The Making of Fresh Homemade Vegetable Lasagna

When I was at Big Lots the other day I was inspired by the recipe on the back of a Procino-Rossi lasagna noodles box. I bought the noodles and purchased most of the rest of the ingredients listed in the recipe except the sausage. I decided to substitute vegetables for the sausage.

I really liked the method on the P&R box for draining the noodles on a baking sheet between paper towel layers. I was pleasantly surprised that the noodles did not stick to the paper towels. This method also kept the noodles from making the lasagna watery.

I had a lot of fun with my assembly line layering all the ingredients. I enjoyed the organization that went in to it all.

 

I made Caesar salads for our first course. 

We felt like we were at Olive Garden.

Amazing Chef's Creation!

I made a chicken pancake sandwich for lunch. I toasted two pancakes leftover from breakfast, squirted lots of horseradish sauce on one, ripped some romaine lettuce leaves from a head of lettuce, washed and squeezed them dry before adding them to the beginnings of my sandwich, loaded a couple pickle slices on top of the lettuce, and finally I put the chicken patty on the other pancake. While the pancakes were toasting, and the chicken patty was being zapped in the microwave, I cut a huge nectarine in half, quartering one half to eat for dessert, and bagging the other half for later. I completed my lunch with a tumbler of sweet tea. I would highly recommend this amazing lunch to all! The pancakes used as a sandwich ingredient reminded me of Dutch Country potato bread a little bit. The sandwich as a whole was soft, sweet, and savory with a kick.

Thick Pancakes With No Milk or Eggs Added

Yesterday I tried to go grocery shopping at Aldi. The lights were on but they weren't open. The other customers and I standing outside the locked doors couldn't figure out what was up if they were getting held up or what until we saw a sign- Closed for Labor Day. I thought it was kind of ironic that a German grocery store was closed on an American holiday and the American grocery stores were still open. Pretty funny. At any rate, I didn't save as much as I would have liked to this week shopping, but I did end up getting a bunch of different or new to us items, very exciting. One of these new items was a box of Aunt Jemima's Buttermilk Pancake & Waffle Mix which I purchased at Big Lots. All that needs to be added to the mix is water, no milk or eggs! I made pancakes with the new mix this morning for breakfast. Our pancakes were almost an inch thick! Anthony said he and his family used to make thick pancakes growing up, and that he likes them that way. Me too. I think I might even eat a couple more for lunch. I'm thinking something like a toasted pancake sandwich stuffed with pickles and a chicken patty. I asked Anthony if he wanted a similar sandwich to take to school, but he just wanted a regular sandwich.

Leftovers

Anthony's Regular Lunch Sandwich

Nostalgic About Wedding Photos

Last summer I married the most handsome, charming, smart, kind, and adventurous husband in all the world!

Southern Labor Day Picnic

I asked Anthony what he wanted for dinner- a Labor Day picnic meal or lasagna. He said a picnic! I got some tea bags out and started boiling some water. I put some frozen sweet potato waffle fries and a couple frozen chicken patties on a baking pan, and stuck it in the oven at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. I washed up some red grapes for a healthy edible garnish. I poured my freshly brewed tea over some ice and sugar. I sliced then toasted a couple French hamburger buns, slathered chipotle mayo on them, and then added some romaine lettuce. Last, I placed the cooked chicken patties on our sandwiches, and the waffle fries on our plates. I had planned on serving ice cream sandwiches for dessert, but we were too full! We had an enjoyable night on the back porch:)

The Journey of Our World Map App

My Clemson grad student husband is having a lot of fun developing his first Android app! His app is called World Map App. He saw the need for such an app when we were in China this past summer. We would try to show people a map of where we were from and it would take forever to download a map. He decided to create an app that allows people to download an app with maps on it when they have a good internet connection so that when they don't they can still have easy, fast access to maps. He just released Version 5 of World Map App which allows users to download additional maps. The app has been traveling around the world. World Map App Version 3 update included me the wife translating the app into Russian. World Map App Version 4 involved Anthony translating the .xml file into Spanish. Below is a link to my husband's blog article with more information concerning World Map App Version 5 as well as an update on the tremendous success that World Map App is currently having in Russia. Underneath the link to Anthony's blog article is a Google play button you can hit to access our World Map App. Just look it up and download.

Anthony's Blog Article World Map App Version 5

Garland Family Tradition

So today I made something that Anthony has been wanting me to make for a long time- corn chowder and sweet potato biscuits, a Garland family tradition. Of course I changed things up a bit.

I started cooking a bag of frozen yellow sweet corn on the stove. Then I got started on my biscuits. I dumped 3 cups of Bisquick in a glass bowl with a can of pumpkin. Back to the soup, next I dumped leftover rustic spicy New England clam chowder from yesterday in with the frozen corn. I softened 1/2 a stick of cream cheese in the microwave and added it to the pot. Returning to the biscuits, I mixed Bisquick and pumpkin together with a spatula, dropped dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet, and baked the biscuits at 450 degrees for 8 minutes while stirring the soup occasionally. We loved the cream cheese in the soup! Anthony and I could not have been more pleased with my rendition of the Garland tradition of corn chowder and sweet potato biscuits.

Fabulous Fresh Fruit

I love fresh fruit. Whether it's a side of fresh pineapple to go with a lunch plate, fresh orange slices on an entree luncheon salad, or fresh fruit salad for a dessert, there is hardly anything as sweet and refreshing as fresh fruit.

Grown Ups Gourmet Mac & Cheese

I made up a new recipe tonight. We liked it. All the ingredients just happened to be around. They included:

-1/2 box whole wheat rotini pasta
-2 Tb butter
-1/2 stick cream cheese
-1 can evaporated milk
-salt
-pepper
-cornmeal (for thickener)
-grated Parmesan cheese

Rustic Spicy New England Clam Chowder

Today's lunch plan- use up the spicy potatoes left over from a few nights ago. I decided to combine them with a can of New England clam chowder I had gotten for sixty-two cents at Rite Aid. I thought I'd add some fresh onion as well. The green olives that were with the spicy potatoes would be a nice asset to the soup as well. I just needed to chop up the huge potato chunks, dice the olives and onions, and get things cooking. I thought about adding some celery but didn't want to overkill. Somehow chopping a couple random leftover ingredients and combing them with a couple other miscellaneous ingredients reminded me of one of Anthony's and my favorite TV shows on the Food Network- Chopped. On the show, each chef is given a basket with four ingredients in it. The chefs must prepare something for the judges to eat using each of the basket ingredients plus whatever they want from the pantry.

In the end, Anthony and I loved the rustic spicy New England clam chowder that I came up with. It reminded Anthony of his childhood. He said his family would make corn chowder and sweet potato biscuits sometimes. He always enjoyed that meal.