Vegetable Lasagna

With the bounty of fresh vegetables from our farm share and our garden, Mr. E. decided that it was time to revive his Sunday evening cooking ritual and make a vegetable lasagna. Lasagna is known as one of those dishes that is easy to prepare... we have yet to create a lasagna that takes less than an hour to prep. However, this one (courtesy of Mr. E's favorite celebrity chef, Giada) was yummy and BIG... aka lots of leftovers!

Individual Vegetable Lasagnas

Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis (modified by E)

Serves:
6 servings (we thought it was closer to 8 or 10)

Ingredients

* 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
* 1 medium Spanish onion, finely chopped
* 1 medium carrot, finely chopped
* 1 medium zucchini, finely chopped
* 1 medium summer squash, finely chopped
* 8 asparagus spears, cut into 1/4-inch slices (or spinach!)
* 1 pound fresh plain lasagna sheets
* 2 jars tomato sauce
* 1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
* 3 cups shredded mozzarella
* 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
* 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, halved
* Salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a saute pan over medium heat, add extra-virgin olive oil. When almost smoking, add the onion and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the carrot and cook for 3 minutes. Add the zucchini and squash cook for 5 minutes. Add asparagus and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat when all vegetables are completely cooked but still have a good crunch. Allow to cool.

Coat the bottom of a 13x9 dish with tomato sauce. Place pasta on the bottom of the dish. Next, a layer of the veggies. Place a second layer of pasta on top and gently press down. Add another layer of sauteed vegetables and top with tomato sauce. Place the third layer of pasta in each ramekin and coat with tomato sauce. Sprinkle with the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses, and top each with 1/2 tablespoon of butter. Bake in oven for 50 minutes or until brown and bubbling.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour and 20 minutes

Ease of Preparation: Easy

The Fruits of our Labors...

The vegetables Mr. E. planted earlier this summer are finally starting to reward us with their fine fruits... and that yellow tomato was oh, so delicious!

Monkey Bread

After swim meets in college, the parents would often provide the swimmers with home-baked treats. During my sophomore year of college I lived with 5 other swimmers which meant that on swim meet weekends we were bombarded with sweet treats from our well meaning parents. I was first introduced to Monkey Bread (or as we called it “Monkey Balls”) when one of the other mothers left it at our apartment post meet. Although I have never made this myself until now (for a boating weekend with friends), I still have fond memories of that gooey goodness consumed over a good game of post-swim meet game of tetris with the roommates.

MONKEY BREAD

Ingredients:

* 4 cans refrigerated biscuits
* 1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
* 1/2 cup butter
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 cup brown sugar, packed

Pre-heat oven to 350. Pull your biscuits apart and rip into smaller pieces (roughly 4 per biscuit). Try not to eat too much of the raw biscuit dough, like I always do! Mix your biscuit bits with the cinnamon and white sugar and pack into a buttered bundt pan. In the meantime, heat the brown sugar and butter together until melted, and pour over the top of the biscuit mix in the pan. Bake for about 45 minutes, let cool, and invert onto plate. Enjoy!

Reference: www.brokeassbride.com

Bullet Hole Cookies

When I was in college, we would frequently head to the cafe in the student union building after swim practice in the evening. Some of the usual dinner options choosen by my fellow swimmers and me were the pizza bagel, the TBLT (turkey, bacon, lettuce and tomato), veggie burgers and sometimes even their cheese fries--hey, we were collegiate athletes training from 2-3 hours each day! However, no matter what we choose for the main course, we always finished off the meal with 2 or 3 of the Bullet Hole (sometimes referred to as "the butthole") oreo cookies. Just last week one of my friends from college emailed me with the link to a recipe for these fabulous cookies. I made them last night and it took me right back... they did not disappoint!

Recipe - Makes 20 - 30 cookies*
Adapted from AllRecipes

Ingredients:

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* 1 egg
* 1 egg yolk
* 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
* 20 oreos, crushed (I used double stuff!)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.
4. Add in the crushed oreos. Beat on low speed for just a few seconds to break up the oreos in the dough.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.*
6. Bake for 14minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted (important--you want them to be chewy and not crisp if you are looking for authentic bullet hole taste!). Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.**

* I got 30 cookies but I made mine a lot smaller. I scooped by rounded tablespoons. 1/4 cup seemed way too big.
** I baked them for 14 minutes and they were perfect. Chewy, but not underbaked.