Iris Interview

Thanks to Iris: A Magazine for Thinking Young Women for publishing this interview about the blog: Check it out!

An Exercise in Domesticity: Truly Homemade Lasagna

For Valentine's Day Weekend, my roommate and I hosted a romantic evening to celebrate love, food, friendship, and domesticity. My mom's response to this activity was that I'm a foodie fanatic or her words may have been that I am a "lunatic". My roommate says that at least I'm a "happy, well fed lunatic". Either way, this was one of my favorite meals in a long time and gave me a lot of pleasure.

We prepared all the ingredients for the lasagna from scratch including the following: ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, lasagna noodles, and pasta sauce. We also sauteed spinach in olive oil and garlic and used that as well. As you can see, most of the components of this lasagna have already been posted to the blog. The glory of this meal was putting all the pieces together.

Basic Vegetarian Lasagna (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

What You Need
- 1 pound lasagna noodles
- 1 pound mozzarella
- 2 cups ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (freshly grated)
- 32 ounces whole tomatoes (we used the ones my roommate and her family canned from their farm this summer, the can includes a handful of basil leaves)
- 4 tablespoon olive oil
- 6 cloves garlic, crushed
- Salt and pepper to taste
- "A couple glugs red one"
- Several cups baby spinach

What You Do
1. Prepare the ricotta cheese, if making at home.
2. While you are waiting for the ricotta, prepare the mozzarella, if making at home.
3. Prepare the noodles, if making at home.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a medium sized pot.
5. Add 4 cloves garlic and allow to heat on medium (2 minutes) Do not burn.
6. Add can of tomatoes, basil, "glugs of wine" (which means just a couple little pours from the bottle), and a little salt and pepper.
7. Break up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon and allow sauce to simmer which you finish getting everything else prepared (minimum of 10 minutes).
8. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and add in the last 2 cloves garlic to a mid-sized pan.
9. Saute spinach.
10. Add spinach to the ricotta cheese.
11. Assemble the lasagna in the following order: sauce, noodles, ricotta mixture, sauce, noodles, ricotta mixture, sauce, noodles, sauce, sliced mozzarella.
12. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
13. Put lasagna into a preheated oven at 375 degrees.
14. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden and bubbling.
15. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Excellent and worth trying. The whole process took us 3 hours total from start to finish (which includes 1 hour of waiting for ricotta and 35-45 minutes waiting for the lasagna to bake). We were able to pass the time listening to music, snacking on bread with olive oil, garlic, and balsamic vinegar, and enjoying some wine.

The Winning Birthday Cake

The winning birthday cake recipe was a combination of a couple that my roommate and I reviewed over the past few months. My roommate ended up making the Cocoa Layer Cake, previously posted to the blog. The major difference from the initial post was that the instead of using a layer of icing in the middle, she spread raspberry jam. Wow! What a fantastic combination. For the frosting, she used the frosting from the Chocolate-Red Wine Cake, which just involves 3/4 cup hot cream and 3/4 cup chocolate chips. This birthday cake was perfect and, of course, I enjoyed all the trial runs.

As you can see, I was a happy birthday girl.

Thank You Smitten Kitchen: Part 2

I love cauliflower. So, of course, it had to make an appearance at my birthday dinner. Here's another great one from Smitten Kitchen.

Cauliflower Salad (from Smitten Kitchen)

What You Need
- 1 small firm head cauliflower, about 12 ounces
- 1 hard-cooked egg
- 2 scallions, including an inch of the greens, thinly sliced
- 1 cup diced celery heart with leaves
- 1 small green bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded, and chopped
- 12 pimiento-stuffed Spanish green olives, halved
- 1 tablespoon capers, rinsed
- 1/2 cup parsley leaves
- 1 or 2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
- salt and freshly milled pepper
- 1 1/2 tablespoons sherry vinegar or aged red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

What You Do
1. Pound the garlic with 1/4 teaspoon salt in a mortar until it breaks down into a puree.
2. Smash the hard-cooked egg yolk with the garlic and salt.
3. Combine the garlic, vinegar, yolk and mustard in a small bowl, then whisk in the oil and season with pepper.
3. Taste and correct the balance (dressing should be on the tart side).
4. Slice off very thin slices of cauliflower, working your way around the head. Quarter then thinly slice the cauliflower. Be sure to include the stalks, too, peeled and thinly sliced.
2. Dice the egg white and toss it with the vegetables, olives, capers, and parsley. Add the vinaigrette and toss again.