Recipe - Sausage, Mushroom, and Spinach Lasagna

A few months ago, a huge new Whole Foods store opened near where we live.  Recently, I found out that they sell fresh pasta sheets in the cheese section.  I bought some and decided to make lasagna.  I combined a few different recipes that I found on Pinterest, and this is what I ended up with.  This is not traditional lasagna, in that there is no tomato product.

First, I removed the Italian sausage from the casing, crumbled it into a heavy bottomed skillet, and cooked it until most of the pink was gone.  If you've worked much with Italian sausage, you know that it is hard to break it into small pieces.  It looks something like this - 

Here's one of my favorite tips - use a potato masher to break up the sausage into smaller pieces to finish cooking!

 

Remove the sausage from the pain and drain on paper towels.  Next, cook onions, mushrooms, and garlic in a large dutch oven.  (I used a mix of white mushrooms and shitakes, but any kind would be fine.)

Using a slotted spoon, remove the veggies from the pot and put aside.  Now it is time to make a bechamel sauce which will take the place of the traditional tomato sauce.  If you never made bechamel, don't worry - it is very easy.  Take an equal amount of oil/butter and flour and cook for a few minutes.  This is the same way you start a roux for gumbo.  But you don't want the flour to brown at all.  Add liquid slowly and keep stirring until the sauce starts to thicken.  Many recipes call for only milk, but I used a combination of milk and beef broth in this case.  Once all of the liquid has been incorporated, add the spinach and stir until it cooks down.  Then add back the sausage and the sauteed veggies.  

Now you are ready to start layering the lasagna in the pan.  Start with some of the sauce on the bottom.  Add pasta to fit the pan.  (If you've used dry pasta, it works best it you boil it for 3 or 4 minutes to give it a head start before putting it in the lasagna.)  Top with slice mozzarella and grated parmesan.  Keep layering until you use up all of your ingredients.  I used a 13 x 9 pan with three layers in order to get a thinner lasagna.

 Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes.  You'll know it is done when you insert a knife in the center, and it comes out hot.  (Or you can use a thermometer like I do.  You want it to be at least 165 degrees in the middle.)

It is important to let it rest for a few minutes so that you don't have a soupy plate full of pasta when you cut it.

Sausage, Mushroom, and Spinach Lasagna

1 lb Italian sausage, removed from casing 

2 Tbs olive oil, divided

2 cups mushrooms, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 cups beef broth

1/2 cup milk

1 4 oz bag of baby spinach

Salt and pepper, to taste

3/4 lb fresh pasta (or dry lasagna noodles, boiled for 3-4 minutes)

1 lb mozzarella, sliced

1 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In heavy skillet, break up sausage and cook until done.  Drain on paper towel and set aside.  In a dutch oven (or large saucepan), heat 2 Tbs. olive oil.  Add onions and mushrooms and cook about 5 minutes over high heat or until veggies start to soften.  Add garlic and cook for an additional minute.  Use a slotted spoon and remove sauteed veggies from dutch oven.  To the oil remaining in the pan, add the remaining 2 Tbs. of olive oil and the flour.  Cook for 2-3 minutes over medium heat stirring constantly, but do not let it start to brown.  Slowly add the milk and broth until the sauce is smooth and begins to thicken.  Add the spinach and continue stirring until the spinach cooks down.  Add the sausage and sauteed veggies back to the pan.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  

Coat a baking dish with cooking spray.  Add about a half cup of the sauce to cover the bottom.  Add a layer of pasta, followed by mozzarella and parmesan.  Continue layering until you have used up all over your sauce, pasta, and cheese.  I used a 13x9 pan and ended up with three layers, but you could use a smaller baking dish and have more layers.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until the top is brown and the sauce is bubbly.  Remove from oven and let sit for about 15 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken.

Washington, DC - MLK Memorial

I am way behind on blog posts, so I am trying to catch up a little bit.  

In late July, Marc had to go to Washington, DC for a conference, and I tagged along.  It was one of the hottest weeks of the year, so I didn't do my typical "walk all over town taking pictures of everything significant."  However, the MLK Memorial had opened since the last time I was in DC, and I didn't want to miss it.  So off I went, walking a little over 2 miles in the heat to find the memorial.  

 When you enter the memorial, you see a dark granite wall that forms a semi-circle around the actual monument.  This wall is composed of individual sections featuring fourteen of King's more familiar quotes.

The monument itself looks like a large mountain in three sections.  The center section appears to have been pushed forward, and that is the portion where King's likeness has been carved.

After wandering around and reading all of the quotes, I sat on a bench for a long time, shedding more than a few tears, as I saw people of every race coming together freely to view this great memorial. As a daughter of the South born in the same year that the Supreme Court finally desegregated schools in Mississippi, it was very moving to see how far we've come toward equal rights in our country.  Yet there is still so much more work to be done.

Boston Restaurant - Lolita Cocina

Hubby and I had tickets to the Billy Joel concert at Fenway Park and decided to go into the city early to have a fun dinner.  We wanted something unique to start off our evening, and we love Mexican food (and don't get enough of it since we moved to New England).  So after a little internet research, off we went to Lolita Cocina and Tequila Bar.  

Lolita is located just under street level in a brownstone building in Boston's Back Bay.  The decor can best be described as Gothic fun.  Lots of red and black, and it almost has the feeling of a speakeasy secret kind of place as you watch the feet of the people passing by on the street.

Dining at Lolita is full of interesting little treats.  When you first sit down, they bring you what they refer to as a palate cleanser - a grapefruit granita (ice) with a splash of tequila.  Oh, and it comes out smoking because it is sitting in a bed of dry ice!  

Next, they bring you a basket of chips and a selection of four salsas.  From the top, they are traditional red salsa, chipotle cream, salsa verde, and a spicy habanero sauce in the little jar.

Hubby had a shot of his favorite tequila, and I decided to try the Diablo margarita, made with tequila, serrano chilis, and blood orange, strawberry, and pineapple juices.  Not too sweet with a nice spicy kick to it.  The glass is rimmed with a mixture of red sugar crystals and black pepper.

For an appetizer, we tried the chimichangas, which were egg roll size tortillas rolled with ground beef, corn, and cheese.  We both had tacos for dinner - hubby had the blackened mahi mahi and I had the shrimp.  The seafood was very tasty and perfectly prepared, but I felt in both cases there was too much sauce for the amount of protein.  The tacos also could have used a bit more texture, maybe something crunchy like cabbage.  That being said, I wouldn't hesitate to order either one again - just me being a food perfectionist!

We passed on dessert, but with the bill, the waitress brought us green apple cotton candy with pop rocks on top!  (I'm just a total kid when it comes to stuff like this, so hubby had to fight for his share.)  The combination was a perfect end to a tasty meal.

Back on the subway for two stops, and we were at Fenway for the concert.  All in all, a great evening!

Outdoor Chandelier

I love repurposing things that other people would consider to be trash.  My latest project is a chandelier for my back patio.  

The previous owners of our home put in the cheapest light fixtures available when they built the house.  We've updated most of them.  The one I used for this project was the foyer fixture.  You can see in the first picture that the fixture was much too small for our two-story foyer.  (And here's the one we replaced it with.)

Materials needed - one chandelier, silver spray paint, 5 solar lights, epoxy, wire cutters, pliers.  Since we already had the chandelier, the materials for this project cost less than $25!

First, we used wire cutters and pliers to remove the globes, bulb sockets, and wiring from the chandelier.  All that was left was the basic structure of the chandelier.  Then we painted it silver.

I found these great stainless steel solar lights at Home Depot for only $3.88 each.  These lights are designed to be stuck into the ground, but it was very easy to remove the stake.  We used some stainless steel colored epoxy to attach the lights to the frame of the chandelier.  (Epoxy is very easy to use.  You cut off a little piece, knead it to combine the two layers, and it dries hard, this one within an hour.)

We replaced the tops of the lights, and voila! - an outdoor chandelier.  Marc hung it in our Japanese maple tree, and it provides the perfect nighttime light for our little bistro table.

Dresser update

One of my favorite home decor places recently had a warehouse sale, and I bought this great dresser for only $65 to go in my guest bedroom.  The owners had already painted the wood finish with one coat of Annie Sloan chalk paint, but I decided that the grayish white wouldn't work because my walls are already gray.  It would just blend right in.

I painted the dresser with two coats of Annie Sloan chalk paint in Old Violet.  It is a great color, sort of like a dark periwinkle.  Depending on the light in the room and the color of the wall, it can appear blue or purple.

This piece has great trim, and I decided to highlight the accents with silver.  I used Martha Stewart metallic glaze in the mercury color.  Then I covered the whole thing with Annie Sloan clear wax to protect the finish.  The hardware had been painted white, and I covered it with the metallic glaze as well.

DIY privacy screen

One of the best things about living in New England is the great weather we have 3 seasons out of the year.  (Those winters are brutal, though.)  We fell in love with the back patio when we found this house, and we tend to spend lots of time out there.  We have great privacy, except for the neighbor across our back fence, whose house is on a little hill.  Most of the time, that bare tree is a beautiful, red Japanese maple and does give some privacy.

Back in the Fall, we put in a hot tub.  Until now, we've limited our skinny dipping soaking until late at night after those neighbors have gone to bed, but we really wanted to be able to enjoy the hot tub in the mornings, too.  A privacy screen was just what we needed.  I found one I like (see below), but to get the size I wanted was going to be well over $500.  Way too expensive.  So I sat down, sketched out what I wanted, and headed to Home Depot.

Materials used (for 4 panels) - 8 10' pieces of 1/2" pvc pipe, pipe glue, 2 cans of black spray paint, 8 pvc elbow joints, 8 pvc tee joints, 9 worm gear clamps (covered with black duct tape), 8 yrds of outdoor fabric, 3 rolls of ribbon, thread.  The total cost for materials was around $150, with the fabric being $80 of that.  (I found the outdoor fabric at Jo-ann on half-price sale.)

We cut the pvc into 7 foot pieces for the vertical pieces, with the remaining 3 foot pieces for the horizontal pieces.  (Easy, right?  One cut per pvc pipe.)  We used the elbow joints at the top of each panel and put the tee joints at the bottom to allow a "foot" to add stability.  We glued them together, spray painted them, and then hooked them together with the clamps.  It really was so simple.  

Each curtain is made from a 6 ft length of outdoor fabric, hemmed on all four sides.  I then added 6 ties to each one made from inexpensive satin ribbon.  We are really happy with the way they turned out!

The perfect amount of privacy from those backyard neighbors to allow skinny dipping any time we want!