Daring Bakers: Lasagna

For those of you who know me, this wasn't exactly my first time. I may have had a pan or 2 of lasagna in my time. Let's just say I know my way around the big thick noodles and any type of sauce you can think of. If you are under the age of 18 you should cover your eyes and leave this webpage now.









But if you are old enough and think you can handle it... here's the pic


Hehehe. I amuse myself. And I amuse you too. Admit it.

Anyway, surprisingly, this is my first lasagna post. I actually stuck with the original recipe pretty much, with just a few minor changes here and there, and really it's just more fudging than changes.

So this is how it's gonna go. It took about 4 hours total. You start the ragu. You get it simmering. Then you make the pasta dough. While it is resting you add the tomatoes to the ragu and simmer more. Then you roll out the pasta dough. Then you start the water boiling for the pasta. Then you make the bechamel. Then you cook the pasta in batches while you assemble. Then bake. Eat. Repeat from the top.

So let's start with making the ragu. Start with a carrot, 1 rib celery and a medium onion.


Chop them up fine.

Then get about 2 oz of pancetta and chop that up fine too.
Add the pancetta and veggies to a pan with a couple tbsp of olive oil over medium heat. Allow to sweat a bit until they just start to brown.

While those are going, let's get the meat. Where I used to live you could buy meatloaf mix, which was ground beef, pork and veal. Then you could just buy a lb and you'd be good to go. Not the case here. So I ended up buying a lb each of pork and veal and 2 lbs beef. So put those together in a bowl.
And mix them all together. The only way to do it is to stick your hands in and just do it. mmm feel the way the fat coats your hand. And don't even try to deny knowing what I'm talking about.

Since we only need 1 lb for this recipe the other 3 lbs get portioned and frozen. You know how lotsa recipes ask for this mix so just batch it up for later.
Take each 1 lb bag and press them flat so that they fit better in the freezer. Or they can be stacked or whatever. They just handle better this way. Just do it and quit yer whinin'.
And add the 1 lb of the mix to the veggies.
Just let it cook, tossing it and scraping the bottom every once in a while.
Keep going. You want it really dark brown.
There you go. Now you're pretty close. It smells so good and brown right about now. I don't know how else to describe it other than brown. I've never browned meat this way but it was really good. Will definitely keep it in mind when making sauces in the future.
Now you start adding the beef broth, about a half a cup at a time.
Let it cook off between each addition until you get to about 2 cups, give or take.
The sauce looks creamy for a bit but when you let it simmer for about an hour it just ends up a dark brown.
While the ragu is simmering, let's get the pasta started. Combine 6 oz of spinach, thawed and squeezed dry and 2 eggs in a food processor. I don't have a food processor so I used the Magic Bullet. It worked. Though maybe a food processor would have gotten the spinach smaller. I guess we'll never know. Unless you try.
That looks so unappetizing. After you blend it up it looks better, at least a little bit. See?
Make a well with 2 cups of AP flour on your counter. Pour the spinach mix in the center. Scoop might be a better word than pour but you get the idea.
No pics from here until the pasta was done because my hands were covered in flour. Start mixing together the flour into the spinach egg mixture, gradually adding bits of flour. Your hands are going to be a mess. Just accept it. So is your kitchen. Get over it.

Keep kneading until it forms a nice smooth dough. You may need to add more flour depending on the exact amount of spinach, how well you drained it, the weather and your mood. Cover the dough and let it rest for about a half an hour or more.

Back to the ragu. Add a small can of peeled whole tomatoes. Though this sauce isn't very tomatoey so if you want more go for it. You could add tomato paste or sauce if either of those make you happy too. Crush the tomatoes with your spoon and resume simmering. Oh and taste and season to your liking.

You probably have a couple minutes about now to start writing your blog post. But don't plan on finishing the post because otherwise dinner will be really late. I suppose you could do something else but what else could you possibly want to do? Oh I guess you should get your counter reasonably clean so that you can roll out your pasta.

Cut off knobs of dough. Depending on how much counter space you cleared, you decide how big of a knob to cut. Flour your rolling pin and counter and put your knob down and start rolling. You just want to roll, don't push on the dough or it will tear.

Roll out the dough until it's thin. Very thin. You should be able to see light through it thin. See the light? It'll help keep your lasagna lighter (because lasagna is a real light dish, right? hah)
Cut into strips about the length of your pan. Repeat until you have used up all the dough.

Bechamel time. Bechamel is a cream sauce. Pretty standard one for this recipe. Start with half a stick of butter and 4 tbsp flour in a pan. Melt the butter and mix into the flour. Add whatever you need to so it looks about like this.
Add about 2 cups milk (I just finished the carton I had and called it close enough.
And bring it up to a simmer so it thickens. Now add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Taste and see if you are happy with it.
Then I decided to add some ricotta, just for kicks and giggles. About a cup. Or because I had some and figured it would be a good way to use it up. Whatever makes you happy.
Stir it in until smooth. Or at least kinda smooth.
Put a thin layer over a 9"x13" pan.
Now back to the water you boiled for the pasta. You did that didn't you. Make sure it's salted and have an ice bath. Cook the pasta for 2 minutes. Put it in the ice bath to cool it. And into the pan to form your first layer.
Next is a layer of bechamel.
Followed by the ragu.
Followed by some freshly grated parmesan.
Repeat until you run out of stuff. It will all fit in a 9x13" pan. This would make a nice thick lasagna. Or you could do what I did and also make a 9x9" pan and have both be a bit thin. Whatever makes your skirt fly up. Hehe. I copied that from Pioneer Woman. It cracks me up. Yes I am easily amused.

It should end with pasta, bechamel, cheese. I topped mine with some shredded mozzerella. Because I like that stringy brown stuff on top. Bake for about 45 minutes or until browned. Let it rest for at least 15 minutes so that it firms up enough to cut. And dig in.








The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

Barefoot Bloggers: Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart

Edit: I knew there was a reason for the title of my blog. Everyone else seems to have mixed it up in one way or another. I stuck closer to the original recipe than most people, which is strange because I suck at following recipes. Go to the barefoot bloggers site (link below) to see what everyone else did.

This post is pretty incoherent. That's your warning. I started it and continued probably 3 different times and now I just want it up so I don't miss the posting date and I'm tired of writing. Your fault for reading it. Don't blame me.

The second recipe of this month for the Barefoot Bloggers was Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart. It was chosen by Anne of Anne Strawberry. I actually made it last weekend though I almost forgot to finish my post!

I opted to make it into square pastries. Who cuts out circles and throws away those scraps of puff pastry? It would have been throwing out half of it! I cut each sheet of puff pastry into 4 squares and then did everything like in the recipe. Then when they came out I cut each square into 4 again so that I had nice bite size pieces. Besides which I like squares.

Apparently I've become really sensitive to certain flavors. I used a total of about 5 oz of goat cheese for the 8 tarts and I found it a little strong but other than that these are easy and tasty. But I seem to always think there is too much goat cheese whenever I get anything with goat cheese at a restaurant so I guess it's probably me and not the recipe. Though after it cooled and it was close to room temp the goat cheese did not seem so overwhelming.

These were incredibly popular at work. I know, no kidding, guys prefer savory to sweet but whatever. I like sweet. Though these were good too. And the onions gave it lots of sweetness.

I would chop the onion next time rather than just thin strips. I ended up with some stringiness in the onions which made serving them slightly difficult. Some people might say that's operator error but whatever.

Cake Balls

I had to make them because everyone else did. I don't really have anything interesting or funny to say about them so I'll just give them to you. And I know half the point is that they are supposed to look pretty, like fancy truffles or something but I don't really do pretty. So here you go.


Cranberries are good for you. So is chocolate. And I halved the amount of frosting lots of other people used. So these are practically health food.

Cake Balls

1 box yellow cake mix and whatever it says you need except the water
cranberry juice, however much water it says on the box
1/2 can vanilla frosting
semisweet chocolate

Make the cake mix, using the cranberry juice in the place of water however it says to on the box. Oh and add some red food coloring to make them nice and pink.
Allow the cake to cool (or don't) and dump the whole thing in a bowl with the frosting.
Mix until everything is uniform.
Form balls out of the cake and place on a pan in the freezer for a few minutes.
Melt the chocolate.
Coat the balls in the chocolate and return to the pan.
Chill for a few minutes to allow the chocolate to set.

Sweet Potato Biscuits with Cinnamon Honey Butter

This post is my entry in the North Carolina Sweet Potato Recipe contest. Now don't you all go entering and taking away my chances of winning!

I looked around a lot of places for inspiration. I didn't want to make something that everyone makes, like sweet potato pie, casserole (you know, with the brown sugar and marshmallows) or fries. But I wanted to do something southern or southern inspired. Afterall, I'm a southerner now. And it's the North Carolina recipe contest.

I'd been thinking about it for a couple weeks but didn't really know what I wanted to do. I though about playing with a pie or baking them and working something in there but nothing seemed quite right.

Well my schedule was a bit weird last week. So I was sleeping and not sleeping at odd times. Eating at odd times. Baking at odd times. Inspiration came at an odd time too.

They actually came out pretty good. Which was a little surprising because you never know what you are gonna get when you are making up a recipe and baking at 3AM. Especially when trying to take pictures at the same time.



So here goes nothing.....

Preheat oven to 425. I never actually remember to do that but it's important, at least for this recipe. Grease a 9"x9" baking pan with shortening.

Get a large sweet potato. Though they seem to always be large. I never see any small ones. Anyway.

Peel the sweet potato.


Put it on a microwave safe plate and cover with a damp paper towel. Microwave for 5 minutes. Check for doneness. Microwave 1 minute at a time more until the sweet potato is soft and fork tender. The microwave really does work well for this.

Sift together the White Lily flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, cardamom and clove into a medium bowl.

Fresh ground spices are best but use what you've got. If you don't have these or if you have some pumpkin pie spice sitting in your pantry use that. Or whatever else makes you happy. Personally, I buy my spices whole and grind it in a coffee grinder. In the case of cinnamon, it was 1.29 for a bag of 30 or so cinnamon sticks, vs $5 for a tiny bottle of ground cinnamon that is so much less potent. It's actually a lot more cost effective to buy whole spices and they last a lot longer.


OK, off the soapbox. Here's the dry ingredients all sifted together.


Measure the shortening. I love my plunger measuring cups. It's the only measuring device I used for the whole recipe. And only one of them. It's the only thing that works for things like shortening and honey.


Cut in the shortening it forms they are the size of small peas. I just used my switchit to do it. Which is another one of my kitchen toys that I love. I have 3 of them and those and a whisk are the only things I use anymore. The shortening is really easy to cut in. So much easier than cutting in cold butter.


Add about 1 cup buttermilk to a blender with the sweet potato and puree until smooth. Stir the puree into the flour mix, just until moistened. Do not overwork or your biscuits will be tough.
Add buttermilk until it gets to the consistency slightly thicker than cottage cheese.


Place the flour for shaping in the largest bowl you have. Flour your hands liberally. Dump the batter in the middle of the flour.


Pull off biscuit size chunks and toss them between your hands so they are covered in flour.


Place in the pan, pressing them up against each other to help them rise. Bake at 425 for about 30 minutes, until they just start to brown.


Meanwhile, mix the butter, remaining tsp cinnamon and honey together in a bowl.


Taste and add more of anything to suit your tastes.



Chill all but about 3 tbsps of the butter to firm it up. Spread the 3 tbsp butter on the biscuits right when they come out of the oven so that it melts into them.

Remove one and split it.


Spread some of the butter on it. Move quickly.


Now hold still and watch as the butter melts.


When it just completely melts, eat. Repeat until the tray is gone.

Sweet Potato Biscuits with Cinnamon Honey Butter

1 large sweet potato
2 cups White Lily All Purpose Flour (not self rising)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon, separated
1/2 tsp ground clove
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
about 1 2/3 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup butter flavored shortening, plus more to grease the pan
1 cup all purpose flour, for shaping
1 stick salted butter, softened
3 tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 425.
Grease a 9"x9" baking pan with shortening.
Peel the sweet potato.
Put it on a microwave safe plate and cover with a damp paper towel. Microwave for 5 minutes. Check for doneness. Microwave 1 minute at a time more until the sweet potato is soft and fork tender.
Sift together the White Lily flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, cardamom and clove into a medium bowl.
Cut in the shortening it forms they are the size of small peas.
Add about 1 cup buttermilk to a blender with the sweet potato and puree until smooth.
Stir the puree into the flour mix, just until moistened. Do not overwork or your biscuits will be tough.
Add buttermilk until it gets to the consistency slightly thicker than cottage cheese.
Place the flour for shaping in the largest bowl you have.
Flour your hands liberally.
Dump the batter in the middle of the flour.
Pull off biscuit size chunks and toss them between your hands so they are covered in flour.
Place in the pan, pressing them up against each other to help them rise.
Bake at 425 for about 30 minutes, until they just start to brown.
Mix the butter, remaining tsp cinnamon and honey together in a bowl. Taste and add more of anything to suit your tastes.
Chill all but about 3 tbsps of the butter to firm it up.
Spread the 3 tbsp butter on the biscuits right when they come out of the oven so that it melts into them.





*Exit music and credits roll*
Touch of Grace Biscuits, Bakewise by Shirley O Corriher, page 152
Sweet Potato Bisuits posted by Lazy Susin, which was based on Sweet Potato Biscuits by Paula Dean
Apples and Sweet Potatoes Pound Cake by i nom things, whose recipe was adapted from Apple Pound Cake by Crystal 6

Pi(e) Day 2009

It's Pi(e) Day!!!!! So I've sworn off most of the conventional food holidays.... Christmas.... Valentines day.... I like Thanksgiving and 4th of July is OK but probably my biggest food holiday is Pi(e) day. There's none of the commercials, none of the crap (aka gift) giving, none of crowds or anything like that.

If you read my blog last year (or if you click the link that follows), you'll remember the 12 pies I made and the event it became at work. Now I am working somewhere new, where people don't know me very well and... it's just different. I wasn't ready for it to become a spectacle like before.

Really, things were really busy the week or so before Pi(e) day and suddenly it's 3AM on Wednesday night when I realized it was almost Pi(e) Day. Since I've already told everyone what crappy holidays the ones I said above are, I figured I need to show them what a good holiday is.

I made a total of 5 pies this year. They went in on Friday so that I could put them out with my Pi(e) Day signs. So that people would understand.

Frozen Lemonade Pie
Corn and Bacon Pie x2
Pumpkin Pie x2

Here's a pic of the 2 pumpkin pies that I was packing to bring to work. How cool is that container by the way. The 2 pies fit perfectly so they don't slide around and get beat up. And it's got a carrying handle. There is a lid on the end that I have off in this pic but it fits well.


Last year I started planning it out several weeks in advance, baked a few every day starting about a week before, did quasi mise en place because who has time to bake multiple pies etc every night for a week. Let's just say it's a good thing I've got a much more user friendly kitchen now. There is no way I could do all this at my old apartment. That and I chose relatively easy recipes this year.

If you are reading this and you have no Pi(e) Day plans make them!! Make a pie! I have lots of recipes for them, here and here and here and here. Or Google if you don't like mine. Or go out and eat a pie. 3.14159265358979 pies. mmmmmm I like pie.

Still TBD what I will do today....

Barefoot Bloggers: Chicken Piccata

This month I'm gonna actually get it right this time. This one was chosen by Lindsey of Noodle Nights and Muffin Mornings. She chose Chicken Piccata. Though you should really go to her blog and make the Toffee Squares that are making me drool. And send them to me. I haven't gotten a chance to make them yet but they look so good. Go make them and send them to me. Now.

So I'm a couple days late... so sue me. I had other stuff to do. Like make pies.

So I had a bit of a dilemma. I had already decided I was making the lobster mac 'n cheese and sesame chicken this past weekend. And that would be more than enough food for the week for me. But I had this recipe to make as well. So I ended up freezing portions of the mac 'n cheese and the sesame chicken so that I could make the Chicken Piccata as well. Fortunately this recipe was only for 2 chicken breasts so it wasn't too much.

I was hoping that it would be a sweet recipe when I decided on the other stuff that I was planning to make and of course I was too lazy to actually check what the recipe was. Or that at least one of the recipes from one of the groups would be a sweet recipe. But that didn't work out so well. I leave the BRC ones for later after I get the other ones done. If I have time/inclination.

Anyway, back to the chicken. Since I was making the sesame chicken and this, I got a couple lbs of chicken, pounded out 2 breasts and chunked up the rest. And this is why I should not handle sharp objects. I somehow managed to slice the back of my pinky. With a nice chickeny serrated knife. Don't ask how. I don't know. Not only that, but rather than stop, clean it up and bandage it, I decide to just rinse it off and keep going and deal with it later. Well I ended up rinsing it about 3 more times while chopping the rest of the chicken up. And then I didn't really bandage it or clean it out well. And now, a couple days later, it's all pink and infected.

Sometimes I wonder about you people. Apparently you have read this far. If you have read this far and are following all my random jumps in train of thought... well then you should really consider getting help. Because this is pretty incoherent. But that's your problem, not mine.

So now I had some pounded out chicken breasts. I stuck them in the fridge for a couple days. Rather than making them with the mac 'n cheese and sesame chicken I figured I'd have them ready to go later in the week when I wanted something else to mix things up. Then I could have them freshly made.

I don't do the whole wine thing so I was going to replace that with chicken stock. Then I noticed an open box of beef stock in the fridge so that's what I used instead.



I figured out how to make my card reader work. I just have to squeeze it and hold it in the slot. The use my other hand to copy them off the card reader so I can look at them and decide what to post.

Here's the recipe.

Lobstor Mac n Cheese

This was a great creamy luxurious item while using up those bits of cheese left in the fridge. I had most of a bag of shredded cheddar, a few ounces of smoked gouda and asiago, and an asiago cheese roll in the freezer. I had bought 2 frozen lobster tails a while back because I had been reading about how cheap lobster was but then didn't really know what to do with them. And I always have frozen peas and corn in the freezer. And of course I have mustard, flour, butter, onion, salt and pepper. The only things I actually needed to buy were the pasta and the milk.

It's a pretty standard mac 'n cheese recipe. Cream sauce, mustard, cheese, pasta, breadcrumbs, bake. I added lobster and some Old bay. Mostly because I have Old Bay in the pantry because I bought it at some point and never seem to actually use it. I always have other flavors that I want so the Old Bay has been sitting there, losing flavor and collecting dust. I can't say it did a whole lot to my recipe other than making me feel like I am actually using some of my spices besides cinnamon and vanilla. But making me feel better is enough.

I ate it for dinner that night, portioned it out and put several in the freezer for later. Better than the frozen pizzas I seem to have a thing for impulse buying. And then eating an entire large one in one night because I had a long day at work.

Anyway. Back to the mac 'n cheese. Mustard is important. It's what keeps the sauce from curdling and clumping and other nastiness. And the flour is important too. It helps make it thick and creamy. And cheese of course is important. So basically everything is important. Aren't I helpful?

Now that I used up the cheeses I had, I felt free to pick up a few more. Yay for a round of brie, and wedges of parmesan and gruyere.



Lobster Mac 'n Cheese

1/2 of an onion, chopped fine
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp flour
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1-2 cups milk
About 4 cups of cheese, mostly cheddar, shredded
1 tsp Old Bay seasoning
2 lobster tails
about 1 cup breadcrumbs

Sweat the onion in the butter and olive oil in a large skillet until translucent.
Add the flour stir to coat the flour. Cook to get rid of any rawness of the flour. If it is too thick add a bit more oil.
Add the mustard and Old Bay followed by 1 cup milk. Bring up to a simmer.
Check the thickness and add more milk as needed.
Stir in the cheese, reserving about 1/2 cup for the topping.
Meanwhile, boil the lobster tails just until they turn pink. Do not cook all the way. It will cook more in the oven.
Take the lobster tails out.
When they are cool enough, cut into bite size pieces.
Salt the water and cook the pasta until slightly undercooked.
Stir the lobster and pasta into the sauce
Pour into a casserole.
Top with the breadcrumbs and reserved cheese.
Bake for 30 mins until it is bubbly and browned on top.
Wait until it stops bubbling before cutting into it.

Edit: Picture added