Lasagna, Mother's Day, and being a Stepmom

Today's post is not going to be about any one topic...but a myriad of topics. Cooking, Mother's Day, and today's dreary weather.

Saturday I had this urge to make Lasagna. One of "my meals" I have been making every now and then for years. Dear hubby thought that this weekend's lasagna was my best yet. Not sure what it was though to make THIS ONE the best ever. I did change a few things but nothing drastic. Like the brands I chose. My favorite way to make it is with my own homemade tomato sauce, but this time I used a local Italian brand from a jar.

One of my pet peeves, and I do not mean to offend anyone by this, is making lasagna without keeping it Italian. Now, I cannot be sure I've never tried lasagna made in what I call "American style" but I can be sure I absolutely LOVE lasagna made the Italian way. And what I mean by this is making it using ricotta cheese. Not cottage cheese. (To me it would be like trying to make tacos using soy sauce.)

I basically use your standard lasagna recipe with ricotta cheese, egg, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and parsley mixed in. Sometimes I mix in a little bit of garlic. For the meat layer, instead of using hamburger I use Italian sausage. I prefer the sausage with a little "kick" but since my dear hubs grew up without spicy foods, I compromise and keep it mild. I also prefer to use regular lasagna noodles instead of the no boil type.

And it is pretty much too late to take a picture of my lasagna because it is almost gone. (Photo above is borrowed from Wikipedia.) On the side I made cut strips of zucchini sauteed in extra virgin olive oil with a smidge of vinegar. Gives it a nice carmelized flavor after awhile.

Instead of going out for Mother's Day, we chose to have leftover lasagna...which is always better the second day because all of the ingredients have had a chance to marinate together. De-li-zi-o-so! Didn't bother me a bit missing all of those crowded restaurants.

I had a wonderful Mother's Day! Anything I wanted to do, we did. So of course, we went shopping. I have always wanted to go to this big store that is really a warehouse. It is chock full of art, party, floral, craft, and fabric supplies. I mean you can get lost in this place. Must have spent two hours there. Crazy! But, it was my day... and I came home with some neat things for my home and for the antique biz. And one of my stepchildren surprised me with the most beautiful card. It is nice to know you are thought of. I know it can be confusing having a split family and all the drama that has come along with it. We have had our share of the drama (not their fault) and now that the kids are older, things have become less stressful, probably for everyone involved. The one thing I wish I had known about all this time was about having a BLOG. What a big help that would have been with other stepmoms out there to chat with.

The weather yesterday was nice, a little windy, but nice. Today, it is dreary and cold! I suppose these days need to happen in order to keep everything green! Normally I hate these days but today I thought it would be a great day to blog. So now I'm off to work on my Bella Blog. In the next day or so I hope to have photos of some of my old favorite dolls/toys I used to play with...stay tuned!