My Perfect Lasagna Recipe

...8 years in the making

I have been having this on again and off again relationship with lasagna for 8 years- about 1 out of every 5 times I made it it was heavenly, the rest were too dry, too saucy, too mushy, too ugly (you know what I mean by ugly lasagna? Very unappetizing) So I have been perfecting this recipe, writing down the things I did different when it actually came out right and I am ready to share it!

There are some very strict rules when it comes to making this a perfect lasagna so read carefully:

Side-note: I have NO loyalty to these brands or affiliation with them. They are just what I have used and what works for me.

Lasagna (adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)
Sized to to fit a 2 qt. square casserole dish

Ingredients:

6 "no boil" lasagna noodles

I would never tell you to buy premade tubs of frosting or cake mix, but trust me, don't be ashamed to buy the "no boil" lasgna noodles. Not only do they taste the same (I think better) but it is so much easier to spread the ricotta on them than trying to layer things on top of slippery noodles. 

1 26.5 oz. can of pasta sauce

I use Hunts Traditional Style Pasta Sauce because it is a thinner style of sauce with no chucks of tomato or veggies. I found a thicker sauce makes it dryer.

15 oz. container of ricotta cheese



I just use the Great Values brand from Wal-Mart in the "part skim" variety


3-4 cups of finely shredded mozzarella cheese

 If it is shredded too large, it will get clumpy.


1/4 cup parmesan cheese

I like the real shredded cheese you have to find in the refrigerated section as opposed to the powder variety.

1 egg


Palm size square of ground beef


Get the fat content you like for everyday cooking, but if you really want to make this lasagna at it's best for a special occasion, get the 80% beef to fat ratio because the meat will remain soft and juicy.\


Sprinkling of onion and garlic powder

Directions:


Place your ground beef in skillet and start chopping it apart with a sturdy spatula. Try to get the pieces as small as possible. While it is still cooking and is spread apart, sprinkle with onion and garlic powder. (You can cook the meat with large pieces of onion and garlic if you have it, but take all the pieces out after it is cooked, it is just for flavor). Cook until no longer pink.

Place cooked ground beef in a POT (yes, you will have to dirty something else but cooking the sauce in the pan makes it taste different-use a deep pot instead). Pour the sauce into the pot, stir the meat and sauce together and heat until just hot, don't over cook.

In a bowl, crack and beat the egg. Mix with ricotta and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese.

Pour 1/4 cup of meat sauce into the bottom of 2 qt. casserole dish. Layer two noodles on top of sauce- side by side. Take 1/3 of ricotta mixture and smooth on top of noodles with the back of a large spoon. Pour a scant 1 cup of meat sauce on the ricotta cheese mixture. Pour a scant 1 cup mozzarella cheese onto meat sauce.
Repeat 2 more times:
-noodles, ricotta, meat sauce, mozzarella, noodles, ricotta, meat sauce, mozzarella- STOP! You are done layering, yay!

Cover with foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.
Take off foil and bake another 15 minutes.
Then to get a nice brown, bubbly look to the top I suggest broiling for another 2 or 3 minutes.

Then most important of all- LET IT SIT!

Unless you want to make mush of this deliciousness, you need to let it sit for 15 minutes. Cut pieces with a sharp culinary knife and dish out with a small, study spatula. This way your lasagna with look as good as it tastes!

Enjoy!

Uh Oh...I think my new house is haunted!

Easter Mantle Decor

Easter is fast approaching so last night I hauled out the Easter Decor bin and decorated! Here are the pictures of the mantle- Happy Easter!

Although I love pretty flower and cute bunnies (and chocolate), I am espeically grateful for the reason

I celebrate Easter, which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Here is my current favorite picture:

The Truth About Toddlers

Shortly I will start posting pictures of my new house I have spent months decorating and making into our home. Of course these pictures will show perfectly clean and organized rooms, but let's be honest, that is not always the reality around here. Today, I wanted to do what most of the other Mommy home decor blogs don't dare- show you scenes from uglier days... like today.

I got up this morning and cleaned the house like I do most mornings, and it was darn near perfect. But you take ONE phone call and all heck breaks loose. Here are some crime scene photos from the occurrence this morning:


Filler from their St. Patrick's Day baskets with candy wrappers strewn all over the floor...

...and carpet where I am going to have to pick it all out piece by piece by hand

All the books and some toys thrown into the crib:

A hamper of dirty clothes emptied out into the toy box (and I mean dirty-clothes of a toddler boy, yuck!)

And WORST of all- the clothes I folded just THIS MORNING strewn all over Annalise's room in addition to the bedding being pulled off and a lamp knocked over. Looks like the aftermath of a robbery!

They achieved all this in a matter of minutes- it's like they are chaos creating professionals!

Of course I told Annalise she needed to help clean this up, but she's claiming she can't. Apparently she is suffering from a "hurt finger".

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I always felt so "Irish" on St, Patrick's Day because my middle name is a tribute to my Irish heritage. Growing up I was told stories of my great-great grandma Rachel Ellis O'Neil who came over here from Ireland and settled in Midway, Utah. I was named after her and her daughter (who was my great grandma Rachel Violet) and loved hearing stories about the amazing women they are. It was a sad day that I realized that I am really only 1/16 Irish, but I claim it proudly because it is from this amazing Irish woman that a long line of women in my family has come.

My favorite memories of St. Patrick's Day came from Kindergarten and First Grade. In Kindergarten, Mrs. Petersen taught us this song that I still remember to this day and taught to my kids this year:

Today is the day of the wearing of the green
Today is the day when the little people are seen
Today is St. Patrick's Day so if you're Irish me Lad
Join the celebration, there's a lot of fun to be had!

 Then on St. Patrick's Day in first grade, I walked into the classroom to see little black footprints all over the walls and ceiling and learned a leprechaun had snuck into our room looking for gold. This felt like the most exciting day of my life! My Mom heard about this and started doing this as a tradition in our family, and it was always so magical! So of course, I had to continue it.

But first, we had to lure a leprechaun in so me and the kids made a leprechaun trap.

We covered the box with paper that we decorated with "rainbow" colored glitter glue and put stickers on the back. Then on the front we advertised we had "free gold" and put stairs to the top where we had a false floor.  The floor was paper and we made a cut in the paper so when the little leprechaun came to snatch the gold he would fall through.

We also made a rainbow to get his attention- this was definitely the BEST part for the kids. I knew my kiddos were too young to draw a rainbow, so I had the idea they could glue little fuzzy balls in a rainbow shape. First, we had a great time sorting the colors.

 Then I used glue to draw a rainbow arch that Annalise would fill with one color of balls, then I would draw a smaller arch of glue under that one and she would fill it with a different color, and so on...She loved it so much she wanted to make rainbows until all the balls were gone.

The finished project was beautiful and almost all the work was done by Annalise by herself- she was thrilled!

The morning of St. Patricks' Day we checked the trap and found this note:

Dear Kids- HA HA
You tried to trick me, but I tricked you
I took your gold and hid your baskets too!

The leprechaun had escaped with our gold! But we were clever and left some baby powder on the top of the trap so if he did get away we could follow his footprints:

"Footprints" are baby powder and created  by using my pointer and middle finger

They led right out the front door! He was long gone...

The kids found their buckets of treats and green pinwheels that a glued a little rainbow button to:

We dressed in our green:

This was the perfect shirt for Annalise because it says "I'm a Wee Bit Irish"
and that's true- she has only one Irish ancestor that I know of- her great, great, great
grandma- but she is very significant because she is my and Annalise's namesake
for our middle names, which is Rachel. Her name was Rachel Ellis O'Neil and
she created a long line of amazing women starting with her daughter and my great-grandma
"Mama Violet" and her daughter, my absoluley incredible, one of a kind Nana,
then my beautiful and wonderful Mom, then me, and then my darling Annalise.

Best picture I could get of Jonah that day. He felt he needed some
more green, so he smeared frosting all over his shirt!

Then we made some Shamrock cookies for good luck:

Yum!

The night ended with the kids taking a bath in some fun, green colored water! 

Even though I am only (but proudly) 1/16 Irish, I definitely have the "Luck o' the Irish" when it comes to my family!

Delightful Quote of the Day

This one from 19 month old Jonah!

You know you are raising up a good little man when this conversation happens:

Changing a poopy diaper...

Jonah:     "Poopy all gone?"
Me:        "Yep, it's all gone, Buddy."
Jonah:     "Dank Coo, Mommy (translation- Thank you, Mommy)
Me:         happy and surprised, I've never been thanked for changing a diaper before
               "You're welcome, you little Angel"
Jonah:     "Welcome" (translation- you're welcome)

He is so polite and adorable! It just made my day! He also said, "Bye, Love You" as he left the room earlier.
I am so blessed to have such a sweet boy!

My First Furniture Redo

...and the things I learned along the way.

 I spent months searching for the perfect TV console for my new home, it had become my white whale. It had to be a certain height, certain width, certain price, glass doors so the remote would work with the cable box inside, and most importantly, the perfect color. I ordered a cheap unit online, but when I opened the box, I was met with a redwood colored MDF piece of junk- yuck! So I spent hours online and in stores searching for this piece of furniture I could only see in my head. Finally, I found a piece that met all the criteria except the color was a little off. I told my husband I had heard of a lady who painted furniture for cheap and she could do it for me. He really had a hard time accepting the fact I wanted to paint a brand new piece of furniture, but eventually he conceded. I brought the piece home and all my visitors loved it. I quickly told them I would be painting it to match my favorite piece in the room (my Aidan Gray mirror) and they all thought I was crazy too. Then to bump up the craziness factor, I had not only become the woman who buys a brand new piece of furniture and gets it painted, I decided I wanted to paint it myself, something I had never done before!

After numerous trips to Home Depot I ended up with a paint that was too light and paint that was too dark (this mirror was the hardest thing in the world to match). So I primed the unit and painted it with the dark paint first. My husband was satisfied, but it looked too dull to me, so I brilliantly decided to whitewash it. This was disastrous and although my husband said that looked good too, to me it looked like a piece of furniture with gray car primer on it that was parked under a tree with lots of birds for a few months. By this time it was 11:00 at night, and I was so sick and frustrated, I just whipped out the light paint and started over. If I was going to ruin this thing, I was going to give it all I had. So more white primer, then the light gray, and then the saving grace- Valspar Antiquing Glaze from Lowes. I had my husband run and buy me some after I read about it online.

It turned out gorgeous! A near perfect match for my beloved mirror and just the look I was after- here's how I did it.

First Step
Prime your furniture with a primer. No sanding needed- hurray! I used this one:

I used a a small, foam roller for most of it, but sometimes a brush comes in handy too.

Second Step:
Once the primer dries, paint your color. Once again I used a small, foam roller and a brush.
I used Behr's Gentle Rain in an eggshell finish. As you can see, this paint color doesn't match the mirror at all yet.





Third Step:
Once the paint dried, I started to glaze. I poured the Valspar Antiquing Glaze into a disposable cup and brushed it on, then wiped it off with a damp rag. If I had continued this way, it would have taken many coats to get the tone I wanted, so I ended up brushing the glaze on and then wiping it off with a rag saturated with more glaze. This gave me the perfect effect with only one application! I didn't have to sand or distress a thing- this glaze is magic.



Here some close-ups so you can see the beautiful detail the glaze gives:

Here is the finished product in my family room (which I'm about 80% done decorating). See how it matches the mirror? HURRAY! I was happy, I danced around the house at 2:00 in the morning saying, "I did it, I did it." I am so glad I attempted this, because I don't even think the professional painter could have gotten it exactly how I wanted it.

The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away

On Feburary 28 I started bleeding all day, too light to confirm I lost the baby and too much not to worry. The next day I went in for another ultrasound. All they could see was a little gestational sac that was too small to measure- my baby was gone. I was given some medicine to help hurry the miscarriage along. I took that, and after serious pain, both physically and emotional, everything came to an end by 10:00 that night.

I am so grateful I went to the first ultrasound so I could see that I progressed as far as I did before my body started to shut everything down. I realize now even more so that my two babies are true miracles. I am really doubting my body's ability to carry a pregnancy at this point and am ready to just call it quits.

It is so strange to go through the rabbit hole, having all these sad and sweet experiences, and come out the other end with everything the same. I had such a perfect life before, now the pieces have been scattered and I don't know how to put everything together again like it was it was. I am struggling to figure out why God allowed this to happen to me, I hope I can heal and move on soon.