I got it from my mamma

Whenever I go home and my mom asks me what she can cook for me, I almost always say Lasagna. It's another one of those dishes that I think is best at home, and I'm sure a lot of people have their own family recipes. Here's mine.

EASY VEGETARIAN LASAGNA

Box of lasagna noodles (if you want to save time, try the "no boil" variety. You'll need more sauce but not having to boil the noodles saves time and the trouble of handling the wet, slippery, stick-to-each-other noodles.) I'm going to assume you will use the no-boil ones for this recipe. They taste pretty good.

(*when I made this recipe, I used boil ones... it turned out okay except they stuck to each other when cooking and then I had to peel them apart before I could layer them into the lasagna, which resulted in some ripping)

Choose a baking dish -- I have made successful lasagna in an 8" x 8" aluminim baking pan, a 7" x 10" ceramic baking dish and a similar-size Pyrex glass dish. The depth should be at least 2" so the lasagna doesn't spill over when baking.

Ingredients:

1-1/2 large jars (24 oz) tomato sauce of your choice (I like a tomato basil but anything you like is good)

8 ounces Ricotta cheese - lo-fat variety

1 egg (optional – makes the cheese filling a bit fluffier)

1-2 cloves chopped garlic

1 cup chopped fresh spinach leaves (optional)

2-3 Tblsp shredded parmesan cheese

6-8 ounces Boca crumbles or similar (optional)

8 ounces mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced (if you put it in the freezer for a little while, it hardens and is a bit easier to slice

Steps:

• Spray your pan lightly with Pam cooking Spray (sides too). Spoon a small amount of tomato sauce over bottom of pan.
• In a bowl, combine Ricotta cheese with the minced garlic, parmesan cheese, one egg and a couple of spoonfuls of tomato sauce to make it creamier and easier to spread (especially if you are not adding an egg). If using spinach, mix it in with the cheese.

• Slice an 8 ounce call of mozzarella cheese into thin strips.
• If you are adding Boca crumbles or other meat, either brown it in a pan to cook or defrost (for the crumbles).
• Begin with one layer of noodles. Do not overlap the noodles as they will expand while cooking.
• Next, using a flexible spatula, spread about ½ of the cheese mixture over the noodles. Spoon sauce over the cheese. Sprinkle on ½ of the crumbles (if using them) then dot with some of the mozzarella slices. 

• Add a new layer of noodles and repeat once more. Then add a final layer of noodles and pour all remaining sauce over them. 
• Finish with mozzarella all over the top of the lasagna. 
• Bake at about 375 degrees for about 40 minutes (the no-boil noodles should have some cooking times on it.

I usually bake this one day and serve it reheated the next. It is easier to cut and holds it shape better on day two.

From the kitchen of Ms. Ansel

My friend Evie had a few of us over in her beautiful new apartment when I was in Providence a few weeks ago. The soup she served was delicous, but so was the apartment. I can only hope that making the soup out of context will taste just as good. These are the words of the cook herself:

CUCUMBER YOGURT SOUP

1 box of chicken broth

1 big container of plain yogurt

a bunch of garlic

walnuts

a couple cucumbers

salt

pepper

Peel & chop cucumbers into little triangles. Cover them with salt, liberally, and let them sit in a strainer for a while (you're trying to make them crispy). While you let those sit, mix the yogurt and chicken broth. Press a couple of cloves of garlic into the yogurt/chicken broth mix. Take about a quarter cup of walnuts and break them up with ya fingas, and put into the yogurt concoction. After the cucumbers've had a chance to sit for a while, rinse them off pretty well, and add them to the soup too. Salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy with a big dollop o' Evie lovin.

New kitchens call for new salads

It's interesting being in somebody else's kitchen. In my house, salad is a component of every dinner. It's always the same salad-- mixed greens, arugula, spinach, cucumber, tomato, jicama, red cabbage, radishes (eew), carrots, red/yellow/green peppers, and occasionally strawberries, pine nuts, or rasins, all topped with a simple balsamic viniagrette. But when I open the fridge where I'm living now, I find few of these ingredients. I have been taught that salad is a staple, and as a result of this have grown to expect that certain vegetables will be around the house. Not so. And so here is my new salad creation. You can, of course, spice it up with whatever else you have on hand (I added blueberries once, and I suspect that cucumber or jicama would do well) but the basics listed below have done me right for a night or two. I'm learning that salad is not about the quantity and variety of vegetables, but how well they go together. Case in point, basil and lime. I'm sure somebody else figured this out before me, but they taste great together!

(note: in the above picture, I used spinach, not romaine)

SIMPLE SALAD FOR ONE

• One small tomato
• Half a green pepper
• 1/8 of a large Florida avocado*
• 3 to 5 long leaves of Romaine lettuce
• 3 to 5 leaves of fresh basil, minced
• 1/2 lime
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Chop tomato, pepper, avocado, and lettuce into similar sized pieces. I prefer for my pepper pieces to be about 1 square inch, and avocados about 1/2 cubic inch.
2. Toss all vegetables into a bowl, top it with the minced basil
3. Halve a lime, squeeze the juice from one half onto your salad. Toss and season with salt and pepper.

*Florida avocados are different than California avocados, as I recently learned. Compared to California's they are HUGE and less flavorful. If you substitute a California avocado, use 1/4 of the avocado instead, and enjoy the richer flavor

Yes, I ate something with chicken liver AND mushrooms

As I will be living in Miami for the next few months and visiting my Grandma pretty frequently, I plan to steal as many recipes as I can from her. Here's the first of (hopefully) many to come. We ate it with grilled chicken breasts and salad. And of course Diet Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey.

GRANDMA'S NO-FRILLS RISOTTO

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 chicken liver, skinned and finely chopped
• Several pieces of dried Porcini mushrooms, soaked in water until soft (about 1/2 hour) and coarsely chopped to make about 2 tbsp
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 cup rice, preferably arborio
• 2.5 cups chicken stock*
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1. Soak the mushrooms.  Chop liver and onions.
2. In a medium-sized pot, heat the oil over medium heat and add the onion, liver and mushrooms. Cook about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are wilted and translucent.  Bring chicken stock to boil in a separate pot.

3. Add the tomato paste and rice. Stir the rice to coat.

4. Add the boiling stock to the rice, and bring back to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes, covered, stirring occasionally.

Serve with a pat of butter and parmesan cheese.

Yield: 4 servings

*You may substitute some of the chicken stock for the liquid obtained from soaking and draining the mushrooms.

Update: 10/20/09

I made this recipe on my own for the first time.  It wasn't too hard, and it actually tasted good! I think I burned the liver/onion/mushroom bit a little, so make sure you stir it a lot and maybe put some extra oil in.  And don't turn the burner on too high! Cutting up the chicken liver was def the most adventurous part for me.  I went to Publix and bought a pack of like 9 or some similarly ridiculous number.  Then I put them in individual baggies and froze them.  It was gross.  There was blood dripping off them.  I sugggest rinsing them, then freezing them in the bag.  Mostly because then when I went to use one tonight, as it thawed and I cut it, the blood sort of oozed out in a really disgusting and unappetizing manner.  I may have cried more over this than I did when I was cutting the onions (okay that's a lie, but it really was gross, and as an ex-vegetarian I felt pretty guilty).  Anyway, it was an overall success, delicious, and I definitely recommend it!

When you cook, you begin with dough-re-mi

This being the very first entry in my cooking blog, there seems to be no better place to start than with my mom's classic banana bread recipe. I'm sure many families have their own banana bread recipe, but let me tell a little story to prove the worth of mine. In my Freshman dorm in college (see picture of us baking on a different day), my friend Raisa down the hall had a hoard of smuggled dining hall
bananas which were rapidly browning in her room. We had
established that we both liked to bake, and her cupcakes were absolutely delicious (if I can, I'll convince her to lend me the recipe for this blog). I volunteered to email my mom and get her banana bread recipe. My mom replied, we baked, and Raisa loved it, as did our friends and down-the-hall neighbors who got a bite. Here's the recipe; if you're feeling daring, add some cinnamon or chocolate chips.

BANANA BREAD

3 ripe bananas mashed with:

¼ cup butter

¾ cup sugar

1 beaten egg

1 ½ cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ cup walnuts (optional)

2 heaping tbsp ground flax seed (optional)

Bake at 350 for 45 min or more, until knife comes out clean, in a regular loaf pan.

If you make muffins, about 25 min.

(the above picture was taken as I rode to work with the banana bread in the passenger seat. I woke up and baked it in the morning for our staff meeting)