The Best Lasagna Uncle Javier Has Ever Had!

Guinness has a special relationship with a couple of our friends. Erin Keller, the dog whisperer, always makes Guinness so excited when she sees her that she pees. Every time. Never fails. But probably her most special relationship is with her Uncle Javier. He often takes her to work with him for the day, and now knows him by name! I think Javier likes her more than us. For my 30th b-day, he brought her a gift, instead of me. It was a teddy bear, and her new favorite toy. Her new game is to try and get the arms of the bear out of the t-shirt. Weirdo.

We recently went on a vacation where we couldn't take our dog, Guinness. She isn't the easiest dog when it comes to sleeping, as she likes to sleep in our bed, instead of her own "big girl bed", so we debated about what to do with her while we were gone. She spends a lot of time with her BFF, Mini Panda, across the street, so we asked our friends the Norton's if they wouldn't mind watching her. They love and treat her like they do Mini, so we knew she would be well taken care of. The other options were a kennel, or her Uncle Javier, but until she sleeps through the night in her own bed, we didn't think Javier would stay sane for 5 days. We did list Javier as her "emergency contact", and when asked what relationship was, I said Godfather. Man, are we cheesy (pun intended). Here's a pic of the besties, Guinness and Mini.

This doesn't have much to do with lasagna. But when I thought about when I made the lasagna, I remembered that Javier had been telling me he made a mean lasagna, and we had invited him and Danielle for dinner when I made it, and I was very nervous. However, after eating it, he said it might be the best lasagna he's ever had! Best. Compliment. Ever. When we left for our vacation a couple of days later, we had tons of lasagna left, and I didn't want such hard work to go to waste, so I sent piles of leftovers with the Norton's when they came to pick up Guinness. James thought it was very strange to give our friends leftovers when they don't ask for them, but I hadn't really thought twice about it. Needless to say, they said they loved the lasagna! Yippee! I'm not a weirdo!

Back to the food: this is a labor of love, I will warn you. But it's worth the 4 hours it takes to make.

Cheesy Factor (1 no cheese, 10 all cheese): you won't poop for a week
Dummy Factor (1 easiest, 10 hardest): 6-7
Time Factor (1 shortest, 10 longest): 7-8 ugh

Palio's Lasagna
1.5 lb mild Italian sausage, ground (optional)
1/4 cup water
2 Tbs unsalted butter
1 leek, white only, finely chopped
1 small fennel bulb (Anise), finely chopped
1.5 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 lb zucchini, sliced lengthwise into 1/4in thick slices
2 cups fresh spinach leaves, coarsely chopped
1 tsp fresh oregano
1 Tbs fresh basil
1 Tbs flour
1 cup heavy cream
Salt/Pepper
2 eggs
15 lasagna noodles (no-boil type)
2 15oz. containers part-skim ricotta cheese
1 cup Parmesan cheese
4 cups mozzarella cheese, grated or shredded
1.5 cups fontina cheese, grated
4 cups tomato sauce (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350 deg. In large pan, add Italian sausage with 1/4 cup of water and cook over medium high heat, stirring to break up meat, until cooked through. Drain and set aside. Melt the butter in the pan, and add chopped leek and fennel and saute over medium heat for 8-10 minutes or until tender. Add mushrooms and continue to saute until soft. Stir in flour, then add heavy cream, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Bring to boil and cook for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the chopped spinach and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and mix in the sausage, and set aside. Arrange sliced zucchini on non-stick baking sheet (or line sheet with parchment paper), season with salt and pepper, and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside. In large bowl, beat eggs and mix in ricotta cheese, season with salt and pepper. In separate large bowl, combine remaining cheeses. 

Spray 13x9 glass baking dish with non-stick spray. Spread 1/2 cup tomato sauce over bottom of dish. Place 5 noodles over sauce, overlapping them a bit. Spread half of ricotta mixture evenly over noodles, then spread sausage mixture as well. Take half of baked zucchini and spread out over top of sausage mixture. Sprinkle 1/3 of cheeses evenly over zucchini. Repeat layering with 5 noodles, remaining ricotta, sausage mixture, zucchini, and 1/2 the amount of remaining cheeses. Arrange remaining 5 noodles to cover it all. Sprinkle remaining cheeses evenly over lasagna. Cover baking dish with aluminum foil, and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and continue baking until hot and golden on top, about 20-25 minutes. Take out of oven and let stand for 15 minutes before serving.

Tomato Sauce
3 24oz cans chopped tomatoes, preferably Hunts
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 medium size garlic cloves
1/3 cup canned tomato sauce
2 cups fresh basil leaves, coarsely chopped
1.5 Tbs kosher or sea salt
2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 Tbs honey

In food processor or blender, puree olive oil and garlic. Pour the mixture into a sauce pan and heat over medium heat (don't burn garlic). Stir in chopped tomatoes, tomato sauce, salt and pepper. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low, simmer for 30 minutes. Stir in honey and fresh basil at end. Serve and freeze unused if desired.


Phew! I'm tired just writing this, let alone cooking it. No notes here. Don't substitute on this one. It's perfection. And don't even think about using jarred sauce to save time. The sauce makes this dish. And you've already committed, so don't skimp out now. You can thank me later.   

Abby Gets an 'F' in Blogging.....and an Asian Invasion in the Kitchen

My friend Jessica told me the other that I get an 'F' in blogging. I couldn't argue. I didn't quite realize when I got into this blogging thing that people expect posts often. However, it's a little different with a cooking blog. I don't know anyone who cooks who makes 365 different recipes a year. There are going to be lots of repeats, and I am not going to blog about something I have already told you about.

I'm not making excuses for the last month though, I just haven't been cooking as much to be honest. So, just give me a 'D' or a 'C-' instead of an 'F', pretty please.

No big news in the Melad family worth noting while I talk about food, but I will keep you updated, and promise to cook more.

Here is another episode in the "Asian food for white people" book (it's a joke, don't take offense, I'm not a racist). I'm getting better and better at these thanks to my in-laws who teach me everything I know about Asian/Pacific Island cooking.

Cheesy Factor (1 no cheese, 10 all cheese): If by cheese you mean soy sauce, then 5. Otherwise, 0.
Dummy Factor (1 easiest, 10 hardest): 4
Time Factor (1 shortest, 10 longest): 4

Spicy Chinese BBQ Chicken
1 Tbl toasted sesame seeds
2 Tbl cracked white, pink, or green peppercorns
1 tsp poppy seeds
1 tsp hot pepper flakes
1 Tbl garlic salt
2-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
3/4 cup KC Masterpiece Original BBQ Sauce
2 Tbl soy sauce
1 Tbl peanut or canola oil
1 Tbl rice vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground ginger

In a small sauce pan, combine, the BBQ sauce, soy sauce, oil, rice vinegar, garlic, and ground ginger, mix well, and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Let simmer for about 5 minutes. Pre- heat grill or saute pan over medium heat. In small mixing bowl, combine sesame seeds, pepper, poppy seeds, pepper flakes, garlic salt, and mix well. Rub mixture on all side of chicken breasts. Remove BBQ sauce from heat, and transfer sauce to serving bowl and allow to cool to room temperature. Spray non-stick spray on grill, or lightly oil grill grate with olive oil. Grill chicken breasts over medium heat until cooked through and juices clear, turning 2-3 times, basting with BBQ sauce each time you turn. Save remaining BBQ sauce for serving sauce.

Fried Rice
2 cups cooked white rice (preferably 1 day old)
1/4 cup finely chopped vegetables (carrots, onion, green pepper, peas, etc.), sauteed in butter
1 egg, fried
4 Tbl butter
3-4 Tbl soy sauce
salt/pepper
Toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Heat large fry pan over medium heat. Once pan is hot, add rice and allow to fry for a few minutes. Add butter, soy sauce, and sauteed vegetables. Mix well in pan (after mixing, rice should be light tan/brown color). Continue frying rice. Chop up fried egg and add to rice. Season rice with salt and pepper (and sesame seeds if using), continuing to stir and fry for about 2 minutes. Serve hot. Serves 4-6 people.


I made the above two dishes with the pea pods and mushrooms recipe posted a while back for an all over yummy meal. Here are my notes:
- A lot of recipes call for sesame seeds, and then add an extra step to have you toast them in fry pan. Just make it easy on yourself and buy the already toasted sesame seeds in the spice section at the store. They taste the same.
- Pepper: not sure what to tell you here. Hopefully, you magically have a spice mill to grind the peppercorns. If not, you can use a coffee grinder. Otherwise, you are SOL like I am and have to put them into your pepper grinder and grind by hand. Makes for strong (sore) forearms.
- BBQ sauce: I'm sure you can use whatever BBQ sauce you have in your fridge, but I like the KC Masterpiece Original
- You can save your leftover Chinese BBQ sauce covered in the fridge for several weeks
- If you remember/have time to make the white rice the day before, that is best. But if you want to make white rice day of, just give it time to cool in fridge for a little before frying it up.
- If you can handle managing multiple pans and one time, you can fry the egg in a small fry pan while doing everything else, and also saute veggies in another small pan at same time as well. Otherwise, just do it quickly before you start cooking so it's ready to go.
- Eye-ball the soy sauce when you're adding it to the fried rice. Add 3 Tbl, mix it all up and see if it's enough or not enough. Rice should be slightly covered with soy after mixing up.
- Don't give me crap about not adding sprouts of whatever else to the fried rice. I hate sprouts. You can add whatever you want to yours, I like mine without.

Easy Chinese food. You can even get some fortune cookies in International aisle at grocery store if you want to get fancy.