Hey look, it's a cooking thing

I guess the last few days I was so unmotivated I wasn't even motivated to be distracted from work. Ah well. Like I said, this wasn't going to be a scheduled sort of thing.

Anyway, so tonight I made awesome lasagna rolls. There's a story I'll get to in a min, first let me set up this post. I made them, and decided I should photograph the results, because I'm a member of a cooking newsletter that's always holding contests for new recipes, only they always require a picture of the finished dish. Most of my recipes are just in my head and I make them whenever, so I never have photos just laying around. So now I'm taking pics of stuff so when an appropriate contest comes around, I'm ready.

In the meantime, I had posted on Facebook tonight that dinner was awesome and I may use the photos someday for a cookbookblogthing. Mom of course "liked" my status (because she too ate the lasagna rolls and thought they were awesome) and then said I really should do a cookbookblogthing. So here it is.

First, the story behind why it turned out to be lasagna rolls and not just plain square lasagna. We had planned on making lasagna a while ago, and had actually prepped all the filling at the time we made the change. We had been watching Cooking Channel all day, and suddenly Giada De Laurentiis popped up with a "quick cooking tip" where instead of layering lasagna noodles and all that, you roll your fillings up and make spirals. Neat!

So my lasagna mixes quickly turned into cheesy, meaty little spirals of awesome, sort of more stuffed-shell size/style. Really easy to serve and portion and still just as tasty. Here's the basic recipe, note that I use all whole fat stuff, because seriously, if you're gonna eat lasagna, do it right. Also you can choose to do just cheese and pour the meat sauce over it, but I found it best when you do a thin layer of cheese and meat and then roll, cover with remaining sauce.

Ricotta Filling:
1 16oz. tub of Whole Milk Ricotta
1 egg
1/3 cup grated parmesan-romano cheese
2-3 Tb. Italian parsley, rough chop
1/2 Tsp. garlic powder
1/2 Tsp. onion powder
Fresh ground black pepper
Pinch sea salt

Mix all together until well blended, put in fridge to chill at least 1 hour.

Meat Sauce:
1-2 Italian sausages, removed from casing (can be mild or hot)
1 lb. ground chuck beef
1/2 lb. ground pork
2 jars tomato basil pasta sauce

Brown ground meats and sausage in a pan until cooked through and crumbly. Pour the pasta sauce in and stir until well blended. Let settle at least 1/2 hour to allow flavors to mix.

Lasagna Rolls:
1 box dry lasagna noodles
1 package flat mozzarella slices
1 package shredded mozzarella
1 jar tomato basil pasta sauce


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Spray a 13x9 baking dish with cooking spray and spread a thin layer of pasta sauce on the bottom.

1. Boil the lasagna noodles according to package directions for just slightly under al dente.
2. Drain noodles and let cool to allow for easy handling. May want to coat lightly with olive oil to prevent from sticking.
3. Lay out each noodle on a cutting board and spread a thin layer of the ricotta mixture along the length of the noodle.
4. Spread a thin layer of the meat sauce over the ricotta, top with some shredded mozzarella.
5. Roll the noodle up so it forms a large spiral.
6. Place the rolls in the pan and cover with the remaining pasta sauce and any left over meat sauce.
7. Top with flat mozzarella cheese, using the shredded mozzarella to fill in the gaps between slices.
8. Bake for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown and bubbly.

That's the basic recipe, I've been known to do many forms of lasagna, including my white lasagna which is done with chicken, spinach and alfredo sauce. If you want more veggies, add them in when you're cooking the meat sauce. You can toss spinach in with the ricotta if you want more greens. There's really a lot you can do to change this to your own personal tastes. I just happen to like mine plain meaty and cheesy, and that's what you get.

So there you have it, Lasagna rolls. Expect to see more successful recipes later in the blog.

First post!

There are some mornings when I’m just not warmed up yet to sit and research and write all day. It’s on days like this I sometimes fire off a chatty e-mail to someone I haven’t talked to in a while, or Facebook stalk people and post on their updates. Finally, I decided maybe I should give blogging a shot again, since that’s sort of more productive than Facebook.

Well, here we are, another blog attempt. I’ve tried this on and off but end up getting busy and forget about it. We’ll see how long this one lasts, since I’m not going to try to theme it or anything like my last attempt during FIEA with the gaming student marketing blog.

This is going to run more like a random “whatever I feel like rambling about” thing. Don’t worry, I’m very unlikely to get into religion or politics here. Actually, very unlikely…between my father on one side of the political spectrum and a bunch of close friends on the other side, I’m VERY weary of opening political discussions.

I’m just going to keep mum on religion too, because I don’t wish to offend, and honestly couldn’t care less what you do or don’t believe in, so long as you don’t harp on me for my beliefs or lack thereof. I’m agnostic, you’re what you are, let’s leave it at that.

I’ve taken care of what I won’t discuss, so what will I talk about here? Nothing, as you can see. No seriously, I do write topically (heck, I do that for a living, which is probably why I’m rambling now). It’ll probably be a mix of cooking, anime, video games, random weird news, current events. Like I said, whatever strikes my fancy.

If you’re looking for me to segue into a topic now, too bad. I’m just going to finish this off as a random ramble post. I guess I’ll have to tag these appropriately. Oh, and no I'm probably not going to mess with the layout much. Maybe later...for now, this is about content, not design.