The Best Best BEST Lasagna I Have Ever Eaten EVER

Ok, so that's not what the recipe is really called.  It's actually called Classic Lasagna and it came from the Best Recipes Ever (Canadian Living Magazine) CBC website.  I think I saw this episode of Best Recipes Ever on CBC when I was working part time and was home one afternoon.  It has become my regular lasagna recipe.  Once we tried it we never looked back.

You may notice that there are carrots in this dish.  Yes, carrots.  You read that right.  Apparently carrots, celery and onions are key elements in something called mirepoix.  I guess this is important.  I have never left them out, so for all I know the lasagna would be horrible without them.  Well, probably not, but why take chances?

The other ingredient I have not used in anything before is Italian sausage.  This is something I would never eat on its own, as it has some kind of spice in it that I don't really care for if I were to eat just a big old sausage, but it really gives the lasagna a distinctive flavour that I really like.  It wouldn't be nearly so good if you left out the sausage and used all ground beef instead.

I have mentioned in a previous post that I don't like nutmeg.  Well, this has nutmeg in it.  Just a sprinkle, but it's there and I wouldn't leave it out.

This is a very time consuming dish to make, but it takes almost no more time to make two than one, so I always make two.  Cook once, eat four times.  Yay!  One for supper and leftovers tomorrow, and one for the freezer for a day when I know I won't have time to cook anything good and we don't want hot dogs.  However, it does take a little planning ahead and I have to remember to take it out of the freezer the night before.  If I am particularly clever I will remember to put it in the oven at noon when I am home for lunch, and set the timer so we will have a nice, hot supper when we get home at the end of the day.

Tonight's supper scored four out of five thumbs from the family.  It was only Jane who wouldn't eat it.  I'm not sure why, as I am certain she has eaten it before.  Oh well, bread and butter for her and more lasagna for the rest of us.

The Biggest Loaf

Yes.  More bread.  We have already discussed this.  There will always be more bread.  I love bread.  I love to eat it.  I love to make it.  There is something therapeutic about the mixing and kneading and making something out of a combination of things that you can't eat on their own. When I came across today's recipe I knew I had to try it, quite simply because it it the biggest loaf of bread I have ever seen.  Go on over to The Amateur Gourmet and see for yourself.  The photograph shows a big, beautiful, spherical loaf of wonder.

You have everything you need in your pantry to recreate this marvel in the comfort of your own home, unless, of course, you don't ever bake, in which case you will have to head out to the store.  Flour, yeast, salt, water.  That's it.  That's all.  You will also need a big mixing bowl and a baking sheet.  And an oven.

This is an incredibly simple loaf to bake.  Mix all the dry ingredients together in your monster bowl, add the water, knead for ten minutes (give or take a minute or two), rise, knead, shape, rise, bake.  Actually, the baking part scared me just a little.  Pre-heat the oven to 500 degrees (otherwise known as Hell).  WHAT?  I have never set my oven to 500 degrees.  Ever.  I chickened out and set it to 450, put the bread in for fifteen minutes and then reduced the heat to 425 for about 30 minutes.

Taking this out of the oven was fun.  I really love a loaf that talks to you when you release it from the oven.  Jane and I listened in happy wonder as it snapped, crackled and popped.  Ah, music to my ears.  While is was still hot I wrapped it in a couple of tea towels and we took it out to my parents' place where we were going to spend the afternoon and evening.  After a 40 minutes drive this loaf was still hot.  I guess such a giant bread ball takes a while to cool.

Fast forward to supper time.  How the heck does one cut a loaf that is roughly the size of a watermelon?  I decided to cut it half and then cut one half into slices.  The crust was thick and, well, crusty, just like it should be.  The inside was chewy with a hearty, bready  flavour.  Don't expect a soft, insubstantial grocery store loaf.  This is sturdy stuff.  We had it with butter, but it would go with anything you wanted to put on it.  Butter and jam, peanut butter, cheese.  Serve it alongside a bowl of soup (maybe pea soup with farmer sausage...see an earlier post for that one), stew or chili.  I enjoyed a piece unadorned.  It was very satisfying.

This is my loaf, right out of the oven.

And this is my loaf, after cooling.

Mmmm...I bet you want some right now.  Go make your own.  This one is mine!

Junk Food Cookies

When I bake cookies, which is fairly often considering that I think that bought cookies are a waste of time, I usually give them at least one redeeming feature to make them less evil.  Usually, it's oatmeal.  Oatmeal is good for you, right?  It lowers cholesterol blah blah blah.  Actually, I quite like oatmeal.  Oops.  I'm getting distracted again.  Focus.  Cookies.

Kim is going to love these.  I know she probably wouldn't cross the street for a cookie, but potato chips are her weakness.  Junk Food Cookies, posted by The Amateur Gourmet, are chock full of junky goodness, which can include chips, if you so desire.  Before we get to that part, let's talk about the base of the cookie - the batter.

I was really excited about making these, in part because of a technique I've never heard of before, and also because I wanted to play with my new Kitchen Aid stand mixer.  After creaming together the butter, sugars and corn syrup, you add the eggs and vanilla and let the mixer do its job for ten minutes.  Yes, you read it right - TEN MINUTES!  You would not believe what happens to the mixture when it's been beaten for that long.  It gets incredibly fluffy and it looks like way more stuff than you originally put in the bowl.  Wow.  I was impressed.  I would post a picture of the miracle, but you can head over to The Amateur Gourmet and see it there.  His pictures are far superior to those that I take with my iphone.

Follow the rest of the instructions carefully, so as not to over mix the batter.  I have a feeling that if you spend too long incorporating the dry ingredients and all the additional goodies, you'd beat all the lovely volume right out of the batter, and there'd be no getting it back.

As for the junk food, I threw in most of my pantry.  You are supposed to use one and a half cups of your favourite baking ingredients and one and a half cups of your favourite junk food.  If I remember correctly, I used mini Rollos, white chocolate chips, dried cranberries, pecans, Rice Krispies, Special K Vanilla Almond cereal (what the heck...it was there), and crushed pretzles. (Sorry, Kim.  No chips this time.  I didn't have any in the house.  The closest I had was Jason's Humpty Dumpty snack mix, and somehow I don't think that would do.)  I think I put in more than three cups total.  Hmmm...I wonder how that will pan out.  (Pan, get it?  You bake cookies on a pan?  Oh, never mind.)  See, I actually haven't baked them yet.  After combining everything you need to put your cookie blobs on parchment paper and chill them so that they will hold their shape better when they are baked.  The AG says to use an ice cream scoop.  Well, I don't have one.  I used two big spoons and hoped for the best.  My dough is currently in the fridge for the night, so I will remain in suspense until the morrow.  Good night.


It is now about 24 hours later and I have baked my cookie dough blobs. Let me tell you, it was harder to bake them than I thought it would be.  I preheated the oven to 400, just like the recipe ordered me to, and put in the first pan.  After nine minutes, they were not quite done.  I gave them an additional two minutes and then they were overdone.  Hmmm...The next pan went in for exactly nine minutes and I took them out and left them on the pan, because experience has told me (and so have a few foodies) that the cookies will continue to bake after being left on the hot pan after coming out of the oven.  Ok.  Third pan.  I lowered the temperature to 350 and gave them about 15 minutes.  I think I got it right.  Pan number two went back into the oven for five more minutes because they really weren't done.  Then I sampled a bit of cookie from each pan.  Nom nom nom.  Were they good?  Well, yes, but not the spectacular cookie-consuming experience I had expected.  Now, that may not be the fault of the recipe.  It might have been because I couldn't get the temperature or baking time just right.  Either way, I was a little disappointed.  Boo.  Lucky for me, they won't go to waste.  I have a husband who never met a cookie he didn't like.  And he said he liked these.

Will I make them again?  Probably.  And next time I'll put in the chips, just for Kim.

Anderson's Pea Soup

I don't know who the Andersons are, but they sure know how to make good pea soup.  This recipe for Anderson's Pea Soup comes from a wonderful site called Mennonite Girls Can Cook (they also have a facebook page).  I love this site.  Maybe it's my Mennonite roots, or maybe I just like good food.  Whatever.  If you're wanting to make a hearty, home cooked meal, this is definitely a good place to start.  They have a whole section dedicated completely to Mennonite recipes.  Love it!

But I digress.  This is supposed to be about the soup.

Pea soup may not be everyone's cup of tea, and even I had to try a few variations before finding one I really liked. This is the one.  Very, very easy to make.  I loaded up my slow cooker, turned it on and left it alone all afternoon.  Cooked farmer sausage joined the lovely green soup about an hour before suppertime.  The soup would have been fine without it, but I really think the farmer sausage is the magic ingredient.  I suppose you could add ham or even bacon...nah.  It has to be farmer sausage.  Remember that.

And remember this:

Nothing more needs to be said.

Baked Oatmeal with Roasted Pears

Today I made a breakfast dish that actually makes me excited about getting out of bed for breakfast.  Baked Oatmeal with Roasted Pears was definitely worth getting up for.  This is another recipe from Not Without Salt, which is quickly becoming one of my favourite food blogs.  

This wonderful breakfast (or brunch, if you like to sleep in) dish is compared to dessert, and indeed, it is good enough for dessert!  I knew this would be delicious, but I was still surprised at how amazingly good it was.  I love recipes like this, that are easy to prepare and don't include obscure ingredients available only at specialty shops.  I had everything I needed in my fridge and pantry.  It took only a few minutes to throw together.  The hardest part was waiting the 45 minutes it took to bake.

Just a note: I changed only one thing.  I left out the nutmeg.  I really don't care for it. Oh yeah, and I left out the rosemary, but that was an optional ingredient, so I don't know if that counts as a change.  And I put pecans in the crumble because that's what I had.

Here is the masterpiece upon its exit from the oven:

Impressive, no?

And here it is again in my bowl:

I drizzled a tiny bit of maple syrup over the top, but I think it would have been flavourful enough on its own.  The first bite, oatmeal, pear, pecans and syrup, was delightful!  It reminded me a bit of bread pudding, but with a slightly different texture.  The combination of cinnamon and vanilla was perfect.  The pears were perfectly roasted in their little oatmeal beds.  Mmmm....actually, I can't wait to get out of  bed tomorrow so I can have some more.  And maybe eat more for an afternoon snack.  And dessert.  If there is any left by that time!

Kim, you must try this one.  You won't be disappointed.  I money-back-guarantee it.  And if you don't like it, well, you'll just have to come all the way over here for your money back.  :)