Author: Benford

It’s been a while since I made this dish but it was DELICIOUS!! Here’s the recipe, in case you want to try it.

1 onion
1 large clove garlic
olive oil
1/3 lb ground beef
1/3 lb ground pork
1/3 lb ground lamb
Fresh Rosemary, Basil, Sage, Oregano
1 large can of tomato puree
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
1/2 box of lasagna pasta
Ricota cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese (or any hard cheese you prefer)

First, chop up the onion and garlic.

Saute them in some olive oil in the pot the sauce will be cooked in.

The three meats I’ve used are beef, pork and lamb. 1/3 pounds of each create a trifecta of yummy!!

I chopped up Rosemary, sage and basil. These were so pretty fresh out of my garden that I had to snap the pic before they were all chopped up. **I now have an oregano plant so I also include fresh oregano.**

Some people like to put the pasta in the lasagna uncooked then let the sauce cook it while in the oven but I can’t wrap my brain around that concept so I always boil the noodles separately first. Only to al dente, though.

Once the meat is browned, I add the following ingredients to make the sauce:
Red wine, I had some Merlot to add in today.

Whole, peeled tomatoes and tomato puree. I really like the Muir Glen Organic Tomato products.

Once the flavors of the sauce are melded together, you start layering everything. You need to start with a layer of sauce to keep the pasta from sticking to the bottom.

Then a layer of pasta:

Then meat sauce:

A layer of ricotta cheese:

Then mozzarella cheese:

And repeat until you get to the top.
When you get to the top, add some freshly grated parmesan cheese:

And bake. It’s been long enough that I can’t remember what temperature I baked it at but I’d say around 375 degrees until it looks like this:

I made garlic bread, too:

So, the recipe isn’t too difficult, is it? Give it a try…make sure you get good ingredients if you make this lasagna, though. Enjoy!!

I’ve been going to Whole Foods on Sundays to see my mom (and get a wonderful massage!!!) and while I’m there, I find something to inspire Sunday night dinner, which always leads to yummy leftovers for lunch later in the week (or freeze for later later). This particular Sunday, I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to make so I wandered Whole Foods (and the internet) for a “secret ingredient” that would inspire the recipe for dinner. My first thought was cioppino but once I looked up a recipe or two online, I decided it was too much for a spur of the moment meal. I still wanted the seafood so I decided on seafood spaghetti. Here’s how I made it:

I started by chopping and sauteing an onion and several cloves of garlic.

From there, I cleaned the shrimp, cut the hallibut into bite sized pieces and made sure my scallops were all nice and clean.

In extra virgin olive oil, I saute the seafood.

I added in some more flavorings, including white wine, red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning and of course, butter. 🙂

I had a beautiful heirloom tomato so I chopped it up and added it in for a bit of color and added flavor.

And here’s the final product over noodles and topped with fresh grated cheese.

If you try it, hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!
~C

This is my favorite way to BBQ chicken.

First, I season the chicken with smoked paprika, garlic powder, salt, pepper and cumin.

Then I include the juice of 4-6 limes (depending on size and juiciness) and let sit in the fridge.

When the BBQ is hot enough (smokin’ hot), I let the chicken cook until it’s ready and that’s it.

Like I said, smokin’ hot!

There’s the chicken on the grill.

All done!