Aggies Do It Better

This is yet another recipe that suffers from "MQS". I decided early on to divide it into 2 lasagnas, partly because I started with slightly more beef than the recipe calls for, and partly to make the portions smaller and more calorie-conscious (for lasagna, really). I've made lasagna many times before, I've never really used a recipe. But I'll give hers a go! Here she is, my trusty smallish stockpot. How many times have I been in this situation? LOL! I used a ton of ground beef AND sausage (new to lasagna for me). And then 2 HUGE cans of tomatoes. And paste. Who wants to bet how much of this will wind up on the stovetop when I'm stirring it together? Not too shabby. Now it has to cook for a while. Here we go, got everything all set out for assembly. Meat/tomato mixture, lasagna noodles, egg/cheese mixture, and shredded cheese. No, I didn't shred my own this time. Forgive me, PW. With 2 dishes...one's going straight into the freezer. Here they are as...

This post should be titled, "Things I've been waiting for my Mom to come and visit so I can make because nobody in this house will eat, including me". Except for the cake. OBVIOUSLY. The mushrooms take like 9 hours to make. I did 1/4th this recipe because I was making them only for my mom and her hubs. I should have 1/8th'd it, but it's already tricky dividing the recipe! You basically simmer white mushrooms in red wine, chicken and beef bouillon, and some other stuff like all........daaaaay............ I don't eat fungi, so these aren't for me. This was later in the day, starting on the cake, you can see the mushrooms STILL cooking. Luckily they didn't kill too much of my cake-scent mojo in the kitchen. The cake starts with melting butter (shockingly) in the cast iron, then sprinkling brown sugar. You wait until the brown sugar dissolves, then add the batter. Be sure to add the pineapple rings and batter BEFORE the sugar starts to burn, even if all th...

Finally. Enough putting it off. I've been pretty intimidated to make these, for many reasons, among them being the MASS quantity they make. I almost halved the recipe, but I figured, we had company coming anyway, and, well, go big or go home, right? Let's get to it. First up....melt ONE POUND of butter. I've gotten on quite the good terms with real, actual butter over the past couple years, but mainly just for making frosting. This is, without a doubt, the largest amount of butter I've ever used at one time for something non-frosting related. I just put this bad boy in the microwave. Down he melts into 2 cups of melted butter. WOW. On we go with the dough (which was made earlier in the day). I did feel that it was pretty sticky...that proved to be quite the problem. It's entirely possible I miscounted the cups of flour...but I don't think I did. I took out half the amt of dough and attempted to roll it into a 30inch by 10inch rectangle. I don't actually hav...

Hello! Hope everyone had a good weekend. The abundance of free time I thought I'd have once both boys are in school (twice a week anyway) hasn't quite kicked in just yet...I made this last week and just now getting to post it! Ah, my nemesis, the pulled pork. I made this one other time, from a different recipe, and it didn't turn out very well. That's about all I remember. And it was a huge mess in my roasting pan. Most things I make do turn out, but I can also mess up pretty much anything! This recipe calls for a pretty involved marinade. There's onion, brown sugar, garlic, vinegar, some spices (including a buttload of cumin). Those get mixed up together in the trusty food processor. Warning: do not have your face in the food processor when you open it up after blending. The aroma WILL burn your face. In a good way. But still. So here we go. I used my brain this time and got a disposable pan. GREATNESS! Marinade all rubbed in. Messy. And gross. Raw me...

Hi! This past week has been crazy....getting BOTH boys ready for school, backpacks and lunch boxes ready, spare sets of clothes, EVERYTHING labeled! And this week the boys have been going to school every other day, so keeping it straight has been a full time job! More on that later. I did have a busy cooking week last week but barely had time to post about anything! (so much so that this week is "leftover week" because our fridge/freezer space is so limited!) I only made one thing from the PW book, the Shrimp Penne. Well, 2 things. I also made the homeade ranch. Here it is on my wedge salad. It was very thick, more like a dip, and it does say you can thin it out if needed. It needed. I added a small amt of milk to some to make it more runny for dressing. I still found it too thick and frankly not enough flavor for iceberg, which is already pretty dull. However, it IS really good as a vegetable/cracker dip. My husband really liked it alot, much to my surprise! He even took s...

It's PW Breakfast Time! First up is Egg-in-a-Hole . Again, not an original concept. I've actually tried this before, about a year ago, and it didn't turn out at at all. So I gave it a go again. Simple enough, right? The picture is pretty self-explanatory. Cook a little bit on one side until partially set, then flip. This time it turned out pretty good. I'm pretty sure it's because I cooked it in actual butter and not cooking spray. That's the case alot around here lately. Next up is Huevos Hyacinth. This is deli ham, then tomatoes or salsa, then an egg, then cheese cooked in a ramekin under the broiler. It gives those 2 options, tomato slices or salsa...which one should I choose? Both of course! I made this for my self for lunch one day actually. They were both really good, I still can't make up my mind which I like better. Finally, my nemesis. Breakfast Potatoes and Burritos. These are one of those bajillion step, mass quantity recipes. I almost halved i...

This week was apps and breakfasts! Most of them were fun and easy to make, and not very time consuming....except one certain one....(breakfast burritos, I'm talkin to you). First up was Hot Artichoke Dip . (sorry for the sideways pic, it's not like that in my folder!) I halved this recipe, because I'm pretty sure it doesn't keep that long and I'm the only one eating it. It has canned artichoke hearts, mayo, cream cheese, and some spices. Pretty simple. Then you bake it in the oven. I'm definitely a fan of artichoke and spinach artichoke dips, so I knew I'd like it. I went ahead and blended it all up in my food processor instead of having half of it chunky, because I was planning on offering some to the boys and if it had chunks of artichoke in it I knew they wouldn't go for it. And....they ate it! Even my most discerning food critic, Number One. I couldn't believe it. I may or may not have let him have just that with tortilla chips for dinner. Next ...