoons salt

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

1 large handful of fresh basil, stems removed

Directions:

Chop all ingredients, set aside.

In large and deep saucepan heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until transparent (~2 minutes). Add zucchini and garlic and cook another 1-2 minutes. Add tomatoes and salt. Bring ingredients to a boil. Turn heat down to medium and cover. Simmer for 1 hour, stirring every so often. 

After about an hour, add brown sugar and basil (mixture will be more sauce like now as the tomatoes will have cooked down and formed a liquid). Cover and simmer another 1 hour.

Remove

from heat and let cool for ½ hour. Place sauce in Tupperware and put in freezer.

May also use right away with pasta. You could add ground turkey or beef to make a classic meat sauce or pour it over roasted/pan seared chicken as an alternative or eat simply with noodles and parmesan cheese.

That's amore!

Over the weekend I hosted my sister’s “Vintage Circus” themed baby shower. She is having a little boy (Leonardo or “Leo”) at the end of September!  A vintage circus was the perfect theme for a baby named Leo (the Lion!).  Again, the theme guided the party planning but I did not go overboard. I found some vintage clowns at a thrift store; a toy carousal that I spray painted and I used popcorn holders as a vase for flowers. I also set up a tent outside and decorated with draping fabric and ribbons. I spent about $50 on all of the decorations…not bad!  Instead of getting to carnival-y on the food I went for fresh and summery. I also didn’t do anything too heavy because my Aunt Lin made beautiful and decadent circus cupcakes for desert!

Here was the menu:

Caprese Salad and baguette

Fresh Spinach Dip and veggies

Torta di Riso (My grandmother’s Italian recipe)

Fresh Fruit

Pesto Green Beans**

Balsamic Glazed Chicken

The menu was the hit of the party. The combination went well together and left people satisfied but not overly full. I will share the pesto green beans recipe. This was a hit and I used the pesto that I made last week and picked up green beans at the farmer’s market the day before.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures while I was making this dish, but it is very simple so I think just following the recipe you will do just fine!

Pest Green Beans:

Serves 4-6

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 2 minutes

You will need:

2 lb green beans, stemmed

1/2 recipe Presto Pesto

1 cup fresh parmesean cheese, grated

1/4 cup walnuts, toasted

Air conditioning has been the ‘hot’ commodity here for the past few weeks. I have scheduled my day around being in it and if I am unable to be, I make sure I am near a body of water!  That said, this heat wave has made cooking a dwindling priority. I would rather not turn on any appliance that conducts heat, so there has been a lot of eating out ($$) and getting by on cold sandwiches and fruit.

Today, I decided to try my luck in the kitchen but with one exception: no oven, no stove. I was not going to let any heat creep into my perfectly cool 68 degree home. I had some kale left over from the weekend farmer’s market trip and I remembered this amazing salad my sister made a few weeks ago. It was so delicious to actually be kale! So I tried my hand at it and it turned out so good AND my house stayed cool! I even had my fiancé, an extremely finicky eater, try the salad (before I told him it was kale, he though t it was spinach) and he LIKED it. So, it’s that good ;-)

Kool Kale Salad

Serves 4

Prep time: 5-10 minutes

Cook time: NONE

Chill time *: ½ hr (give or take)

You will need:

1 bunch of kale, chopped and stems removed

1 lemon

¼ cup olive oil

1-2 cloves garlic, chopped

½ cup bread crumbs

½ cup parmesan cheese, grated

Dash of cayenne pepper

Salt to taste

Directions:

Remove tough stems from the kale. Rip the de-stemmed kale and place in large bowl.

Chop garlic into small pieces (‘mince’), add to kale.

Squeeze the juice of the lemon and pour over kale.

Pour olive oil.

Add bread crumbs, parmesan, salt and cayenne pepper.

Mix well with tongs or fork. Check the bottom of the bowl, which is where all the ingredients will want to hide.

 Make sure all of the kale gets drenched in the oil/lemon juice mixture.

I like to chill my salad for at least ½ hour to allow all of the flavors to mix and for the kale to absorb the juices. You can also serve it immediately. This salad is good in the fridge for 2-3 days (if you can keep it that long!).

Eat alone as a light lunch or snack or serve as a side dish to grilled meat! Enjoy!

This past weekend I threw my friends a 'couple's shower' for their upcoming wedding in August.

A couple's shower is a fun alternative to a bridal shower, as it involves both the bride and groom. We still played shower games and had delicious food but it was fun to get the 'men' involved!

Whenever I throw a party, I like to have a theme in mind. I try not to get too crazy or obsessed with the theme but it is a nice way to stay focused throughout the party planning. I decided on a "retro barbque" theme for the party. My friend is having some vintage elements to her wedding,  so I thought it would be a nice tie-in to the big day. Also, since it was a couple's shower and both men and women were attending, it was fun to play with the male/female roles, especially of that time period (let's just say I wore an apron!).

When I went shopping for the party, I hit up a few consignment/thrift stores in the area and that is where the theme exploded! I was able to get all of the prizes for the games (vintage cook books, old schwin bike tire, aprons etc) as well as fun serving dishes and trinkets for decorating from that era. All together, I spent just over $75 for all of the prizes and decorations! There were almost 30 people at the shower, so that was a bargain.

The food was a classic spread from a 1960's back yard barbque. I found a recipe box  (which I later painted and refurbished as my gift to the bride) with classic recipe cards from the 1960's. Jack pot! I was able to use the recipe cards as decoration for the table as well as used some of the recipes to make.

For appetizers:

Bacon wraped waterchestnuts

Deviled eggs

Hawiian meatballs

The spread:

Beer brats and burgers on the grill

Grandma Dot's Potato salad

Colslaw with kiwi

Calico beans

Tuna with noodles

Jello salad suprise

Dessert:

Pineapple upsidedown cake

Classic coconut creme cake

Ice cream

Drinks:

Classic coke and diet coke (in retro bottles with straws)

Fruit punch (served in a punch bowl!)

Iced tea

Coffee

The shower was a success and people really enjoyed the food and their retro gifts! In my next post I will share some of the fun recipes...any in particular you'd like me to share?

Have a great weekend!

To head to the Farmer’s Market that is…

Most of your city’s local markets have opened and have an abundance of fresh fruits, vegetables and other products for sale, with many of them grown and produced locally. 

Make a morning of it…it is a GREAT start to your day!  Many of them are open on the weekends and offer perks such as coffee and local food to fuel up on!  I went last Saturday and enjoyed a fresh cup of coffee and a caramel roll while I strolled the rows and rows of fresh fruits, vegetables, arts/crafts and flowers.  I bought ingredients for my dinner and a bouquet of flowers just for fun…. best of all I supported my local farmers and had an awesome time!

If you are in Minnesota, check out this site to help find your nearest Farmer’s Market:
http://www.mda.state.mn.us/food/minnesotagrown/farmersmarkets.htm, otherwise check your official state department of agriculture website for locations near you!  

Happy Summer!