Homemade Lasagna

Making my own lasagna has always been a family favourite.  It’s not fancy or anything; pretty basic I’d say.  I find making Lasagna is one of the easiest things to do because you can make it before guests arrive or take it already cooked to a pot-luck supper.  We recently celebrated my son Taylor’s birthday so I made this lasagna at his request.

I usually make meat lasagna with local, lean ground beef from my favourite community grocer, the B & H (click here for their website).  You can always add other ground meat of your choice like chicken, turkey, sausage, or even lamb but I can’t guarantee how this modification would taste since I’ve never tried it.  I have also made vegetable lasagna to suit vegetarian guests.  And I’ve also added finely grated carrots to the meat sauce to discreetly increase the veggie content.  I use my large roasting pan to make the lasagna in because I like it thick.  It’s important to plan ahead.  You need to bake this lasagna for about 50 minutes, remove from the oven, THEN let it ‘sit’ for an hour, covered.  The juices need to absorb into the noodles so it stays together when you cut it.  If you cut it when it’s hot out of the oven it will fall apart.  It’s still tasty anyway.

This lasagna goes nice with a green salad and garlic bread.

 

Meat Lasagna Recipe – serves about 12 people

from my cookbook Mom’s Recipes

• Lasagna noodles, uncooked store bought or homemade
• 1-2 lbs. local, lean ground beef
• 2 cans pasta sauce (680 ml. size) or your own homemade
• 2 containers of 1% cottage cheese (500 ml. size each)
• Mozzarella cheese, grated (I use approximately 300 grams or about 2 cups grated)
• Olive Oil

Steps:

1. Brown ground beef until thoroughly cooked.  Add pasta sauce and mix will.
2. Oil the roasting pan or other deep baking dish.
3. Place a layer of uncooked lasagna noodles in the bottom of the pan.  You might need to break some to fit them in.
4. Place a thick layer of meat sauce (about ¾) over the lasagna noodles. 
5. Top with another layer of noodles.
6. Spread the cottage cheese over this layer of lasagna noodles.  Top with another layer of noodles. 
7. Add another layer of meat sauce, reserving some for the last layer.  Top with another layer of noodles.
8. Spread the remaining meat sauce over the lasagna noodles.  Top with a generous amount of grated mozzarella cheese. 
9. Bake at 350F degrees uncovered for about 50 minutes.

Remove from the oven and place on top of your stove or on a wire rack for an hour.

Slice into pieces.  The first one you take out should be the end piece, then you can easily lift out all the others.

For vegetarian lasagna, leave out the meat.  Add slightly cooked veggies of your choice:  broccoli, carrots, onions, celery, cauliflower, mushrooms, zucchini, peppers, etc.   Everything else is the same.

You can make half as much of this recipe in a smaller baking dish.  Cut down the baking time by 10 minutes.  You might want to have leftovers as these lasagna pieces re-heat very well for your lunch of another supper.

Bon appetit!

 

 

 

 

Beef Stew

Today was a fine day to make Beef Stew:  it was -20C on my outdoor thermometer when I woke up this morning at 6:30 a.m.

I’d actually planned to make it today anyway.  I’ve been saving my ‘potato water’ (water used to boil potatoes in) for several days now.  And we had a roast beef dinner a few days ago so I already had the leftover gravy, peas, and potatoes which I add.  I also bought some local beef to use, so I was all set this morning to begin.  I usually choose a big pot to make it in because by the time I add all the veggies and meat, it’s full!

 

My wood cookstove was blazing away on this cold morning, so I made this stew on it, beginning at 8:30 a.m.  I find a long, slow cooking stew tastes great.

 

Beef Stew Recipe

Beef, stew beef or steak cut up into chunks or leftover roast beef.  The amount is up to you.

1/2 teaspoon olive oil or vegetable oil

1/2 celery, chopped

1/2 turnip, chopped into 1″ or so squares

2-3+ large carrots

1 onion

6+ potatoes, cut into 3″ chunks

leftover gravy, about 2 cups

Any leftover vegetables in your fridge

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2+ liters water (or ‘potato water’), as needed

 

Cut up the beef into 2 inch chunks, unless you’re using stewing beef already cut up.  Add the oil to the pot with a little water, just enough to cover the bottom.  Cook the beef until browned.

 

Add the uncooked celery, turnip, onion, and carrots.  Cover with the ‘potato water’ or water.  Add salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to barely simmering for 3-5 hours or more.    This is easy to do on my cookstove as I simply move the pot over to the side where it’s less hot.

One and a half hours before you want to eat, add the raw potatoes and any leftover cooked veggies from your fridge.  I find that if you add the potatoes at the beginning, they fall apart by suppertime, after stewing all day.

Fifteen minutes before eating, add the leftover gravy.  Stir well.  Let it heat up until it starts to bubble slightly.  If you find it way too runny, you can mix some flour (1/4 cup) in a jar with 1/2 cup of COLD water, shake really well until it’s mixed completely with no lumps. Then add it to the stew and stir completely, allowing it to come to a boil, stirring often.

It’s ready!  We love to eat our beef stew with lots of whole wheat bread smothered in butter.  Mmmmmm.

 

Leftover stew is even better the next day!  Which is why I always start out with a big pot.  You can eat it for supper again or have it for lunch.  It never goes to waste around here – I think our poor dog Yukon wishes there was more left over for him.

 

 

 

 

Barbequed Pizza

 

Recently one hot summer afternoon, I had a craving for homemade pizza.  It all started when I spotted the pizza crust dough in the freezer that my daughter-in-law Jeanette had left.  I took it out and let it sit until it was room temperature.   I also took out a small jar of pasta sauce from the freezer.

I dusted flour on a piece of wax paper on my center island and proceeded to roll it out to fit my cookie sheet.  It was easy to pick up the wax paper with the dough on it and lay it on the oiled cookie sheet.  I then fired up the barbeque to fully heat up.  I cut up some onions, a red pepper, a tomato, and grated some mozzarella cheese.

Pizza ready for BBQ

 

I spread on some pasta sauce then sprinkled the cut up veggies and sliced olives from the fridge then topped the whole thing with mozzarella cheese.  By this time the BBQ was hot (around 550F degrees).  I brought the pizza outside and placed it on the upper shelf inside the barbeque.  Then I turned all the burners down to their lowest setting and set my timer for 15 minutes.

Ready to eat

After it was cooked, I let it sit for 5 minutes.  Wow, what a delicious pizza!  I ate several square pieces and let the rest cool to put in the fridge for later – actually it lasted for 3 lunches.

Here’s Jeanette’s Pizza Dough recipe:

Mix together:

2 teaspoons dry yeast

¾ cup lukewarm water

2.3 cup flour (white)

Let sit for 30 minutes, then add:

1 cup of flour

1 cup of cold water

Let sit for another 30 minutes.

Add:

4 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup olive oil

Add  flour ½ cup at a time until dough pulls from the side of the bowl.  Knead for 10 minutes and let rise until doubled in size.   Freezes well in large baseball size pieces.