Lasagna......

Story:  We love lasagna.  I am always trying different variations of the dish, this time I combined a few of my favorites.  Meat sauce, bechamel sauce, spinach, fresh tomato sauce.....I made the tomato sauce from scratch, made a half batch of bechamel (white) sauce, used frozen spinach, fresh pasta, ricotta, mozzarella and meat.  It came out tasting very fresh and light.  I froze a square Pyrex and Swirv took the rest of our rectangle Pyrex to work.  


Recipe:  
Tomato Meat Sauce
1 bag of fresh tomatoes
1 onion
Garlic
1 cup of veg broth
2 tbsp of tomato paste
Fresh Basil
1/2 lb of ground beef
More garlic!


Chop the tomatoes in your food processor.  Do the same for the onion.  Fry the onions in a bit of olive oil until tender.  Add the tomatoes and garlic.  After about 5 mins at a good simmer, add the broth, basil and tomato paste.  Simmer for 25 mins or until the mixture resembles proper spaghetti sauce!  In a separate pan, brown the ground beef with salt, pepper and garlic.  Run it through the food processor to make it even.  Add to the tomato sauce.  


Bechamel Sauce
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
3 cups of milk (or less, depending on how thick you want it to be)
Salt & Pepper


Melt the butter.  Add the flour.  Let the flour bubble and turn golden.  Slowly add the milk.  Whisk away and it will thicken up immediately!  Salt and pepper.  Add the milk 1 cup at a time, to reach the desired thickness.  


Other Ingredients
Fresh lasagna sheets
1 box of frozen spinach, thawed and ready
Mozzarella cheese
Ricotta cheese
Salt & Pepper
Garlic Bread


Assembly
Splash some tomato meat sauce in the bottom
Drizzle some bechamel sauce over (it may be in globs, depends on thickness)
Lasagna sheet
Ricotta, mozz and spinach layer
Lasagna sheet
Tomato meat sauce

Drizzle some bechamel sauce over (it may be in globs, depends on thickness)

Lasagna sheet

Ricotta, mozz and spinach layer
And so on....


Be sure to save some bechamel and mozz for the top layer.  It gets a nice golden brown and it is delicious!  


- MLM

New Year's...

Story:  For Christmas this year, I made lots of baked goody platters.  I gave one to our neighbor and in return, I got a taste of a classic Aussie dessert.  I thought it was a multi-layered cake.  Lots of icing.  Delicious.  I had no idea it was cookies!!!  This is a true 'cookies and cream' dessert.  There are a lot of little extras you can do to this dessert - food coloring in the cream, a Bailey's dip for every other cookie, ginger snap cookies instead of chocolate ripple cookies.  


We went to a friends house for New Year's Eve and I made this to take over.  It was a hit!!  I sliced a pint of strawberries and sprinkled the top with cocoa powder.  It was very very good.  


If I can find lemon or strawberry cookies, this would be a perfect summer dessert.  The chocolate was great, don't get me wrong, but something about lemons and strawberries that cools you down a bit more on a hot summer day.  


Recipe:  
Double recipe fits perfect in a square pyrex :)
500ml thickened cream
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 x 250g packet Arnott’s Choc Ripple Biscuits (very hard cookies)

• Place cream, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and beat using an electric beater until stiff.
• Spread some cream along the bottom and sides of the dish.  Begin assembling the dessert by 'icing' a cookie and placing it in the dish.  Keep going until the dish is full...you may have to eat a couple of the 'leftover' cookies that won't fit ;) 
• Spread remaining cream to cover the dessert entirely. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours to set.  
• Just before serving, dust with cocoa or grated choc.  
• Extras: Dip every other cookie in your favorite liqueur before sandwiching together.  Or replace vanilla with 1 tsp of espresso or strong coffee or your favorite liqueur such as irish cream, hazelnut or citrus liqueur.  My neighbor used coconut essence for hers...

- MLM

Christmas....

Story:  Christmas and baking just go together.  My mother used to do copious amounts of baking on Christmas Eve.  Mrs. Brinkley and Kizzie used to stop by sometime before Midnight...and we'd still be up baking and decorating.  This happened as far back as I can remember.  It used to take us ages to get all Mom's animated decorations down from the attic, let alone the Christmas tree, bulbs, lights and ornaments.  We'd start early...but never early enough!  Christmas for me smells like Doll's Poundcake, Mom's Red Velvet Cake and Black Bottom Cupcakes - Pine tree is not Christmas-y!  I've certainly carried on the baking tradition...maybe one year I'll get into decorating more than just a tree!


For Christmas, I like to bake lots of different things, assemble plates and give them to friends.  This year I did Red Velvet Cake, Lemon Bars, Chocolate Chip Cookies and Brownies.  I will admit the brownies were from a box, but that was a last minute addition because SOMEONE ate some of the Choc Chip Cooks that were for friends....IRV!


Red Velvet cake is courtesy of Bakerella, as are the Lemon Bars.  The Chocolate Chip Cookies are a secret recipe of mine using raw caster sugar instead of white sugar, I swear it makes them taste better!  


http://www.bakerella.com/red-velvet-cake/


http://www.bakerella.com/lemon-bars-and-a-little-helper/


Maybe I'll think ahead for next year and get some nice Christmas plates for 2011. 


- MLM

Thanksgiving!!!!

Story:  Thanksgiving is a huge tradition in my family.  It has been since I was little and I have carried the tradition on since I've been married.  I remember the first Thanksgiving - we had a 3lb bird, blow up furniture and I used sweetened condensed milk instead of evaporated milk in the homemade macaroni and cheese!!!  Every year after that got bigger and better, as did my cooking.  


Another successful Thanksgiving is under my belt!  This year was maybe the best ever.  We had a ton of people over, and most importantly Auntie Brenda and Auntie Emma.  Not that the girls really noticed any of us adults, not with the other kids to entertain them.  


I did a lot of prep work the day before...which saved a ton of time on the day of.  However, I still was flat-out on T-Day!  I could not believe it!  I had great timing with the Turkey and subsequent sides needing to be cooked.  Everything was delicious...except the ham.  I just can't cook ham!!!  


I wish I had taken pics of the food when EVERYTHING was ready, because there was sooo much more.  Everyone brought a couple dishes and a couple bottles.  I even made punch!  Alcoholic of course :)  


Menu:
Turkey
Ham
Mashed Potatoes
Stuffing
Gravy
Green Bean Casserole
Roasted Carrots
Cole Slaw
Potato Salade
Candied Yams
Squash and Peas
Cheesy Polenta
Fresh Spinach and Walnut Salad
Rolls
Pecan Pie
Sweet Potato Pie
Pavlova with Cream and Fruit
Dumplings with Cream and Fruit
and MORE.....


Here are the pics of the food I made....


- MLM

Tamales PT 2...

Story:  I didn't make them this time.....they were being sold for a fundraiser and I luckily snatched a dozen before they were sold out.  These tamales were Ecuadorian - so they had different ingredients and were wrapped in banana leaves.  Inside these pork tamales were potatoes, corn and meat.  I made some fresh veggie & cumin rice, along with some fresh salsa.  A couple tacos on the side and it was a very filling meal.  

As I'm eating, I'm thinking how much I prefer my tamales to these ones.  So of course I hopped online and ordered some supplies!!  I got a tamale kit that comes with the masa, the husks, a steamer, chilies, a spreader and something else.  Can't wait 'til it gets here!  I'm making a big batch this time.  The spreader will make it heaps easier than when I did it with a rice spoon.  The plan is to make beef and pork tamales.  

I think I might have a small dinner party to celebrate my hard work!!

- MLM

Breakfast...

Cooking....

Finished Product :)

Story:  We love some breakfast!!  Eggs, meat and 'taters.  Pancakes, waffles and fruit.  Juice. Coffee.  What's not to love?!  Swirv got me a fantastic new griddle plate to put on the stove.  Every electric one we have had has burnt out and died.  So, I'm sold on the stove top griddle.  Perfect pancakes and bacon...delicious eggs.  Love it!  


- MLM

Beef, It's what's for dinner PT 2...

Story:  Growing up, we always had a freezer full of Beef.  Steaks, hamburger meat, roasts and MORE.  Every year Mom or Dad (someone) would go to Mt Airy Meat Locker (I'm pretty sure that's the name) and would bring home huge boxes of frozen beef goods.  It was a process brining it in from the car, stocking the freezer - as you can imagine a whole or quarter side of beef would be!  Steaks on the grill, Mom's Hamburger Corn Casserole, roast....Meat Starch Vegg.  Thank goodness I married a Beef Eater!!


- MLM