So today I start my Food Blog. (recipes along with pictures!)
I made a feast of a dinner tonight for the mouths at 211. Let's just say, there were no scraps left for composting.
I made Lasagna with the cheese I could find in the fridge, as well as some left over from filming our cooking segment for The Bone Man Show. Along with Green Bean Caserole made from the canned goods miss Andrea gifted when she left, Fried Okra from farmers market, and an amazing salad.
It was really just a random selection of food choices, but I was in the cooking mood, and had mouths to feed :)
First thing I made was the Lasagna:
For this delicious dish:
soak noodles for 15 min in luke warm water
set oven to 345
layer with cheese and sauce
Cheese Mixture-I vary mine with what ever is available, This time it consisted off:
4oz Marscarpone
5 oz Ramono
4oz Fresh Mozzarella
mixed with
1.5 med. Onion
2 cloves Garlic
(both sauteed)
Fresh Basil (from my garden)
Parsley
Oregano
(all to taste)
The Sauce was unfortunatly a canned sauce, but normally I use my own recipe that changes frequently.
once the noodles are done soaking, layer them, starting with a set on the bottom, and what I like to do is for every layer do cheese first then sauce, until the top, finish off with top layer of noodles and sauce. I used Parmesan/Ramono mixed for the layer. Something else fun to do with the layers is to add your favorite veggies, last time I did sauteed Eggplant (mmmmm). Now I don't eat meat, but if I did, the best way would be with Aundouille Sausage, sliced in small pieces and cooked before baking.
Once layering is done cover pan with foil and bake on 375 for 25 min. once that is done remove foil and bake for another 25 min. I topped mine with Fresh Basil once it was out of the oven for that extra pretty touch.
With prep time and cook time you are looking at about an hour for this dish.
What I did was make the Lasagna, and while that started the bake, I made the Green Bean Casserole:
This consisted of:
2 cans Green Beans (I used half French Cut, half regular)
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
about 1/3 cup soy milk (rough estimate)-also I don't care for the taste of regular milk, but both work the same
and salt and pepper to taste
I also added a secret ingredient, for all those Garlic lovers, yep, powdered Garlic!
you bake this uncovered for 30 min on 350, but with the Lasagna baking at 345 for 25, I just kept them together with timing and what not.
once it is out of the over, top with Crispy Onions (some do Corn Flakes).
next it was onto the Fried Okra.
This seemed to be quite an impossible task when Lauren and I first started, I forgot the egg! we made an adventure out of the door to door ingredient search. I started at my neighbor's house, but alas no answer, moved over to accross the street (BBQ was happenin over there) but they were all out as well, then I was told a house that houses chickens is a few houses down, along with a nice lady down another street, tried the nice old lady, no answer, but the next door neighbor was home and finally we got an egg! it was a fun 10 min walk around the block!
but back to the recipe:
1 egg
a dash of soy milk, for that egg wash
salt/pepper to taste
flour
mix the salt/pepper and flour, dip the egg washed cut okra in the dry mix, and toss in hot oil!
cook til brown and then presto! easy and the BOMB!
I have the most wonderful of parents and they took me to the Columbia Farmers Market on Saturday and I got about 7 Okra for about 1 or 2 dollars! talk about amazing!
The salad for me is a fun and easy thing to conjure up. I generally just use veggies I find in my fridge:
This one consisted of:
Radish
Carrot
Tomato
Read Leaf Lettuce
I didn't make a special dressing this time, normally I make some sort of vinaigrette.
By the time the table was ready and all was said and done, I had a few min. to tidy up. Luckly I had Lauren to help me clean as I went along, I dirtied a dish, she cleaned it!
The feast was Magnificent and my roomies, and temporary/ all time guests didn't leave a spec on their plates!
this was my mess of a plate, I just liked the angle.
More to come, I have a few more recipies, but no pictures, I may still post them. Let me know your feed back... If viewers like it then I'll keep posting!
Hope your Holiday weekend was as productive as mine :)
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