Mother’s Day 2012—I never really considered being a mother. I thought about children, saw them in my mind’s eye along with my house and picket fence but I did not think about what having them entailed. It never occurred to me that I could love somebody more than my own life; nor did I think anybody could exasperate me the way my children do some days. It gives new meaning to the pain I caused my own mother (although I’m sure I caused her less pain than my sisters).

Earlier this month I told the family we would grill burgers for mother’s day. The weather has been predicting rain all week so I decided to cook something inside rather than risk getting rained out or in our case rained inside. I debated for several days and decided to make lasagna. I don’t make it often because, quite frankly, I am as slow as Moses was old. My husband’s step-mother, Gayle, gave me her recipe when Toby and I first got married and with some tweaking over the years, I’ve actually made a dish that garners no left overs! I hope you enjoy it as much as we will enjoy tomorrow for lunch.

Here is the recipe I use:

lasagna recipe

To begin with I put the hamburger meat on to cook while I gather the rest of my ingredients.  I used to use dried herbs but now I use fresh herbs from my herb garden.  I would not have believed it made a difference, but the taste factor is off the scales.

While the meat was cooking, I ran outside and cut my herbs.

freshly cut herbs from garden

After washing them, I sat them aside and put the other stuff together.  I started with the main (and largest) bowl which contains the sauce.

large bowl with sauce

The sauce is better with fresh tomatoes from my garden but alas, I’ve already used all I had frozen from last year.  The large bowl contains 1 large can of tomato sauce (16 oz), 1 tbl oregano, 2 tsp basil, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp garlic (I use those exact measurements for dried spices.  Since I was using fresh spices I use a little more for that extra kick of flavor.

herbs in food processor

I put all the herbs into the food processor.  You can rough chop them but I have no knife skills and am kind of clumsy. In addition, I added a few sprigs of thyme (who doesn’t need a little extra thyme in their life?) and some of my fresh chives.  After blending, I put into the sauce and stirred.   Beautiful and the smell was heavenly.

Opps, I forgot the garlic.    I used an entire small head of rose garlic and it could have been put into the blender with the herbs to begin with—add to sauce and stir well.

rose garlic cloves

Now,  set that bowl aside and got the second smaller bowl.  This bowl has 1 egg and freshly parsley, 1sp salt and 2 cups of small curd cottage cheese.  I chopped the parsley in the food processor, beat the egg and then stirred the parsley and salt before adding the cottage cheese.

beaten egg and parsley

The recipe only calls for 2 cups but there’s such a small amount left in the cottage cheese container that I always put it all in –what’s a little bit extra…..

cooked, drained and rinsed ground beef

The meat is finished cooking.  I drain and rinse.  Rinsing is a personal preference and my version of lower fat.  Not that lower fat helps in this recipe but it makes me feel better.  .

mozzarella

Next is an entire 8 oz package of mozzarella cheese.   Usually, I purchased noodles that I have to cook.  I don’t have much luck with them staying one piece.  While at the store I noticed these and thought I would try them. Wish me luck!

no boil noodles

I am now ready to layer.  Take 1 cup of sauce and spread it in the bottom of the large cake pan This keeps the noodles from sticking to the bottom.

first sauce layer

Layer noodles according to package and crumble about 1/2 of the meat on top.  Next is the cheese layers.  I spread about half the cottage cheese mix and then sprinkle half the mozzarella.   And then I start all over with a layer of sauce, noodles, meat, cheeses.

layered dish

I generally get two layers with all the goodies and third layer of noodles is covered with the remainder of the sauce.  Cover well so the noodles do not get dry.  This is now covered and put into the fridge for cooking tomorrow.  I leave it covered for half the cooking time so the top  noodles don’t dry out.  Cook on 375 for about an hour.

Pull from oven and sprinkle an entire bag of Parmesan cheese on top.

shredded parmesan

Since I figured I would forget to let the rolls rise, I baked them tonight. They are slightly well done—no surprise for my crew there!

pre-frozen yeast dough rolls

salad

I also made the salad in the new salad kit Tia (and Mikey) got me for Mother’s Day.

*The Cheating Cook Tip here is the use of No-boil noodles. These worked out really well, less mess, same great taste and no torn, falling a apart or sticky noodles.