Day One

Well, today was the long-anticipated day. Laurel embarked on her high school years at Good Old East High! She has been all aflutter recently. She began playing with the tennis team as soon as we got home from Oceanside, so some of the "will they like me?" jitters may have subsided, but not all. This morning, she wanted to get up a whole 40 minutes early for scriptures so that she could do Viktoria's hair. For scriptures, we read Laurel's patriarchal blessing, which says quite a bit about her teenage years. About 6:20,the doorbell rang ("I told them not to!" Laurel exclaimed.) After some sharing of earrings, lip gloss and necklaces, and lots of giggling in Laurel's room, she, Viktoria and Maggie looked wonderful and happy. But I asked Laurel if she had brushed her hair, thinking she had forgotten. She replied, "My hair doesn't need brushing!" I really like that pioneer spirit! It was a good surprise twist to the morning. Without being prodded, she acquiesced. I thought the look was improved. The girls enjoyed some banana-cinnamon pancakes with chocolate sauce and whipped cream! That just doesn't come around on the menu every day, thank goodness. By the time 7:15 a.m. arrived, we had Laurel, Maggie and Viktoria, sugared, hair a-done. gleaming. Bookbags were stuffed, tennis rackets, water bottles and Laurel's English mobile waited by the door, and Laurel had her trademark rye-provolone-tomato-basil panino in her Animal lunchbox, a gift and twin to Maggie's lunchbox. Then all three friends almost skipped off to arrive early at school. Neither she, Craig nor I will ever have a morning quite like it again.

Spinach Lasagna

Darling, Adorable Family: it seems that all I get on the blog these days is recipes I am already copying for people, because life is too rich, and I am distracted! I'll try to do better and grab some other snatches for you. You try, too! And a medal for dear Ariel for keeping the blog going, even when she has her own fantastic blog. We love and appreciate you, Beautiful Bubby!!! PS If you have trouble copying a recipe you want from the blog, try our account at myfamily.com. I put them all there.

Spinach Lasagne

This recipe comes from a wonderful Italian cookbook Craig and I received for our wedding 27 years ago. The page has come out, and I am attempting to preserve this family favorite, with a few changes. I have doubled and even tripled it, but that's work!

Ingredients:
I can (28 oz) chopped tomatoes
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 T olive oil
1/4 lb. fresh mushrooms, thinly slicced
1 medium onioin, chopped
1 medium clove garlic, minced
1 1/4 t salt
3/4 t dried oregano, crumbled
3/4 t dried basil, crumbled
1/4 t pepper
9 uncooked lasagne noodles (not curly edged)
1/4 c flour
1/8 t ground nutmeg
2 c milk
1 1/2 c shredded mozzarela cheese
1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese
1 pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

Directions:
For meat sauce: cook beef in oil over medium-high heat, breaking up beef into fine pieces, until brown. Stir in mushrooms, onion and garlic; cook over medium heat until onion is soft. In food processor, process about half of the canned tomatoes until smooth. Add all tomatoes to beef mixture. Stir in 3/4 t of the salt, the oregano, basil and 1/8 t of the pepper. Heat to boiling; reduce heat to low. Simmer uncovered until sauce is almost thick (it needs to be a little runnier than formerly because we are not cooking the noodles in advance). Reserve.

For cheese sauce: Melt 1/4 c of the butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour, remaining 1/2 t salt, remaining 1/8 t pepper and the nutmet; cook and stir until bubbly. Whisk in milk; cook, stirring constantly, until sauce thickens and bubbles for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in 1 c mozzarella cheese and 1/4 c of the Parmesan cheese. Stir until smooth. Reserve.

Spread a small amount of meat sauce on the bottom of greased casserole baking dish. Arrange 3 of the lasagne noodles, or as many as will fit, in a single layer of the pan. Top with half of the reserved meat sauce; spread even Spread half the reserved cheese sauce over meat sauce in even layer. Repeat layers once, using 3 more noodles, the remaining meat sauce and the remaining cheese sauce. Crumble spinach and sprinkle loosely over cheese sauce in even layer; pat down lightly. Arrange remaining 3 lasagne noodles in layer over spinach.

Mix remaining 1/2 c mozzarella cheese and remaining 1/4 c Parmesan cheese in a cup. Sprinkle mixed cheeses evenly on top of lasagne. Bake until top is golden and edges are bubbly, about 40 minutes. Let lasagne stand 10 minutes before serving

Number Of Servings:6