Ok, so I am baking today....

I don't particularly love to bake. When I finally get into it, I usually enjoy it. But, I don't really look forward to it. There are a couple of reasons for this:

1. I don't like things to be messy, and for some reason when I bake, I feel like my kitchen gets destroyed!

2. I don't like that with baking experimentation is limited. I like to cook by how I feel- to take a recipe and tweak it with what I think will make it more accomodating to my palate. That being said, I tried this recipe from The Barefoot Contessa on Food Network, and OMG! So good...I keep calling them my little sugar bombs...because they are sweet, but they are soooooooo good. I did change something- but not on purpose, I accidentally put too much butter in them, but who cares? They came out great, and so I am giving you the recipe with my mistake included.

preheat oven to 350!

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup corn starch

sift dry ingredients together and set aside.

Lasagna!

My neighbor just had a baby about 2 weeks ago, so as soon as her family from out of town left, I decided to take her some lasagna. The sauce in this recipe is the recipe my grandmother supposedly taught my mom when she married my dad, so it is a family hand down. I have made come changes over the years, but it is basically her sauce!



Homemade Lasagna!



Marinara Sauce:

1 small can tomato paste

1 15 oz. can crushed tomato's

1 15 oz can tomato puree

2 tlbs. olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, finely diced

2 shallots, finely diced

1 tlbs. dried whole leaf oregano

1 tlbs. dried basil

salt and pepper to taste

2 tlbs. butter



heat oil over medium heat and saute garlic and shallots until tender. Take care not to burn the garlic! Reduce heat to low, and add the rest of the ingredients besides the butter. Cover and simmer for at least 2 hours or longer over low heat, stirring occasionally. If the sauce is a little acidic, add a little butter to taste until the acidity is reduced.



Bechamel Sauce

4 cups whole milk

1/2 cup flour

5 tlbs. butter

1/2 cup fontina cheese

1/2 cup mozz

1 1/2 cups marinara sauce

pinch nutmeg



melt the butter over medium heat, and whisk in flour. Slowly add milk, whisking the entire time so that there are no lumps. When sauce is bubbly and thick, add cheese and stir until smooth and creamy. Remove from heat, and add sauce and pinch of nutmeg. Cover to keep warm and set aside.



Lasagna!


1 lb. extra lean ground beef
2 tlbs. olive oil
2 10 oz. pkg. frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed.
2 1/2 cups whole milk ricotta cheese
3 whole eggs
salt and pepper to taste

1 pkg. no cook lasagna noodles, such as Barilla

1 cup shredded mozz

1 cup shredded fontina

1/4 cup grated parmesean (mix these three cheeses together in mixing bowl and set aside)

preheat oven to 375. Heat oil in skillet and cook meat until brown. Drain, and set aside to cool. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta, eggs, salt and pepper until creamy and smooth. Set aside. To assemble lasagna, pour 1/3 of the bechamel sauce in the bottom of a greased 9x13x2 glass baking dish. layer noodles, slightly overlapping. (this should take about 4 noodles). Spread entire ricotta mixture over noodles, and then top with the spinach. Top with another layer of noodles. Spread the entire ground beef mixture over the fresh layer of noodles, and then spread 1 cup of the cheese mixture over the ground beef. Spread another 1/3 of the sauce over the cheese. Place the final layer of lasagna noodles over the cheese, and then top with the remaining sauce and then cheese. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes covered with aluminum foil, and then bake 15 minutes without the foil. Enjoy! I hope you like this recipe. It is totally time consuming but so worth the effort!