Wednesday

I woke up at 6:00 AM on Wednesday. I washed out the coffee pot and, while it was drying, I wrote and posted the Blog entry. Then I made some coffe and went in to watch the morning news.

I thawed out the last cup or so of frozen blueberries and, after the news was over. I made up the family pancake recipe. I added the blueberries to it and let it sit for a bit while I got out the electric griddle. Then I made myself a stack of blueberry pancakes. Yumo!!

I did some minor stuff and then took a nap.

I started making dinner about 4:00 PM. I browned up a pound of ground chuck and then drained it. Then I put it in a large saucepan. Next I cooked sliced onions until they were soft and added them to the sauce pan. Then I added two 6-ounce cans of tomato paste and one 14.5-ounce can of crushed tomatoes.

To that, I added two cups of water, one tablespoon of dried oregano, two teaspoons of garlic powder, two teaspoons of salt, 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper one tablespoon of white sugar and one teaspoon of red pepper flakes. I warmed that on medium heat until it began to boil, then I reduced the heat and simmered it for an hour.

While the sauce was simmering, I blended 12 ounces of cottage cheese (I didn’t have any ricotta), a half cup of grated Parmesan cheese and one egg in a bowl and set it aside.

I put 11 lasagna noodles in a pot of boiling, salted water and cooked them until they were al dente (about 8-10 minutes). Then I drained them and drizzled them with olive oil (so they wouldn’t stick together).

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees F.

I spread a cup of sauce in the bottom of my sheet cake pan. Then I added three noodles and put two more (cut to fit) on the ends of them. I think this helps the corners to stay together. I covered the noodles with 1/3 of the remaining sauce and topped that with eight ounces of shredded mozzarella. I put another layer of noodles and sauce over that and topped it with the cottage cheese mixture. I topped that with the last three noodles and the remaining sauce.

I baked it in the oven for 30 minutes. Then I sprinkled another eight ounces of mozzarella cheese and more Parmesan on top. I baked it for another 15 minutes until the cheese was bubbly and golden.

I let it rest for a while and then plated a big piece. I know it wasn’t “authentic” but it was damn good!

Before I went to bed, I covered the pan with tin foil and stuck it in the fridge. My kitchen was a wreck (dirty pots and pans everywhere), but I let them soak and will deal with them tomorrow.