Lasagna for All

The wonderful things about Lasagna is it freezes wonderfully, everyone loves it and it make the best "I love/I'm thinking of you/ I thought you could use a hand" kind of out of the blue gift. Today I'm doing just that. making small personalized lasagnas for my grandmother who hasn't been doing very good. the most difficult part of lasagna by far is the sauce, a a pre-made sauce is totally usable, however I prefer to make a sauce from scratch, fresh diced onion, garlic and basil blended with plain tomato sauce and a meat of my choice (Italian sausage is always wonderful, however ground beef is usually the safer choice if making the lasagna for someone else).

Preparation of sauce:
Dice onions garlic and basil  while meat is cooking. Put one small can tomato past, one can diced tomatoes and two cans of tomato sauce into a large saucepan. With a little olive oil saute onions, garlic and basil in a large frying pan add cooked onions, garlic, basil and meat to the sauce. the sauce may have to be cooked down until it is thick.

Place a large saucepan of water on the stove to boil. This water will be used to partially cook the Lasagna noodles before putting them in the dish. while the water is heating fix the garlic bread. Its rather simple cut the bread in half spread with softened butter sprinkle with garlic powder, onion powder and Italian seasonings.

Lasagna is all about the layers its the building of flavors layering on top of each other and enhancing the over all taste.  A lot of people are afraid of making lasagna out of fear of messing it up. It must be said however that it's far harder to truly mess a lasagna up than it is to make it right.

Ingredients for sauce:
2 cans of tomato sauce
1 can tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes
1 medium onion diced
1 clove of garlic
1 Lb of meet of choice
Basil
Oregano
Olive oil

Lasagna Ingredients:
Sauce
1 package lasagna noodles (about 12-18 noodles)
1 lb shredded mozzarella
12 oz of Ricotta or cottage cheese
Spinach
grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
put a layer of sauce on the bottom of the dish covering the bottom completely, place lasagna noodles in hot boiling water for approximately two minutes, just until they become barely cooked and barely bendable. layer noodles on top of the sauce, place ricotta or cottage cheese on top of the noodles layer grated mozzarella on top of ricotta then place spinach on cheese, followed by sauce, noodles then sauce again cover top with mozzarella then sprinkle with Parmesan. cover with aluminum foil and
bake for about 35 minutes remove aluminum foil and bake another 15 minutes. Bake longer if it looks too moist or runny. Pull out and let cool for a minute or two (if you can keep everyone from digging in) and serve.

Lasagna is wonderful because as long as you have the basics noodles, good sauce, and lots of cheese you can put pretty much anything in it  and is still wonderful. From sausage, chicken, bison, to beef, from spinach, mushrooms, peppers to zucchini  every meat or vegetable option is completely acceptable and just adds a unique touch for anyone's preferences. So enjoy and don't be afraid to try making a new slightly different lasagna.

Chocolate Raspberry Wedding Cake

My older brother got married this last June to a wonderful woman. Being a second wedding for both of them they wanted to keep it low key and relaxed. Beautiful backyard ceremony and potluck style dinner buffet made for an amazing event. My contribution, a Chocolate Raspberry Wedding Cake.

The baking and decorating was a labor of love. Hours of baking in the kitchen. The constructed and decorating was a multiple person endeavor taking place over the course of five days.

The wedding cake, three layers deep of cake separated with a raspberry filling, frosted with a rich chocolate frosting and topped with fresh raspberries. Chocolate letters courtesy of Boehms Candies in Issaquah, Washington. 




The recipe for the cake is as follows, to make a cake large enough to feed sixty people and be the shape of a heart  bake three batches using two 9 inch round pans and two batches using two 9x9 square pans. For the frosting merely triple the recipe

Cake Ingredients:
3 egg slightly beaten
1 & 2/3 cup sugar
1 & 1/2 cup milk
3 one-ounce squares of bakers unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

 In a medium saucepan, combine 1 egg, 2/3 cup sugar and 1/2 cup milk and 3 ounces of bakers unsweetened cooking chocolate. Stir constantly over medium heat  till chocolate melts and mixture comes just to boiling, set aside and let cool. In a mixer cream 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup butter until light and fluffy. Add one tablespoon vanilla and 2 eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition. Sift flour and soda together and add to creamed mixture alternately with remaining 1 cup of milk, beat well after each addition. blend in chocolate mixture and separate evenly into two greased 9 inch round pans or two greased 9x9 inch square pans. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 to 30 minutes.

Filling:
Take one can of Organic Oregon Raspberries, drain as much liquid out as possible (save liquid for frosting). Add one cup of nestles mini morsels to raspberries and spread between cake layers. If the filling has a little liquid that is fine, it'll just seep into cake and be delicious, if its too watery however it may make the cake too mushy, so be careful.


Frosting Ingredients:
4 & 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup cocoa
1/3 cup boiling water (Instead of water I used the juice from the raspberry filling)
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla

Combine sugar and cocoa. Add water and butter and blend then add vanilla. frost tops and sides while still warm and let cool to set.


I'll let you in on a little secret. When baking the cakes cut a piece of wax paper the size of the bottom of the pan and place it in the bottom after greasing the pan. Pour the cake batter in and bake. the Wax paper works as a liner so when the cake cools and you're ready to pop it out of the pan merely run a knife around the edges and turn upside down the cake will come right out. Just don't forget to peal the wax paper off the bottom of the cake. Enjoy I had a blast constructing and decorating the cake, and it tastes AMAZING.