Kind of Cool

I just found out that my name will appear in the acknowlegments of a cookbook coming out this fall. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the name of the author or the cookbook yet, so I'll wait for the green light before I share that info. Needless to say, though, I am super excited to have my name appear in a published cookbook!

The process was pretty fun. When the author had a new recipe ready for us to test, she would post it in an online forum, I'd make the recipe and then send her my notes. Notes could include information like the kind of stove and pans I used, as well as how I thought the food tasted and how easy the recipe was to follow. And if you are wondering how it came to be that I tested recipes for publication, I simply responded to an online request and then was one of the more prolific testers.

I can't wait to be able to share the cookbook information with all of you - I think you will find the cookbook to be very useful and informative!

To Two of Our Favorite People...

We love you and miss you very much!

Hopefully by now you have received our delivery. We wanted to make your holiday more scrumptious - we hope you don't mind! And if you need some suggestions, try this, this and this.

And for the rest of you, here's my mom's ultimate lasagna recipe (you know, the kind of recipe that grown men want their wives to make "just like my mom did").

Ingredients:
Italian sausage
Jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce (a.k.a. Prego)
Large container of ricotta cheese
2 eggs
4 cups shredded mozzarella, divided
Box of dry lasagna noodles

Directions:
1. For the sauce, brown the italian sausage and add the spaghetti sauce to it.
2. For the cheese mixture, combine 3 cups mozzarella cheese, 2 eggs and container of ricotta cheese.
3. To layer the lasagna, begin with about a cup or so of sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 pan. You'll want enough sauce so that the bottom of the pan is completely coated. Next, add a layer of dry noodles. Top the noodles with a layer of the ricotta mixture followed by more sauce. Repeat the layers: noodles, cheese, sauce. Top with the remaining mozzarella cheese.
4. Refrigerate the lasagna for a few hours to allow the flavors to blend and the noodles to soften. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes, let sit for 10 minutes.
5. Serve to your ravenous eaters and hear them proclaim "This is better than my mom makes!"

December 11th

How we're surviving the blizzard:

Drying our snow-laden clothes

Listening to a favorite Christmas album

Checking items off the to-do list