Meatloaf Lasagana-Pregnancy craving gone terribly right

For my friend Sheri.  Love you girl.

I know I already did a couple of post this week, but this was a matter of great importance.  My friend Sheri has just gotten past the morning sickness stage of pregnancy.  She posted on Facebook today that she was craving 2 things and couldn't  decide which one to have for dinner.  Her cravings were Meatloaf and Lasagna.  I suggested her Husband, Ray a chef, make her Italian meatloaf lasagna. But it got my brain firing.  So we are having meatloaf lasagna for dinner.  It looks and smells yummy so far. I have full recipes for everything at the bottom but you could substitute, store bought sauce, your meatloaf recipe, or your cheese mixture.  It is pretty fixable so have fun and enjoy.

First start the sauce.  To start my homemade sauce, I chop up 1 medium onion, 4 cloves of garlic, a carrot, a stalk of celery,
and 4 mushrooms in about a teaspoon of olive oil.

The carrots and celery give the sauce a little sweetness and a little robustness.  Not to mention that is some vegetables and vitamins that the kids won't even notice.

6 pints (or 6 16 oz cans) of Tomato sauce Some parsley, oregano, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes with the vegetables from before.  Simmer on medium low for about an hour.

I learned this sauce from an Italian when we were living in Germany.  It is yummy but the traditional sauce takes a couple of days.  I shorten the process.

As the sauce cooks down and the flavors condense and meld together your sauce may look like this.

Next you need to make your meatloaf and get it in the oven.  Use your meatloaf recipe because everybody has a different idea of meatloaf, but a drier meatloaf is a little better. But instead of adding tomato sauce or catsup to the mix add about 2/3 a cup of your sauce to give it a little more of an Italian flavor.  It just adds a little something to it.

The filling mixture is Ricotta, Parmesan, and Mozzarella cheeses with an egg, a couple of mushrooms some oregano and parsley.  And to boost the vegetable factor I dice up some spinach. 

Cut up your meatloaf into strips for easy layering.

Now to assemble the layers and bake. After that Yummy time.

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Cover the top with  the rest of your sauce.  Then sprinkle some cheese on top.  Throw it in the oven for about 45 minutes.

When it is bubbly and done pull it out of the oven and let it rest for about 5 minutes.  Then cut and serve.

Looks so good.  It would be a great date night dinner for you and your husband.  

How good does this look?

Homemade Pasta Sauce

• 6 pints or 6 16 oz cans of tomato sauce
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1/4 c your favorite wine
• 1 carrot, 
• 1 celery stalk
• 1 onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 mushrooms (optional)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp parsley
• 2 tbsp Italian seasoning
• 1 tsp of red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp of pepper

Dice the vegetables and saute them in the olive oil.  In a dutch oven or large sauce pan add the tomato sauce, vegetables, wine, sugar and seasonings together. Simmer on low medium heat for at least an hour stirring every few minutes.

Cheese mixture for Lasagna

• 16 oz Ricotta cheese
• 3/4 c Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 c Mozzarella cheese
• 1 Egg
• 1 cup shredded Spinach
• 4 mushrooms diced
• 1 tbsp parsley
• 1 tsp oregano

Mix them all together and layer into what ever Lasagna your wish.

Craft shows, you win some you lose some.

So the craft show didn't go as well as I had hoped.  It is just the way it goes.  We did have fun and we aren't out money so that is a good thing.
 I thought I would share pictures of our booth.  I thought it looked pretty great if I do say so myself.

Magic Santa Keys 

Reindeer food and Snowman soup

Stick pony

Snowman poop, and some of the pots we made

The girly Stick pony and some of the signs

Our set up

Jewelry display

All and all it was fun.  Ready to set up again in 2 weeks

Swollen noses, gray hairs, grody patina, friends, and antiques

My week started out like any other week, school and work.  Sophie and I even made cookies during the fall break.  I love baking with the kids.  Then Thursday night after the cookies, there was a wrestling incident that ended in Mom catching an elbow to the bridge of her nose.  Yes, I caught my husband's elbow in the nose.  Luckily I don't bruise like most people, so I don't have 2 black eyes.  Instead I look like I haven't slept in a couple of weeks and have a major sinus infection.  No big deal.  Mr. Handy Hubby really felt bad, he made me a special ice pack that worked better than any ice pack ever.  In a quart zippy baggie fill with equal parts hand sanitizer and water, then he just popped them in the freezer for two hours.  It never freezes hard, it gels more like a great margarita.  You have to wrap it in a towel because it is colder than ice. It molds perfectly to the area you apply it too.

Friday while at home with the little kids, by the way Ethan hates that title, Matthew's work called.  He had a seizure at work.  I ran up to get him and he was still a little altered by it.  I get him home.  He is alright.  We are still just counting down the days until the neurology appointment. Waiting for doctors is going to make me go completely gray way too early.  I mean common, I thought the military was bad about the hurry up and wait game but these specialist could teach the military a thing or five about hurry up and wait.  We have been dealing with this seizure stuff for over a month now and still have 3 weeks to wait before we see the neurologist.

So Friday night we had a pair of teen brothers staying the night with Ethan.  Eli and JJ are great kids that go to church with us.  I made homemade calzones for dinner. Yum Yum right, well kind of, I need to tweak this recipe a bit more.  They were good but I prefer to have a bit more flavor to the crust. But the teenagers did not complain.  The boys stayed up late and played Super Mario Brothers on the Wii.  Surprising that the Wii still entertains teens, although they kept saving things like "This takes me back to my childhood" and "I loved playing this as a kid".  It is bad enough I have a swollen face, and more gray hairs this week, now they are making it worse with their comments about "when they were kids".  I thought it was funny.  Handy Hubby and I exchanged looks several times, rolled eyes, and snickered more than once.

The teens wanted to sleep in on Saturday. Go figure.  I had different ideas.  I made them all a big breakfast.  Pancakes, eggs, sausage, and bacon.  All that work and they ate and went back to bed.  Teenagers, go figure.  See the young can't hang.  While the teens were back to crashing, my friend Tammy came into town and we hit the Dollar Generals.  I got 3 rolls of landscape fabric and a metal table/plant stand for all of $2.50.  Woohoo big spender. Then she and I hit up the local antique store.  I have to give a shout out to Old Songs Sung antique store in downtown Cushing, OK.  If you are in the neck of the woods, you have to stop in there.  They have everything.  For this trip I was hunting out antique flatware with a nice grody (yes I still use Grody) patina to it. I had and idea.  Jackpot!! $6 later I had 4 knives and 2 forks.  I already had 3 spoons at home to complete my idea.

Tammy and I do craft shows together heading up to the Holidays.  We use the extra cash for Christmas money and black Friday shopping.   But this particular idea is actually for my house.  Although I think I am going to make a few to take to shows this year.  It is an organizer for the kitchen.  It will hold my rolling pin and my aprons.  This will free up some space in my drawers and be a more decorative way to hang my aprons than just a nail.   Tammy also dropped of some ribbons and a wreath so I can make bows for some awesome wreathes she is making. Busy busy busy.

You know if you think about it, I go to an antique store to get things with a grody aged patina and with a swollen nose and more gray hair I have a grody aged patina.  I accept that.

Cows, giggles, green pastures, and dirt road wisdom.

This morning I guess I really needed to clear my head and connect with some country.  This came in the form of Boony cruisin' with a couple of really awesome ladies in the dodge truck.  We sat in the truck blasting country music, laughing, giggling, and bouncing around the truck on some Oklahoma back country dirt roads.  We saw some beautiful fields and barns, we talked to some cows, and even had a couple of scares.   We were getting a cold front coming in so there were some clouds on the horizon that maybe it all the better.  One thing you can say about Oklahoma, it has beautiful farmland and beautiful big skies.  Both of which make for breathtaking photographs.   

It was a quiet morning at least until the three of us came bouncing through.  My two cruisin' buddies needed the head clearing moment just as much as I did.  We stopped and talked to the cows.  Watched a few sneaking their breakfast on the other side of the fence.  You know because the  grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.  As it turns out the grass isn't always greener on the other side.  Sometimes we just think it is.  One thing I have learned in my forty years is, no matter how green someone's life appears, everybody has brown spots now and then.  See these cows are leaning out eating the short grass that is turning quicker even though they have thicker fuller grass in their pasture.  I think it is just how they sit it.  You know that is just the point.  We are all just so busy trying to have the better greener pasture that we are missing what is right in front of us.   We need to just stop and look around.  If you look at your own pasture you might find it is greener, more peaceful, and happier than those Joneses we always seem to be trying to keep up with.  And you never know they might just be look from their pasture at us and think it is greener because we have a more simple life.  

So  here is what I am thinking.  We need to all slow down take a drive out in the country on a dirt road.  Maybe just seeing the simple beauty of the barns, silos, pastures, cows, and big sky then count our blessings.  We have our husbands, our kids, our family, we have a place to live, food to eat, electricity to keep it not to hot or cold, we have a way to get around. These are all blessings.  We need to keep that in mind a little bit everyday.  We need to be thankful for these blessing and not worry as much about our neighbors blessings.


So maybe  looking at my pictures that I took will help you realize what I realized this morning.  I also realized nothing beats a couple of good friends in a truck boony cruisin' on some red dirt roads.  An other thing to remember is always keep a camera with you.  You never beautiful sites you might see on a beautiful October Oklahoma morning.  Not to mention some awesome country music can cure any thing that ails you.

One more piece of dirt road wisdom, don't forget what you have been through because it made you who you are today.  It also made you stronger.  So while the future is a little fuzzy right now it will be crystal clear and in the rear view mirror soon.  

Peace, Love, and Dirt road happiness.

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