little lasagna

okay, so i know that everyone has 'their' lasagna. i also know that most people settle for frozen rather than making 'their' lasagna, most of the time. i admit that usually when i make lasagna i over-fill a 9x13 pan with two or three kinds of meat and oh, usually, five kinds of cheese. HOWEVER there are those times when that is just plain uncalled for. times like tonight when all of my brothers in law are otherwise engaged, for instance. in an effort to restrain myself i only bought one little 15 ounce carton of ricotta cheese, usually i get the quart. i just managed to make a lasagna in, oh about 20 minutes. a record for me, to say the least. and just to get this out of the way, yes i used a jar of tomato sauce. i fried one pound of beef with half of a bell pepper and half of an onion, chopped. i seasoned the beef with dried oregano, garlic salt, and black pepper, then added one jar of my favorite sauce, francesco rinaldi, reserving just a little bit in the jar. then in a bowl i mixed two beaten eggs, the ricotta, 1/4 cup grated three cheese blend (parmesan, asiago, romano), three minced garlic cloves, one table spoon dried italian seasoning, and 1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese. then to assemble i diluted the sauce left in the jar with just a bit of water and poured about half into my 8x8 glass pan, and drizzled a little olive oil on top of that. so, now for noodles. i personally use barilla no-boil noodles, i know they're not the 'best' and if you want to dink around with the other kind, feel free. i always get a good result with these, they never have hard spots, they don't pull appart during baking, and they're pretty thin, which my husband likes. i lay two down then spread one third of the cheese mix evenly on them, then top with two more, running the opposite direction, and scoop some meat sauce on those, and continue till i'm out of cheese in that fashion. i top the last layer of meat sauce with the last of the noodles (actually i had two left over somehow this time) and then pour the last of the sauce from the jar on them, making sure they're completely covered. top with more shredded mozzarella and more grated parm-blend and cover loosely with foil, making sure the foil isn't touching the top of the lasagna. bake at 350 for about an hour, and if you want to brown the cheese take the foil off and bake at 400 for an extra 10 minutes or so. we're having ours with salad and wine. probably zin if we can dig any out of the pantry.

pirate party for thing one

my baby turned 6 the day after Christmas, i still can't believe it! we recently discovered jake and the neverland pirates on disneyjr.com and we've all been on a bit of a pirate kick lately. even i've been shouting "aww coconuts!" on occasion. so i decided to let thing one lead a search for pirate treasure for his birthday party. this marks a mile stone for him, because this is his first party that was really about him and his little friends. past parties have mostly been about getting all the family together and, while fun was had, they weren't really what you'd call 'kid' parties. now, being these kids' mom is my full time job, and i admit that i want to get work awards and promotions just as much as anyone else out there in the work force. my bosses are just a bit shorter than most, no less capricious. to put it simply: i am the primary disciplinarian around here on any average day but i still want to be the cool mom sometimes too. saturday was a win for me. even though we were sick my husband and i (with help) managed to make a treasure map, leave clues, bury a treasure chest full of goodies, and all around have a blast with our boys and their friends. we ate cinnamon sugar popcorn and chicken drumsticks, and drank hot chocolate. i still feel like a hero of legend every time thing one says 'that sure was fun, mama' to me, and it was all pretty easy really. with the possible exception of digging the hole for the chest (a cigar box)which gave my poor husband a sore back. to kick it off, tristin got a chess set, in which was hidden a mysterious clue that led him to a map in a bottle, which led him to an X in the yard. all the kids took turns with the shovel that was handily leaning next to a tree by the X digging the treasure out. at one point we thought one of the guests was going to faint from excitement because the shovel finally hit 'something'. the treasure chest contained some booty, and a lot of craft supplies which they all got to use to decorate their own treasure chests (more, smaller, cigar boxes) to take home. when it was all over my son cried. the poor little guy was just having too much fun. i felt bad for him, of course, but i was also never so proud.

pirate party chicken

okay, i admit.... gha. this font is getting to me. okay, back on track... pirates have nothing to do with the chicken recipe, but i did make this for my son's (thing one) birthday party this weekend, which had a pirate theme. it is so simple, and kids (i've taken a survey) love it. so, to start, i used two big family packs of chicken drum sticks, cheap, tasty and what boy doesn't love eating with his hands? in a big mixing bowl i combined about 1 cup of warm crunchy peanut butter, 1/4 cup tamari, one teaspoon each powdered ginger and white pepper. if it doesn't combine really well, that's okay. dump the chicken in and mix, mix, mix, the marinade will smooth together on the chicken. cover and let marinate in the refrigerator over night. line a baking sheet with foil, lay the chicken out in one layer on it, pouring the last of the marinade over the chicken. sprinkle with sesame seeds (if you want a little more crunch) and bake at 350 for one hour. the other good news is that if you have a wheat allergic guest (i had more than one) they can join in the chicken eating fun with no worries. and yes, i know this is a lot like satay, i never claimed i invented it, i just want to encourage people to try it. also, pony up for the big drum sticks, wings are not as fun as you'd think when you're a hungry, growing boy.