Okay.. enough of that, and on to the point of this post: I like to consider myself a decent cook and so far my work hasn't sent anyone to the hospital with food poisoning, so that's a good sign. However, the array of things I can successfully cook is quite limited. I can make some of the basics, but I've been wanting to expand my skills a bit. I know I'll never be the type of cook like my grandmother was and I regret not taking advantage of our time together to learn how to make some of her showstoppers. I loved Sunday dinners with her and even though I didn't always eat my veggies, I know her cooking brought our family closer. She was an amazing cook and made it seem so effortless.
For me, it won't be effortless or without it's share of failures but I am going to issue a challenge to myself (and anyone who wants to join me) to try and make something from scratch at least a few times a month. I would be more stringent with the requirements, but yeah... life happens and sometimes a little wiggle room can be a good thing.
The Man and I both love Italian food, and I can rock out to some spaghetti and lasagna.. but I wanted to step it up and try a recipe from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook (you know, the red checkerboard one.. love it!).
It was for lasagna rolls. I figured it was worth a try and simple enough I might could handle it on a work night. The recipe called for ground turkey, but the Man loves his red meat so we substituted ground chuck instead. Here was my starting point:
Lasagna noodles (I used about 8 so I could choose the pretty ones)
8 ounces ground chuck (browned with olive oil and "Italian seasoning")
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup milk
1 beaten egg
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 jar spaghetti sauce
Parmesan cheese
I started off by browning the meat with the finely chopped onion and cooking the noodles. While that was going, I mixed the egg, cheese, milk and some seasonings. Then I laid out the noodles on wax paper:
Spread the filling out on each one:
Rolled them up into a spiral and held my breath as I transferred it over to a Pam-sprayed 8x8 Pyrex dish:
Cover each with a heavy dose of pasta sauce and sprinkled the tops with Parmesan and some more
of our favorite "Italian seasoning":
And cook for about 30-45 minutes at 375 degrees and voila:
The Man loved it, and we've made it a few times in the past few weeks.
Hooray for another easy, but good dish to add to my limited repertoire.
2 comments:
i will try this for my sunday dinner this week!
let me know how it turns out! I bet a veggie version would be good too, but that wouldn't fly with my meat-lovin Man. :)
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