Monthly Archives: February 2008

Day of cooking, Part 3: World's Best Lasagna

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The third and final part of my Day of Cooking posts (previously: parts 1 & 2). I wanted to make a Lasagna, one of Ryan’s favorite dishes. I’ve never made one, and I used a recipe a friend uses and said is a real crowd pleaser: World’s Best Lasagna.

World’s Best Lasagna

INGREDIENTS
* 1 pound sweet Italian sausage
* 3/4 pound lean ground beef
* 1/2 cup minced onion
* 2 cloves garlic, crushed
* 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
* 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
* 2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
* 1/2 cup water
* 2 tablespoons white sugar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
* 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
* 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
* 1 tablespoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
* 12 lasagna noodles
* 16 ounces ricotta cheese
* 1 egg
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
* 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS
1. In a Dutch oven, cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
4. To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

This recipe was long, but worth it. It was an excellent lasagna. I got a little worried, because it said to use 6 noodles for each layer, which felt like way too much to me, because only 3 fit in the pan, so it would have been a double layer. I used no-cook noodles, and I didn’t want them to be crunchy by being on top of each other. I decided to use 4 per layer, which had just a slight overlap. Then, at the end I had enough noodles and both sauces, so I did another layer. I was terribly worried about it, but it came out perfect, with the same cook time.

(Side note: Has anyone ever found a 6.5 ounce can of tomato sauce? The store I went to had dozens, and all were a standard 8 ounces. I used the extra 1.5 ounces in both cans.)

I also made simple homemade garlic toast. Take your favorite load of bread (I used thin brick oven white bread) and butter both sides. (Place all slices on an ungreased cookie sheet.) Lightly sprinkle each side with garlic salt and parmesan cheese. Cut in half diagonally before putting in the oven. The cook time can vary from 325 to 425, if you want to stick them in with something else you’re cooking. Just keep an eye on them and flip them. The bottoms will get toasted before the tops do. Leave in until your desired level of crispness, which for us is about 15 minutes, 10 on the first side, 5 on the second. These taste good on their own, and even better dipped in a tomato based pasta sauce from your main course.

I forgot to take a photo of the Lasagna after it came out, but do have one from before, which is basically a big mess of cheese:

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Day of cooking, Part 2: Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cakes

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Part 2 of my cooking extravaganza (see part 1 here) was more ambitious: Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cakes.

You may be wondering why I decided to make Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cakes when I was already making a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. (Very possibly you were not wondering this, but let’s humor me.) There is a very good explanation. The Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cakes came first. I saw this recipe weeks ago on Design*Sponge, and knew I wanted to make them for dessert for Ryan’s birthday dinner. A while later, I decided I wanted to make him a regular birthday cake too. Especially since the Ooey Gooey cakes only made 4 tiny individual serving sized cakes. Plus, what’s better than 5 cakes?

Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cakes

6 oz bittersweet Ghiradelli chocolate (One and a half bars)
4 oz unsalted butter
2 tablespoons cake flour
1/3 cup cocoa (unsweetened)
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and sugar 4 (4 oz) ramekins. Melt butter and chocolate in a double boiler. (or do what I do since I don’t have one: put ingredients in smaller saucepan, fill a larger saucepan partway with water and float the smaller saucepan inside the larger one). Sift cake flour, cocoa and salt in a small prep bowl. Whisk eggs and sugar in a larger prep bowl. Add melted chocolate and butter mixture to egg and sugar mixture a little at a time. Fold in dry ingredients with a whisk. Fill ramekins and place in large glass pan and pour hot water from double boiler around them. Bake about 35-40 minutes until slightly cracked on top and soft on the inside. Serve with Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Bean ice cream and fresh or frozen raspberries.

These were absolutely incredible. I got really worried, because mine didn’t crack on the top. They hadn’t cracked at 40 minutes, so I left them in for 10 more. Then I got really worried that I had over-baked them and decided to take them out anyway, despite the fact that they still hadn’t cracked. I then worried that I left them in for far too long and that they were dry (the tops look a little dry). The moment of truth came after dinner, when I dug my spoon into one. As soon as I saw what came out, I stopped worrying. It was very black, ooey gooey chocolate cake. It was a little ramekin of heaven. The recipe says to serve with Vanilla Bean ice cream and raspberries, and it’s not kidding. These little guys are rich. My photos don’t show the toppings, because after you put ice cream and raspberries on an ooey gooey cake, who stops to take a picture?

The original post on Design*Sponge is definitely worth checking out if you’re interested in making these. It includes a cute intro by Matte Stephens, one of my favorite indie artists who was the one to submit this recipe to D*s. There are much better photos than I took on the original post, and they are even doodled on by Matte. (He even did stop to take a photo of the treats with their toppings. Amazing!)

Additionally, if you want to make this recipe, but don’t have ramekins (like I didn’t) there’s a very good set of six on Amazon for only $8.39.

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Day of cooking, Part 1: Homemade Yellow Cake

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Ryan’s birthday was Sunday, and we celebrated all weekend. I wanted to cook him a nice dinner, and we decided to do that on Saturday, since it meant me being in the kitchen all day. Then we could relax on the actual day of his birthday, and play video games and watch the Oscars.

Saturday morning I started with the cake. I had never made a layer cake before. In fact, I’d only made sheet cakes that never left the pan. I’d also never made a cake from scratch before; I’d only used the boxed mixes.

I used this recipe for four egg yellow cake. It turned out pretty well, it had a nice flavor and was fairly moist. Both layers also came out of the round pans easily. I sprayed the pans with non stick cooking spray, and put a circle of wax paper on the bottom of the pan. (Trace the bottom of the pan onto the wax paper with a pencil, and then cut on the inside of your line.) I let the cakes cool for over 3 hours before removing them from the pans, but that was just because I was busy. Just make sure they’re completely cooled.

Four Egg Yellow Cake

INGREDIENTS
* 1 cup shortening*
* 2 cups white sugar
* 4 eggs
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 3 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 3/4 cups milk

*I read in the comments that you can also use 1/2 cup shortening and 1/2 butter. I used all shortening, but next time I’m going to try 50/50. I think it will make it much more (surprise) buttery, which would be an improvement.

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9 x 13 inch pan.
2. Cream together shortening and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Mix well. Pour batter into prepared pan.
4. Bake for 45 minutes, or until cake tests done. Cool.
For the frosting, I used a recipe that my mom always uses, the one on the inside of the Baker’s unsweetened chocolate baking squares box. It was a good recipe, the frosting has a great flavor, and is very easy to make. The best part is you have a while between making the frosting and actually applying it to the cake. A lot of other frosting recipes I’ve seen say that they harden quickly, and you have to use it right away.

Baker’s One Bowl Chocolate Frosting

INGREDIENTS
4 squares (4 ounces) unsweetened Baker’s chocolate (I actually used Ghiradelli – one bar is 4 ounces)
16 ounces powdered sugar
1/2 cup of softened butter or margarine
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup milk

DIRECTIONS
Put chocolate in microwave on high for 2 minutes. Stir until completely melted (put back in microwave if needed). Cool five minutes or until room temperature. Add powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla. Beat (or stir by hand) until well mixed. Gradually add milk, beating until well blended.

This recipe will make 3 cups of frosting, a good amount for frosting a full sheet cake or an 8 or 9 inch two layer cake, including the middle layer and sides.

Ryan's Birthday Cake
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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

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This weekend I finally read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, after hearing great things about it for almost a year.

I now understand one big reason why this is a YA book and not a kid’s book: cussing. There’s a decent amount of swearing in this book. There are many other reasons too. The main character, Junior, is a 14 year old boy, and despite being incredibly unique, he’s still dealing with all of the troubles every typical 14 boy is dealing with.

The story follows Junior as he decides that he doesn’t want to fall into the same life as his parents and everyone in his Indian reservation; he wants more. The event that sets him off is when he attends his first high school geometry class and his mother’s name is written in his book…the geometry books at the reservation’s school are 30 years old. He decides to do what no one on the Rez has ever done: leave the Rez for school. He starts attending the white school 20 miles away, and where he is both the poorest kid and the only Indian. He really is the most unlikely of heroes (he also has a number of health problems – born with water on the brain) but that just makes him all the more endearing.

Pictures and drawings are a big part of the book, Junior draws cartoons to deal with difficult things in his life. They are charming and work well with the text.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian lives up to all the good attention it has received. It’s interesting, and great fun, for teens and adults.

“It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you’re poor because you’re stupid and ugly. And then you start believing that you’re stupid and ugly because you’re Indian. And because you’re Indian you start believing you’re destined to be poor. It’s an ugly circle and there’s nothing you can do about it.” - Junior

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2008 Newbery and Caldecott Medal Winners

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I’m a kid’s lit enthusiast, but an amateur one. That’s why my post about the 2008 ALA awards is over a month late. I wanted to give myself time to read a few more of the winners and honors before I posted. I read most of the books after they were announced, and I still have not read some of them. I’m in awe of the many kid’s lit superstars, who not only read most of the books before the winners are announced, but predicted many of the winners as well. The ALA awards are different from other book awards in that there’s no short list or list of nominations announced, so it’s a complete surprise the Monday morning when it’s announced.

2008 Newbery Medal Winner:
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Notes from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz

2008 Newbery Honor Books:
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson

The 2008 Newbery and Me:
I read Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! right after it won (I’m a master of my library’s reserve system). I had no idea what to expect, but I loved it. It’s a collection of monologues from the point of view of different children in a Medieval Village. I imagine this will be a great book for teachers to use in their classroom, but it’s very enjoyable to just sit down and read on your own as well. I read several of the poems out loud to myself because they were so charming and had such a nice rhythm. I learned a lot about Medieval times while reading the book too, it’s not just for kids.

I read The Wednesday Wars after that, and fell head over heels for it. It completely transported back to the time when I was young and could absolutely not move until I finished a good book. Before there were so many little things to do or check on that required putting a bookmark in and pausing the story for a while. Holling Hoodhood is now one of my favorite characters in children’s literature. I wrote a little more about the plot of the book in a previous post, so I won’t go on about it here.

I have not read Elijah of Buxton or Feathers yet, but I have them on reserve from the library. I’ve read Christopher Paul Curtis’s other Newbery winner, Bud, Not Buddy, which is delightful. I have high hopes that Elijah will be as endearing as Bud is.

2008 Caldecott Winner:
The Invention of Hugo Cabret written and illustrated by Brian Selznick

2008 Caldecott Honor Books:
Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
First the Egg written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain written and illustrated by Peter Sis
Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity written and illustrated by Mo Willems

The 2008 Caldecott and Me:
I read The Invention of Hugo Cabret shortly after it was released last year. I became a big fan and followed all the speculation about whether or not it could be a contender for either award. Because of its incredibly unique format, many thought it would not fit into either major award category. I loved the way the pictures intertwined with the novel and how turning the pages was like a camera zooming in on what we’re supposed to look at. Hopefully this work will be a bit of a groundbreaker and will encourage others to try new things with pictures and illustrations too. We live in a very visual world, and illustrations in books should not be confined to just traditional picture books or graphic novels. I wish more illustrations were used in books for adults. This Caldecott Medal was extremely well deserved.

I read Knuffle Bunny, Too last year as well. Actually, I read it and then Mo Willems read it to me! I love Mo Willems, and boy do kids ever love him too. The illustrations in both Knuffle Bunny books are unusual too, Mo takes photographs of the setting (Brooklyn) and then draws on top of them. You have to look at them for a while before you realize how unique they really are. I read KB1 and KB2 aloud to my brother’s first grade class when I was the mystery reader last year. The kid’s loved it, and after I finished reading the second one they asked me if there was a third one I could read to them. I promised to come back and read the third as soon as Mo writes it.

Everytime I saw The Wall at a bookstore last year I picked it up and looked at it and wanted to buy it. A lot of times with picture books I’ll just stand there in the store and read it to decide if I want to buy it, but The Wall is too detailed and deep for a quick bookstore reading. After it received the honor medal I went to the library and took it out, and sat down and read it one evening. I wrote a bit of a description of it in this post (the same as The Wednesday Wars post). After reading the library’s copy, it went straight on my Amazon wish list to buy soon for my own collection.

I have not read First the Egg or Henry’s Freedom Box yet, but I have my eyes open for them at the library and at bookstores.

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Moral Disorder – Cover Designs

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Here’s an example of a vast improvement of cover design from the hardcover to softcover release.

I don’t hate the hardcover design; it’s unusual and definitely stands out at the bookstore. And I think the design style somewhat fits her style of writing. (In general, I haven’t read this specific collection of short stories yet.) But I’m not sure it stands out in a good way. If someone had never read Margaret Atwood before, I doubt they would be likely to even pick up this book based on the hardcover design.

The softcover design looks like a modern classic. I also think it’s important that they added “And Other Stories” to the cover/title. The hardcover title and cover are a little vague, and you can’t even really tell if it’s fiction or non-fiction.

The softcover reminds me of two other covers. A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor has a comparable (but more subdued) color palate and a similar concept of pieces of a woman’s face. It also bears a strong resemblance to The Female Thing by Laura Kipnis, a non-fiction book about how women can be their own worst enemy in battles for equal rights.

Most likely the design similarities to these two titles are a coincidence, but an interesting one. A Good Man is Hard to Find is a book of short stories, and The Female Thing explores feminism and female rights. Many of Margaret Atwood’s novels and stories explore issues of female identity and roles.

The Female Thing: Dirt, envy, sex, vulnerability (Vintage)
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Book Meme!

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I’ve been tagged by lemon for a book meme!

The rules:
Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
Open the book to page 123.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the next three sentences.
Tag five people.

The book: The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
Maybe the man who was Mrs. Tifton’s nasty boyfriend was the bad, Mr. Hyde side of Dexter. Then, the good, Dr. Jekyll side of Dexter — called Mr. Dupree! — could be a wise, kind publisher, who would be only too eager to help young writers find their destinies. It was that man, The Mr. Dupree side, who had said at dinner he’d look at the Sabrina Starr book when it was finished.

I’ll tag five of my book club friends, because I think they’ll like this too: Michelle, Kristie, Jennifer, Dominique, and Bina. I also tag anyone else who would like to do this too.

(This post was brought over from emilyw.vox.com. Click here for the original post and comments.)