Recipes

I'm attempting to gather all of my family's favorite recipes in one place so that not only are they easy to access when I want to make something delicious for my family but so that when the time comes, I can pass the well worn book of recipes on to my daughter. I've started by making a list of every dish that I could think of that my family enjoys and now I am in the process of putting each recipe on a 4x6 note card. When this step is complete, I'm going to put each recipe in a cute photo album...and somewhere down the road I would like to put a picture with each recipe (but we'll see how that goes)

I wanted to share one of my new favorite recipes...I just used this one for Mia's birthday party. Lasagna is one of my favorite foods, so I have eaten a lot of it. And over time I have become somewhat particular as to how I like it...firm noodles, not too much sauce, lots of cheese, not too garlicky. This recipe, in my opinion, is perfect

My Favorite Lasagna












1 1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
3/4 cup water
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons basil
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons parsley
12 lasagna noodles
16 ounces ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. In a large skillet cook ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning and 1 tablespoon parsley.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
4. To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.
5. Bake for an hour. Remove foil after 30 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.