Pull Here, Lasagna and Game Night

Ever happen to you?

Try to tear open one of these packages which read pull here to reveal a zipper type closure inside for resealing the contents.

After struggling with these every time, my much easier solution – scissors.

The cheese was needed for lasagna dinner. Grenville made a loaf of rustic Italian bread – kneaded by hand – and put chopped fresh rosemary from our resident plant.

My meal contributions were home-made tomato sauce, meatballs, and lasagna. It was our turn hosting a game night get-together with friends, M & B.  This week’s game choice was Catch Phrase.

Because I’ve made this meal for years ,and don’t measure the ingredients, the following is more descriptive than exact.

Sauce: 3 large (28 oz.) cans of crushed tomatoes, seasoned with dried basil, marjoram, salt, pepper, chopped fresh oregano, which returned to the herb garden in abundance. I sautéed a chopped, small onion, 2 chopped garlic cloves, and some fresh chopped mushrooms and scallions. Sauce was brought to a boil and simmered for about 2 hours. Add more salt or herbs as needed after a tasting.

Meatballs: 2 lbs. of chopped meat, 3/4 C bread crumbs, 1 egg, basil, oregano, chopped onion, garlic powder. Mix together and roll into balls (size, your choice). Some folks (myself included) bake vs. frying. This time I added some olive oil to a deep and cooked them on top of the stove, turning often to brown all sides evenly. The meatballs were then drained on  paper towels and refrigerated while the sauce was cooking. The meatballs were added to the sauce before the lasagna was started. Putting them in the sauce flavors it and cooks the meatballs.

Lasagna: cook enough lasagna noodles for 3 layers to fit in a 9x13-inch glass. Prepare Ricotta cheese filling while noodles cook. My recipe calls for a large container mixed with grated cheese, 1 egg, and parsley. The egg holds the cheese together, grated cheese flavors it, and the parsley is just colorful.  Heat oven to 350°

After cutting open the grated Mozzarella cheese package, it was put it in a bowl. There were also a bowl of grated cheese, and one of tomato sauce. When the noodles were cooked and drained, the countertop resembled an assembly line. with layers of noodles, Ricotta, Mozzarella, and grated cheese and sauce. (No Ricotta on the top layer.) Then into a 350° oven uncovered for 40 minutes. If you can, it’s best to cook the lasagna early, then let it cool – much easier to cut. Putting hot sauce on each serving will heat it quickly.

Finished dish with enough for leftovers this week!

Almost forgot about dessert?  It was the cheese cake recipe first tried last December and repeated several times since.