The Grandma Globe Pays off Again

Laurel is making great strides at East, trying to keep up with all her challenging classes. For her honors geography class, she is required to memorize all the state locations and state capitals. I said, "You probably know quite a few all ready," to which she replied, "Well, I know the one for Illinois is Des Moines, Idaho."

She really did! That's an exact quote, the sharing of which was approved by the geography whiz herself.

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

Italian Grilled Vegetables

We've enjoyed this recipe over the summer. The problem is: only Micah has made this dressing. I'll try to make do when he leaves. We bought a couple of big metal baskets for putting on the grill. That saves us from having to put all the veggies on skewers. I would probably double this recipe for a large batch of vegetables.

Ingredients:
A variety of veggies washed, trimmed, and cut in large pieces for grilling, including such favorites as onions, large mushrooms, bell peppers, asparagus, etc.
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
2 T orange juice
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 t salt
1/4 t fresh ground pepper

Directions:
Toss prepared vegetables with salt, pepper and enough olive oil to keep them from sticking. Combine remaining ingredients in small bowl. Grill vegetables to desired tenderness. Toss hot vegetables with dressing and serve immediately.

It's a wonderful day to go out and play

Hey, maybe you could come along!

All you need to bring is a song to sing,

A happy little baby song!

Abe and I watched most of these. They just don't make baby and children's videos like they used to! These little songs are so sweet! I love My Mommy Comes Back!

Cynthia's Summer Salad

Cynthia brought a delicious salad to our house last night. I liked it because it was neither too sweet nor too heavy, and because it arrived with Cynthia, Eric, Caleb and Madeleine!

Ingredients:
Hendricksons Unique Dressing and Marinade
Fancy Lettuce
Spinach
Toasted, slivered almonds
Purple grapes, halved
Cucumber, peeled cut in rather small pieces
Avocado pieces

Directions:
Mix and take over to your friends' house

Why Buy Organic

No, I'm not tellling you why you should buy organic. I'm wondering. That title should have a question mark. It should be read like this: "Why buy organic?" And then some mom should follow up with a subsequent post answering the question.

Thanks! :)