Day 1
I woke up this morning knowing that today was going to be the first day of me embarking on my journey of becoming a domesticated housewife. I laid in bed pondering what my first challenge would be when suddenly my tummy let out a huge ROAR. I was hungry, verrry hungry, not just hungry for some burnt toast or some stale cereal…I wanted something hearty, homey, and absolutely delicious.
I decided to break out some cookbooks I have collected over the years (not sure why my family & friends thought I would actually use them – but I guess here I am FINALLY using them). Covered in dust, I wiped them off and started turning the pages to see the most mouthwatering & decadent food that looked nearly impossible to re-create. I saw an Italian cookbook in the pile and right when I opened it up to the first recipe; I knew that this was going to be my first challenge….one of my absolute most favorite meals in the whole wide world…LASAGNA!
Now in the past, anytime I even fathomed of the thought of making such an intricate dish, I looked at the directions and could barley get past line 1…I felt the same way this morning, but thought to myself “this is supposed to be a CHALLENGE right?” So, I broke the instructions down so that I could sort of understand them and told myself “I CAN DO THIS.” I wrote down a grocery list and headed over to our newly remolded Ralph’s, collected all of my ingredients and came home ready to start.
That’s me and my assistant chef Paisley. I decided that if I actually was going to do this whole “cooking” thing I at least had to look the part & wear a cute apron.
Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 (32 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
32 ounces of ricotta cheese
3 cups shredded mozzarella
2 eggs
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons dried parsley
Salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste
1 Onion diced
9 Lasagna noodles
½ cup water
So here goes nothing, first direction:
In a large skillet (had to google which one of my pots was a skillet – thankfully figured it out) over medium heat, brown the ground beef. Sprinkle any seasonings onto the beef and add diced onions.
Drain the grease. Add the spaghetti sauce and simmer for 5 minutes.
Next step:
In a large bowl, mix together the ricotta cheese, 2 cups of mozzarella cheese, eggs (why are eggs so hard to crack without the shells getting into things?), half of the grated parmesan cheese, dried parsley, salt and ground black pepper.
To assemble:
Use a 9×13 baking dish. Evenly spread ¾ cup sauce mixture at bottom of dish. Cover with 3 uncooked lasagna noodles.
Then on top of the noodles add 1 ¾ cups of cheese mixture and ½ cup of sauce (remember to spread evenly). Repeat this for 2 layers.
When finished with the layering, top with 3 uncooked lasagna noodles, the remaining sauce, and leftover mozzarella cheese, and the remainder of the parmesan cheese.
Add ½ cup of water to the edges of the pan (not sure what this meant so I just put water all around…could be a big mistake…we will soon find out). Cover with aluminum foil.
Last step:
Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven (forgot to pre-heat…whoops) for 45 minutes. Then remove aluminum foil and cook for 10 more minutes. When finished, let stand for 10 minutes before serving.
During the baking time, I decided to conquer the mountain of dirty dishes and put away the leftover ingredients….and….whoops look what I found hiding behind the lasagna noodle box…
You naughty little onion hiding from me! Don’t you worry; I will get you soon Mr. Onion….and your little dog too!!
Ok – so enough anticipation….here it is…my final product……
Voila
Although it looked somewhat similar to the picture, I would have to put it to the ultimate test…I would have to have my biggest critic, my wonderful husband, indulge into my lasagna.
I dished out a big piece to him…he took a big bite and…..he LIKED it! I can’t believe it! I actually got a THUMBS UP!
After he finished the piece, he admitted that although it was good, it definitely was a bit bland….guess that onion really could have come in handy. He recommended adding garlic, onions, and more seasoning to the meat and some freshly diced tomatoes to the spaghetti sauce. Of course after he said all that, he got up from the couch and cut himself another piece 
So after finishing my first challenge, these were the lessons learned:
- Don’t be afraid to add additional ingredients to the recipe, like spices, seasonings and fresh cut veggies.
- Pre-heat the oven before you are ready to use it (hence the term PRE-heat).
- Be aware of runaway onions
Well, I would say the lasagna was a success, not the best, but things could have gone VERY wrong (all body limbs are still attached and there were no stovetop fires).
Stay tuned for next entry where I teach myself how to sew a button…ouch!
! Sooo let’s just say the beautiful fairytale waitress is VERY happy with such a wonderful product 
