Lasagne confessions

I am a bit of a slacker when it comes to making lasagne.
It just all seems a bit fiddly. You have to make meat sauce, grate cheese and worst of all, make the bechamel sauce. That's a lot of pots. A lot of washing up.
So... I do find myself at the supermarket buying readymade lasagne. Dreadful, I know, but I feel it is time to let my secret out.
 The crazy thing is that I love to eat lasagne and the shop bought ones never taste as good as homemade - never.
 However, now I have found a straightforward recipe and it's delicious.

The recipe is from one of my favourite cookbooks, The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Ree Drummond writes in a fun and non threatening manner and has a heap of great recipes on her web site here.
 Her lasagne recipe is quick and easy and you don't have to make the bechamel sauce - yeh - you just use cottage cheese, low fat cottage cheese at that!
 Lots of pictures along the way so I can see if my concoction looks anything like it is supposed to look.

So lasagne made and enjoyed by all, except the 16 year old vegetarian, sigh... However, it looked great and tasted good. Wasn't fiddly or time-comsuming. Even managed to clean the bathrooms whilst the meat sauce was simmering - a very productive afternoon.

 
No more shop bought lasagne for me - a personal cooking milestone reached.

Megan xx

Homemade gifts part 2

Feeling rather proud of myself that I can now notch up my second handmade gift in the past month. As you may remember I knitted up these two a few weeks ago and a couple of weeks ago I did a couple of hours of simple applique and voila!   a birthday gift for a four year old. Well, a bit of effort was required but by most people's standards it was a simple project.

I got the idea from a friend of mine who made this gorgeous top for my daughter's 5th birthday.

Unfortunately have just realised that this tshirt was not altogether clean when I took this photo

My little one loves it. I'm very taken with it too and wish that 40 something women looked as good in heart appliqued Tshirts as 5 year olds do. Sadly, though, this is not the case.

So I took this idea and did something a little bit different but also very much the same.

 Only problem was trying to convince my girl that this was a present for someone else and not for her.

This photo doesn't make it very clear but I used chain stitch to outline the flower and leaves and do the stem. I think chain stitch is my favourite embroidery stitch. I love doing it and I love the bulky look of it. It is a lot more substantial that just doing a backstitch and just looks more effective.

I'm not sure if I can keep up all this handmade present goodness but I think I can feel a self - imposed challenge coming up. Even better...maybe I can convince Jules to join me...

Megan xx

Cooking for more

We are a family of six but quite often our well worn dining table tends to look like this.

A table set for eight, not six.
 So, I need to provide food for eight, not six. Now don't get me wrong, I actually love this about my life. Back in my single days I would have run a thousand miles from the idea of cooking for more than ...well...one person. Even then, even if it was only me, I would be more inclined to buy my dinner rather than make my dinner.
Now, however, my life contains a lot more people and quite often these beautiful people in my life ask friends, girlfriends, others over for dinner.
 If this is done at the last minute I spend large amounts of time gazing into the fridge and working out how I can "bulk up" my preplanned meal.
This delicious looking concoction (and I am being sarcastic) was a combination of vegetable korma (the orginal meal), leftover refried beans and leftover quinoa and sweet potato soup! I put it all together then made it go even further by adding one of my very favourite pantry staples - evaporated milk.

I could do a whole post on how much I love cans of evaporated milk but suffice to say that when I presented this stew/curry on a bed of rice. (Have I mentioned how much I love my rice cooker?) I got an extremly positive response from even the fussiest eaters.
So even though those single days meant less work in the kitchen I wouldn't swap that crowded table for anything.

Megan xx