Homemade Lasagna

Holy Yum was this ever good! I have only ever made lasagna using the recipe on the lasagna noodle box, which is simple and plenty satisfying if that's what you want. However, last time I made it I just didn't care for it. So, I took to the internet and found a recipe that sounded different and delicious (http://www.ohsweetbasil.com/2014/06/easy-homemade-lasagna-recipe.html) and I made it with what I had on hand and below are the results and the directions...

First off, I do not measure things except when making cookies. So amounts are my best guesses.

I put about a tbsp of both butter and olive oil in a big pan and let it melt. I then added about half of a medium sized diced onion and about a tbsp of jarred chopped garlic. After a few minutes on medium heat I added 1 lb of ground beef and browned it. Next I put in 1/4 cup of half and half along with a few shakes of salt and pepper. After a few minutes I put in 2 28 cans of diced tomatoes that I first pureed in a food processor. I added probably around 1.5-2 tbsp of italian seasoning and let it all simmer for about 10 minutes.

While that worked it's tasty magic, I mixed together 15 oz of ricotta, around 1/4 cup of parmesan, 1 egg, about 3-4 tbsp of basil paste, and a little sprinkle of salt and pepper.

For the layering I first put a very thin layer of the sauce in the bottom of the lasagna dish. Then I added 4 oven ready lasagna noodles, followed by a thin layer of the ricotta mixture on top of the noodles. Next, I sprinkled shredded mozzarella on top (maybe 1/3 cup?) followed by cheddar on top of that (maybe 1/4 cup?). I repeated this layering process two more times, but on the final layer I also added in freshly sliced mozzarella on top of the ricotta, before a small sprinkling of shredded mozzarella and cheddar.

I covered it and baked it at 375 degrees for 30 minutes then uncovered it and baked it an additional 15 minutes. It was sooo good! I think thin layers of everything are important and this was super cheesy which is a big hit in our house.

In the future I'll add another small can of tomatoes and make a fourth layer of the lasagna as I had plenty of room left in my deep lasagna pan.

Enjoy!

Cilantro Jalapeno Dip

I made this to enjoy while watching the Super Bowl... go Broncos!

This is a delicious dip and can be tailored to your own taste. It uses only a few ingredients and requires a food processor.

Ingredients:
8 jalapenos
1 bunch cilantro
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 of a ranch seasoning packet

You will need to put the jalapenos and cilantro into the food processor. This is where you can make the dip to your own liking. If you don't like spicy, take out all of the seeds and insides of the jalapenos. I like a small amount of heat so I keep a couple small chunks of the insides. Use the food processor to combine the cilantro and jalapenos. The result will be a paste like substance.

Mix the paste with the sour cream, mayo, and ranch seasoning. Your dip is now complete. Let it rest for a half hour and then enjoy with your favorite chips. You could also try it as a spread on burgers.

Yummy, but unfortunately the picture does not do this dip justice.

Tissue Paper Snowflakes

This is a super easy craft, just changing up the paper snowflake we all made as kids. All you need for this is some colorful tissue paper and scissors. I cut a bunch of circles in different sizes and different colors and let the kids have at it. The only difficult part of this craft is to be careful not to tear the delicate tissue paper.

To begin, cut a circle of your desired size. Fold in half, and then fold in half again. Keep doing the folding until it gets to the size you want to cut. Cut some designs into all three sides of the triangle shape you have. You can do semi-circles, triangles, squares, whatever you want.. be creative. Just be careful not to cut all the way across or you'll have to start over. After cutting, carefully unfold and see what you've created.

Here are my three examples.

Homemade Pizza

We eat our fair share of pizza around here, and one of my favorites is the homemade variety. I don't remember where I came across this recipe for pizza dough, but I've had it probably about five years now and it's worth sharing. It's easy to make the dough, a little less easy to get it spread out onto the cookware for preparing and baking. Perhaps this is where my four months of working in a pizza shop 13 years ago comes in handy.

Ingredients for dough:
2 1/2 to 3 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/4 tsp fast rising yeast (1 envelope)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup very warm water
2 tablespoons oil (I use olive oil)

This dough makes two good sized pizzas, or as I prefer to do--one large pizza plus a side of cheese sticks.

In a large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, yeast, salt. Stir together. Gradually add water and oil to mixture and stir or blend at low speed until moistened and well mixed. By hand add 1 1/2 cups or so of flour until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. On a floured surface, knead 1/4 or so of a cup of flour until dough is smooth and elastic.
At this point, I tear away about 1/3 of the dough so I have two pieces, one smaller than the other. The smaller will be used for cheese sticks. If you want two pizzas instead, you can tear away an equal portion of the dough instead of just a third.
Cover the dough loosely with plastic and let it rest in a warm place for about 25-30 minutes.

After dough has rested and risen a bit I am ready to work with it. This is where the more difficult part comes in. It's important to work out the air bubbles in the dough. I don't have a fancy pizza pan, so I use cookie sheets for baking. I lay the dough down on the cookie sheets I use for the oven, with first sprinkling a dusting of flour on the surface. I use my palms and fists to flatten the dough down and work out the air. You can hold the dough in your hands and let it stretch to help with fitting it to the pan. (Next time I make this I will take pictures of the process to give a visual and make it easier to understand)

Dough may tear or form holes as you are working with it and trying to fit it to the pan. This is ok and can be easily fixed by pulling the dough together at the hole. Once dough is pressed out to your liking (be patient!), you are ready to put on your toppings.

For cheese sticks, I melt about a tablespoon of butter with a few shakes of garlic salt and brush that onto the crust. I then sprinkle mozzarella all over the top and it's ready to bake. It bakes at 450 degrees around 8 minutes or until it reaches your desired level of doneness. My cookie sheet for this is 9x13 inches.



For the pizza I use half of a 14 oz jar of store bought pizza sauce, which goes directly onto the pressed out dough. Then I add lots of mozzarella cheese, my favorite toppings, and then a little more cheese on top. This particular pizza has ground beef that I browned just before baking with cheddar cheese sprinkled on top. Pizza bakes in 450 degree oven around 10 minutes or so, or until it reaches your desired level of doneness. My cookie sheet for this is 16x13 inches.



Using cookie sheets instead of something made specifically for pizzas works fine, however know that the crust will not be as crispy with this method.
Have fun making this and choosing the toppings. Enjoy!

Decorations and COOKIES

Christmas is becoming pretty noticeable around here. The houses on our street are lit up with lights, and we are attempting to add to that, if only in the slightest way. The lights on the outside of the garage have decorative wreaths around them and we have a tree up this year, which will continue on in years to come now that we have our own.

We don't have much of a place to put it, but hey.. it's our first year. We'll improve next year.



We also hung some stockings above the fireplace and decorated with H's snowmen.



I've already gotten into the baking spirit. That usually doesn't happen until I'm back in NC and making chocolate chip cookies at both houses. I got a new mixer though and started early. I made both oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and the normal chocolate chip cookies. These recipes can be found on a box of Quaker oats and Nestle Toll House chocolate chips.




I want to try some sort of gingerbread cookie. I've never made those before. Actually, now that I have a fancy mixer I plan to try lots of new goodies. Maybe it's time I begin using that workout machine hiding behind the Christmas tree.

Scented Gingerbread Man

The best part of this craft is not how it looks. It's how it smells! I found an easy to cut gingerbread man template online and printed those off for the kids to cut and paint. We mixed in cinnamon and a touch of glue to the brown paint to make this painting a lot more fun. It smelled great and was a lot more festive than just using plain paint. The cinnamon mixed in also gave a small amount of texture to the gingerbread man.

After painting, the kids could decorate to their liking using a variety of sparkles and buttons by just placing them on the wet paint.

We only had thin paper to use, but I would recommend something a bit thicker to hold up to the paint and whatever decorations you put on top.

Here is my example.

Paper Monsters

I learned last year after doing a craft involving monsters that kids LOVE monsters. Keeping that in mind, I came up with this project with a little help from the internet. This particular craft lets the kids create their own monsters--cute, scary, whatever they dream up.

It's pretty simple. The body is just a circle, which I had all prepped and ready to go. You cut two circles, fold one in half, and glue it on top of the other for the mouth.



I put out a basket of scrap paper and googly eyes, and the rest was up to the kid. Some kids made wings, a tail, crazy hair, etc and it turned into a project that a lot of kids enjoyed.

Here is my example...



Once completed, these became instant toys for many of the kids.