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