I knew I named my blog that for a reason.

I'm hitting a dead wall of no title inspiration here.

So Friday is supposed to be original content but on the suggestion of a couple good friends, I'm doing something else.

Ama suggested I do some of my recipes as a day content and Jaya suggested I do something from my childhood. So I am doing both.

Its kind of funny that we take some memories for granted, like cooking in the kitchen with our parents. I don't remember helping my mother cook too much, or even at all. I can't imagine she didn't let us help, and I do remember she always tried to make our favorite dishes. With twins who delighted in trying to be different, this wasn't easy. I remember loving Mom's cube steaks. Not to mention our long standing favorite, hot dogs and macaroni and cheese. Mom would also make us a special kind of cake for our birthdays. I'll have to get the recipe to post here one day. Its called mayonnaise cake.

I also have nightmares about my dad coming after me with a jumbo shrimp, head and all, singing Little Glowworm. That was allfired creepy but a true story. Most of my kitchen memories include Dad. There was one game we loved to play when my sister and I were very small. I remember begging to play this game more than once.

Dad would sit us down at the kitchen table and carefully blind fold us. We had to promise not to peek or cheat. Sitting beside us was a glass of milk and a couple pieces of bread. He would then put the entire spice cabinet onto the kitchen table and give us a sample of random spices. The point of the game was to see if we could accurately guess which spice was which. Garlic was always easy enough, along with oregano. I remember he would mess with us a little bit and give us spicy chili flakes or cayenne pepper. I was never bothered by the salt in the slightest, but that shouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone who knows me. It was all in good fun, and we loved it.

There was one dish, in addition to the mayonnaise cake Mom would make us, that was served at every birthday. Dad would get out his crock pot, buy a whole mess of canned tomatoes, noodles, spices, ground beef, sweet Italian sausage, ricotta cheese, onions, and mushrooms. He'd start 2 days in advance, slowly cooking the tomatoes and spices together in the old crock pot until they became a tantalizing, tangy sauce. Then he'd carefully boil the long flat noodles until they were almost done, while he sautéed the ground beef and sausage with the onions and tons of mushrooms. When the onions were just see through, he'd get out his big pan and start to layer the ingredients together into the best lasagna I've ever had. Maybe it was just the memories and nostalgia seasoning it to perfection in hindsight, but I'll stand by my initial verdict. The best ever.

After this glorious meal, there would always be leftovers. Leftover Lasagna is easy to deal with, but what about those extra noodles cooked? Those scrapings of sauce and meat left in the pans? Dad had a cute and tidy way of dealing with this. He'd take the leftover noodles and lay them out flat. Then he'd spread sauce and filling along the singular noodle, before taking one end and rolling it up. These would then be refrigerated and put into lunches, as snacks, or just a quick treat. All the comfort of home cooking, without the need for full sized plates, I guess.

This recipe is based off that little fix he  used to do. I personally love lasagna but I hate to cut it and fight with it at times, so I expanded on Dad's leftover trick and made it my own.


Lasagna Rolls

ingredients:
1 box lasagna noodles (preferably with the ruffle-y sides, looks cuter)
1 large bottle, or two small, of your favorite spaghetti sauce (these taste amazing with homemade alfredo)
1 package of ground beef, pork, or Italian sausage that's not in casings. (you can cut it out of the casings but its a pain)
1 red onion, a little bigger than a baseball
1 package of mushrooms
1 16 oz package of ricotta cheese, (use part skim if you're doing alfredo)
1 package mixed mozzarella and provolone shredded cheese
1 package shredded parmesan cheese
2 big cloves of garlic, or a small jar of pre-minced garlic, not dried
1 container grated parmesan Romano
rosemary
oregano
thyme
olive oil
salt
black pepper

tip: Put the onion in the fridge for a day before you cook this, if you can, or the freezer for 15 to 20 mins. Those pesky juices are less likely to irritate you if they have to come up to room temperature to become fumes.

Start by boiling the water for your noodles, with a good teaspoon of salt in the water, and a bit of olive oil. Do up a couple extra for testing and possible breakages during cooking. The noodles will be almost cooked when you remove them. Best way to judge is bite a piece and if it feel close but not quite done, they're ready. They should give a good resistance to your teeth without being crunchy. Get your veggies ready for cooking by dicing them into smallish pieces, but not so tiny they turn to mush when cooked. I'd suggest about half the size of a dime for the upper limit on size. If you are using fresh garlic, place the garlic flat on the cutting board and smash it with something. Anything really. Then discard the now easy to remove outer shell papers and dice very fine.

Cook your meats first, adding the spices to suit your own tasted. I personally love rosemary and garlic, so I try to use a lot of those. Don't forget you need to use salt and pepper on meats to enhance the flavor, so try to buy salt free spices to keep this in mind. This way, nothing gets over salted. When the meat is done cooking, remove the meat and save a portion of the dripping in the pan for flavor with the veggies. Discard the rest of the dripping. Mix a bit of the grated parmesan Romano, about two tablespoons, into the meat and let it rest.

In a pan, cook the mushrooms and onions in olive oil and 1 diced clove of garlic. If you're using the pre minced, one teaspoon if you really like garlic, or have no plans on kissing anyone soon. Cook until the onions are just translucent.

If you forgot to pay attention to your noodles at this point, you've got mushy icky noodles on your hands. If you didn't forget, great. Drain and run cold water over them to stop the cooking process quickly. Then lay them out onto a baking sheet or wax paper if you have it.

Now comes assembly. Take your ricotta and stir it up, so its easy to spread. Lay out your noodle onto your workspace, I suggest that wax paper trick again. Prep your pan by pouring sauce along the bottom of the pan and smoothing it out.

Spoon a bit of ricotta onto each noodle, enough to give a thin layer. Then comes a layer of sauce. Sprinkle meat, then veggies onto the noodle. Sprinkle a bit of the mozz/prov cheese along it.

Now comes the rolling. Its messy. Clean hands are a must, must, must. Take one end of the noodle and fold up by one inch. Then begin to roll it until you can roll no more. Place in the prepped pan. Repeat until there are no more noodles.

Sprinkle liberal amounts of Parm, Mozz/prov, and grated parm romano over the entire pan. Toss it in the oven for about 15 minutes on 350, or until the tops are golden and the cheese is melty.

I suggest serving with a couple slices of good Italian bread, toasted in the oven, or with a small salad.

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I can't see straight, I'm so tired. I'm going to hit the wonderful invention of spring, padding, softness and sleep times.

Give me a heads up if you try the recipe, or if you even like the concept of me posting about my cooking.

Sleep well and Sweet Dreams, Lovelies.