Pretty Cheesy!

Interesting week, but not particularly foodie.   I got a lot accomplished on the second steamboat historical fiction novel I'm writing, titled The Saw-Grass Steamboat. On Friday Sally and I went up to Land O Lakes, FL, east of Tampa, and spent the night at a nice AirBnB property.   If you get up that way, have dinner at Ukulele Brands, a waterside restaurant-bar there with a real Keys feel.  Great food, great price and huge quantities!

Saturday I competed in the Dulcimer division of the Florida State Old Time Music Championships over in Dade City, and won third place. Got home by about 4 PM and zonked out. Sunday, I was lazy.  Made breakfast omelets.  The only other thing I did was make the following lasagna and the cheese fritters.

Lasagna with no-cook noodles

Based on a Mueller's Pasta tm recipe. I've used the special no-boil noodles before, but this recipe uses ordinary (not extra expensive) noodles.  This was a little different process for me -- not cooking the sauce, but adding cooked meat and mushrooms to it; combining cheeses with beaten eggs. I've always kept sauce and meat separate and never added eggs. This is a really tasty and easy version.

As always I doctored things up. I used Paul Newman's Sockarooni tm and Italian Sausage tm sauces, with crimini mushrooms that I sauteed. We both like a little spinach in our lasagna, so I added a layer of that too.

12 oz (3/4 package) Mueller's Lasagna, uncooked

15 oz Ricotta cheese or 2 cups cottage cheese

2 cups Mozzarella cheese, divided

½ cup Parmesan cheese

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 28 oz jars of your favorite Pasta Sauce

1 lb 90/10 Ground Beef 

9 oz pkg of fresh spinach, wilted in microwave for  minute or two and drained

6 oz sliced Crimini Mushrooms, sauteed

Preheat oven to 350. 

Combine ricotta, 1 cup of mozzarella, parmesan, and eggs; mix well.  In another bowl, add browned meat and mushrooms to pasta sauce; mix well.

 

Spread 1 cup of the meat-sauce mixture in 9 x 13 pan. Put 1/3 of the uncooked lasagna noodles over sauce (I used 3 long ways and 1 across).  Spread 1/2 of the cheese mixture over noodles.  Top with 1/3 of meat-sauce mixture.   Repeat layering.  Top with noodles and lastly the meat-sauce mixture.  Make sure every bit of noodle gets covered, otherwise those bits will still be hard.

Cover with foil. Bake 55 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with reserved Mozzarella cheese. Bake an additional 5 minutes uncovered, or until cheese is bubbly. Let stand 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

Apple & Cheese Snack Plate

Sally asked for a snack the other night "with apple and little bits of cheese". So here's what I made, and she devoured. Half of a filleted apple, and thin slices of her favorite English-style white cheddar cheese. Mine was pretty and tasty too.

Pimento Cheese Fritters

Remember the Pimento Cheese recipe I gave you a couple weeks back? We had just enough left from sandwiches and cracker dipping sessions to make a few of the fritters I talked about. These take 'fried cheese' to a whole new level! Pimento Cheese and panko bread crumbs, a griddle and some oil!