Classic sausage lasagna with only some cheating

Sorry for the long break. I was busy reading Game of Thrones, which is totally exasperating me, because it is roughly 1,000,000 pages long, I really need to know what happens with all 500,000 characters, I don't seem to be making a dent in it and yet I cannot put it down. But I digress.
Before the move I promised to give you a classic lasagna recipe. It still involves a little cheating. Sorry. If you want a recipe for great marinara you can look at Giada DeLaurentiis' recipe, which is not complicated and very tasty. If you want a recipe using fresh tomatoes, you are on the wrong site and I wish you well with your copious free time.  I use jarred for the most part. Yes, jarred is a little too salty sometimes, but life isn't perfect and the lasagna still tastes great.  The other cheating aspect is that I use so much sauce and cover the pan for a while in the oven, so you don't need to pre-boil the noodles.

You'll need:
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 lb of Italian sweet sausage, casing removed (I LOVE hot in this recipe, but for kids I recommend sweet.)
5 cups marinara sauce (This is about 1 cup more than an average jar. Sorry.)
1 15 oz container ricotta (You can use either part-skim or full fat. I don't know about fat free.)
10 oz package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed out
1 egg
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
9 uncooked lasagna noodles
3 cups pre-shredded mozzarella or provolone, or a mix (again, part skim mozzarella works fine)
1 cup parmesan cheese

Heat the olive oil in a very large skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage and mash up with a fork to break up the meat, sautéing it until browning, which takes about 7 minutes.  (This can be tricky. Sometimes I brown it a bit and then chop it up fine on a cutting board and then put it back in the pan.) Add the sauce, and simmer a few minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
In a small bowl, break the egg and whisk it a bit (kids love to do this). Then add the ricotta, spinach, basil and oregano, and 1/2 cup parmesan in the egg and mix well. Now you are going to make 3 levels of lasagna. Layer 1: Take the sauce and put 1 cup over the bottom of a 13x9 glass baking dish. Make a single layer of lasagna noodles over the sauce (should be 3 noodles).
Layer 2: Take another cup of sauce, and spoon it over the noodles. Make sure they are covered with sauce. Now spread 1 cup of the ricotta mixture, and sprinkle one cup mozzarella and about 1/4 cup parmesan over the top. (This will be messy. It's okay if the sauce and cheese gets mixed up a little bit.
Layer 3: Repeat Layer 2.
Top of the lasagna: For the top,  first add one cup of the sauce over the noodles. I always seem to have a little ricotta left, so I just dollop the remaining ricotta on top. It looks like little ricotta islands.  and sprinkle the remaining mozzarella and parmesan. Use remaining sauce to cover all remaining exposed noodles. Cover the whole dish with foil, and put into the hot oven. Bake for about 50 minutes, then take cover off and bake for about 20 more.
You can make this a day before and reheat in a 350 if you cover with foil,but it takes about 40 minutes. You can also just microwave it.
And now as I finish up this post, it is suddenly snowing. WHAT? It's October 29!!!
Enjoy your hot lasagna..... Christina
P.S. If this was all just a little too complicated for you, check out my post called "Lasagna for Cheaters"

Blog move

Thanks for coming to my new home. I selected a new name that I felt better matched the content of the blog. I'm so happy you came to visit!
Christina

Lasagna for Cheaters

It's 8am on a Sunday morning, and your 4 year old is bored, because she's been up since 5.55am. Naturally, the 2 year old is still asleep, because that will guarantee that she will not nap, and that you will be on duty for a full 15 hour day, as contractually required by the Children's Union. On such a day, I decided that maybe we should prep dinner and stick it in the fridge to just pop in the oven later. To my delight, my four year old was able to actually make this very uncomplicated recipe herself, and then ate it for dinner with enthusiasm, even though it had red sauce. (She only eats plain pasta). I can prove this with the photos of her little hands demonstrating the "techniques". VICTORY! VICTORY! VICTORY!

This is adapted from a Real Simple recipe.

Ingredients:

24 fresh extra large cheese and spinach ravioli (my local store makes delicious ones- if yours doesn't, just use a 30 oz bag of frozen, and you don't even have to thaw it)
1 26 oz jar of marinara sauce- or knock yourself out and make some
1 8 oz bag shredded mozzarella cheese
10 oz bag frozen chopped spinach, thawed and the water squeezed out (this is messy. You can skip but then it's sort of blah).
1/2 cup grated parmesan
a few leaves of fresh basil, chopped (if you have some)

Variations - You can use a meat sauce, or meat ravioli, or spinach ravioli. But not pumpkin ravioli.

Directions
Pre-heat oven at 350° F. Mix the fresh basil into the jarred sauce.Spray a 13-by-9-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Add about 1/3 the sauce to the bottom of the pan. Arrange half of the ravioli over the sauce and sprinkle the spinach over them. Sprinkle 4 oz mozzarella and 1/4 cup parmesan on top. Add another layer of ravioli and the remaining sauce and cheese. Cover with foil and bake 25 minutes. Uncover and bake 5 to 10 minutes more or until bubbly.


(note about the photos- we were making a half recipe. And we didn't put the sauce in the bottom the time I took the photos. That was a refinement developed later. Also, the fresh parsley is merely there for looks. We didn't use it.)

Hooray! 

Sorry-I'm behind

So this week I had a 2 distraught preschoolers with a horrible flu that included fever for 3 days, alarming rasping breathing, complete refusal to eat, and general, pathetic misery. The worst part was the insistence on keeping me up ALL NIGHT (how did I cope with newborns? Can't remember, must have been awful), with the final blow being the 4 year old who at midnight Thursday (her third night of fever), woke up and nonsensically refused to sleep anywhere but the couch. Since I was afraid she would fall out, I had to sleep on the ground next to her. Luckily she woke up every 30 minutes crying, so I didn't get a backache. While my other daughter slept in my bed, without me in it.  Of course I have a fairly new full time job with no vacation or sick days earned yet and was dodging in and out of work to the pediatrician's office, hoping no one noticed.  And compulsively calling my heroic nanny, who had her hands full without me pestering her all day. All the while their daddy is in the hospital recovering from back surgery, and wondering when we are going to come visit. Luckily my taxes had to be filed, since everyone needs a leisure time activity involving the federal government.
Therefore, I have not been blogging, and tonight I will be going to bed at an unreasonably early hour. I'll be back later, once I can string a few thoughts together, with the final apple recipe. I also have an idea for a post about lasagna, both a super easy cheating recipe, and a classic can't be beat recipe that takes a little longer.  Enjoy your Saturday night!

More apple delights- applesauce

This is a very quick entry. My sister Claire swears on the Holy Bible and her 1 year old's curls that the Ina Garten applesauce recipe cannot be topped. She claims that this is nothing like the jarred stuff. Plus, if you have a baby you can feed it to them. Not to mention you really should get to know Ina. Her recipes are failproof. So I'm just going to post a link.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/homemade-applesauce-recipe/index.html
XOXO Christina

So you went apple picking, did you?

And now you have 25 lbs of apples. Granted, they are the most delicious apples available, being that you and your offspring have just ripped them off the branch yesterday and drove them straight home. (The apples that made it out of the orchard, that is.) So here’s the deal. The easiest thing to do with apples is to just bake them and serve with (vanilla Ben and Jerry’s) ice cream and you will have a simple and surprisingly decadent dessert. So that’s the one I’m going to talk about first, because it is Monday and Mondays are not the appropriate day to tackle complicated things. Over the next few days (or weeks, depending on how disorganized I am), I am going to get progressively more ambitious on you and reveal various other apple treats. This will cumulate in my much lusted after apple pie recipe. So plan ahead, because you need to put some time aside to make that pie. I assure you that you will not regret it. But let’s charge ahead and do the baked apples as a warm-up.

Baked Apples

(A few tedious notes. Skip if you are not of an academic bent.

• Many people like to have a big long discussion about which sorts of apples is best for this. I say, use whatever variety you like. I don’t like McIntosh apples (I find them mealy). So I don’t use them. Many people suggest Granny Smith, but I think that any variety will probably be okay. But if you are nervous, Martha Stewart has written tomes on the subjects and Mark Bittman also likes to talk about this.
• Some people like to bake in a water bath but I don’t think this is necessary, and makes them mushy, actually.)

4 firm apples

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

¼ cup raisins, or raisins and walnuts (optional, but I think they add a lot)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Scoop out the core from top of the apple, but don’t core it all the way through. You will be making a sort of basin. Stuff each apple with 1 teaspoon raisins or raisin/nuts, and 2 tablespoons brown sugar and 1 tablespoon butter. Place in a shallow baking dish (they can leak a bit) and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake for 15 minutes. You will know they are done when the sugar begins to caramelize and apples are tender. Serve with a scoop of rich vanilla ice cream. If you have little kids, they will delight in scooping it out of the skin, but might need a little help.

Another note: I am currently researching a variation on this. By the end of the 25 lb bag I might have it  right and if so, I’ll let you know.

Guest post- Kid's Cuisine. I really mean cuisine.

Here's a contribution by my friend Jayn, blogger (Luckier, see link below), owner of the twitter feed @marisandvera, former co-worker whose hilarious emails made diet coke come out of my nose more than once and mother of two. Jayn claims that your children will eat high brow food if you follow her instructions. Thanks Jayn!!!
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This is the story of how my go-to kids’ dinner is a French dish that many cooks better than me are afraid to undertake.

I used to love to cook.  I used to spend late afternoon work meetings dreaming about what I would make for dinner and jotting down ingredient lists (shhh…. don’t tell, ok?). On my way home from work I would stop at the supermarket and then spend the rest of the evening preparing and consuming my gourmet meal.

And then I had kids.  While the boring late afternoon meetings continued (alas), I no longer had the time to stop on my way home or to cook anything more than pasta. And those rare times that I did have the time, and the inclination, my older daughter would not even deign to taste my creations.  My younger daughter was always game, but she would often bestow the ultimate backhanded compliment, “Mmmm, Mama, it’s just too good!” Pass the pasta, please.

Enter the vegetable soufflé.  Somewhere along the line I happened upon a recipe and somehow got it in my head that my kids might like it and – voila! – we have the perfect food, one that delivers protein and vegetables in a tasty, and adult, package.

Bechamel

Just a white sauce.  Don’t be scared.  Do stir frequently and keep an eye on it.  If the butter browns, start again.

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

1/3 cup milk

2/3 cup broth (I use a vegetable broth)

Salt and pepper

In a small saucepan melt the butter.  Whisk in the flour until the mixture does not taste like flour.  Add the liquids and stir until the mixture thickens.  Season to taste.  Set aside and let it cool somewhat.

Soufflé

4 eggs, separated

1 cup of vegetables cut up in small pieces (drained if very liquidy)

¼ cup grated cheese (we don’t do this, as per my older daughter’s demands)

Beat the egg whites until stiff and set aside.  Beat the egg yolks with a fork and combine with the cheese.  Mix in the béchamel mixture.  Add vegetables and  stir until thoroughly mixed.  Fold in the egg whites gently.  Pour into a greased and floured soufflé pan (What?! You don’t have one? You can use a loaf pan.  And even bake in a toaster oven.  Not that I did that when my oven was broken.  For a year.) Bake at 350 F  for about 45 minutes, or until the soufflé  has risen and the top is golden.

Important note: While the soufflé  bakes, you cannot make any loud noises.  This is the secret benefit of making a soufflé – your kids must be quiet for 45 minutes! That’s like a day and a half in single people years.  Hmmm, why did I not claim that pasta needs the same treatment?!  Dammit - too late.

Are you brave? Cooking WITH little kids

Kids are more likely to eat food that they made themselves. We all know that, but the fact of the matter is that toddlers and preschoolers are unpredictable, still developing their manual dexterity, occasionally volatile and enjoy making unnecessary messes on purpose. Add to that the witching hour. You know, the demons that possess children around 5pm?  It's hard enough to watch little children, but try cooking dinner with children possessed by the afternoon demons, and it's all just a bit overwhelming. I actually may have made a call one very bad evening to the poison control hotline, since someone may or may not have drunk some dishwashing detergent. The poison staff told me that their call volumes skyrocket around dinnertime. Now, normally my solution to this problem would be to mesmerize them with the magic of TV, but the other night I had a very successful experiment with making pizza. I ordered the frozen pizza dough from Fresh Direct (sadly only available to New Yorkers, but I believe you can also gets some at Whole Foods, or make some if you are really ambitious). We just rolled it out together, spread jarred sauce on it, and sprinkled cheese. We even put VEGETABLES on it. It only took 15 minutes to cook, and they ate every bite. It was fun, very quick, had almost no cleanup, and was amazingly delicious. AND we skipped TV that night, and they ate their veggies. A modern miracle, no?