Recipe: Carrot-Mushroom Lasagna

Brother-Bug has long had a strong distaste for cooked carrots in almost all incarnations. However, last week I made a soup with grated carrots as a base and he was enchanted. He decided he wanted a lasagna with grated carrot as a main ingredient. I had to think about it for a while, but eventually I came up with this recipe. It's not at all a traditional Italian lasagna, but it's really tasty.

I used whole wheat lasagna noodles, but my preference here would have been to use fresh sheets of pasta. Sadly I was out of sheets, and didn't get to our favorite local pasta shop to grab some.

Carrot-Mushroom Lasagna

 1 pound lasagna noodles or fresh pasta sheets, cooked

2 cups milk
2 bay leaves
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 sweet onion, chopped
4 cups button mushrooms, chopped
3 cups grated carrot
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried parsley (you can use fresh instead...I didn't have any fresh)
3 tbl. flour
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
Salt & Pepper to taste

3 cups grated mozzerella
15 oz. ricotta

Filling:
Heat the milk with the bay leaves until it simmers. Do not boil. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Melt half the butter in a large frying pan. Add the garlic, onion, and dried herbs and saute for 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and carrots and cover. Cook on medium heat until the mushrooms have cooked down, releasing their juices. Add the rest of the butter and sprinkle the flour over the mushrooms. Stir the flour in till smooth, coating the mushrooms and carrots. Remove the bay leaves from the milk. Pour the milk over the mushrooms, stirring throughly till smooth. Stir in 3/4 cup parmesan cheese. Add salt & pepper - because there is no salt added to the noodles or ricotta, you might want to over salt the filling a little bit.

Assembly:
Preheat the oven to 350.

Grease a baking pan. Stack a layer of noodles, 1/3 of the carrot-mushroom filling, and a sprinkle of mozzarella. Spread another layer of noodles and spread the ricotta over. Pour the next 1/3 of the carrot-mushroom filling over the ricotta. One more layer of noodles, the remaining carrot-mushroom mixture, and the rest of the mozzarella and paremesan. Bake in the oven for 45-60 minutes, or till the cheese is golden. Allow to cool for 10-20 minutes before serving.

We served this with a spinach salad. As I was making it, I was unsure. Carrot lasagna? Really? But it turned out really good. Everyone enjoyed it and cleaned their plates.

52 Artful Thoughts

Starting out - the card for week one.

One of my projects for 2012 is more Art. I am a better person and a better mom when I take a little time to create. I also am more likely to create if I have some structure around that creation. So I made up a project for the year - a weekly piece of art.

Stove hood with card in place.

But not just a piece of art. I will be illustrating a prayer/quote/inspirational sentiment each week, something that I would like to meditate on. I'm doing this as an Artist Trading Card (3.5"x2.5") and I took a plastic card holder, added a magnet, and can hang my card up weekly on the stove hood. I will see it as I clean and cook - both excellent times to let my mind wander to meditations.

I think, busy though I am, that I can commit to doing at least one small piece of art each week. I started two weeks ago so that I could hang the first thought on New Year's Day.

I am getting a lot of my quotes from Gretchen Rubin's wonderful Happiness Quote of the Day (the subscription option is at the bottom of the post). I also am on the look out for other inspirations and prayers, that I assume will come when I need them.

Card for week two.

Some weeks I will probably do two cards, so that I have one made for weeks we are traveling, or should other adventures overtake us. I hope to end the year with a box of 52 artful thoughts and meditations.

Foot Print Ghosties

We made these guys the other day, when Brother-Bug wanted to decorate for Halloween. They are delightful, so easy, and super cute.



Trace your child's foot on sturdy white paper. Cut out the tracing - it should be an obvious ghost shape.

Draw eyes and a mouth.

We hung ours on white sewing thread in the window. They could also be nice cards, put together with crepe paper to make a banner, or???

Wordless Wednesday: The Artiste

The Belated Birthday Post

Brother-Bug turned 5 a month ago today. We were in Seattle with his Godmommies for the celebrations. Papa-Bug was supposed to bring a box with him when he drove up to meet us on Friday. In said box were 'Cars' cake decorations, the cake pans, the birthday banner, our special birthday plate... oh yeah, and all the presents. He didn't bring the box. Whoops.

My plan had been to make a 2 layer cake, and frost it with a road, then drive our 'Cars' toys all over it, as three-dimensional decorations. But the toys were at home and the cake had to be made.

I ended up doing this:

Take one blank white sheet cake...

Trace out the basic outline with a toothpick, and start to outline it with the red icing. Choose not to think about the chemicals and dye numbers that made that icing so very red.

Red - completed. On to the details!

Headlights, eyeballs, and etc.

Finish off with black outlines and other decorations.

 I have to shout out a tremendous "THANK YOU!" to whoever put the drawing instructions online. That was a real life saver in the midst of a very quick plan-change. We added some candles, including a glittery number 5, and had a great celebration. Brother-Bug was thrilled that he had a Lighning McQueen cake. And I was (am) pretty darn proud of myself for pulling it off so nicely.

Ready, Sing, Blow!!!

Wordless Wednesday: Ready to Ride

This is a knight-faery, complete with velvet dancing dress, lucky tights, rainbow lei, cowboy boots, and Lightning McQueen helmet. This is my son.

Wordless Wednesday: How To Do Dishes With A Cranky Toddler

Put her in the sink!

Flavlorful, Yet Still Tasteless

I'll just open by stating categorically that my family has an off-the-hook sense of funny. And we'll leave it there.

Last weekend it fell to me to make the birthday cakes for a birthday party for both brothers. They were both in town on the youngster's actual birthday, and the elder had his about 2 weeks prior. So the whole family gathered in a local park and celebrated with fish tacos and cheesecake.

At the library, Brother-Bug and I were perusing the children's cookbooks. We found this excellent book, Gross-Out Cakes, and just had to bring it home. Parts of it are truly disgusting.

I lean more toward wanting to make the Oozing Brain or Severed Arm. I'm not sure I could even begin to stomach eating the Kitty-Litter Cake.

We read through it several times, and finally settled on the Road Kill Cheesecake. We thought it was the least likely to offend anyone who wouldn't find stuff like this hilarious.

One chocolate cheesecake, some icing and sprinkles, a little Lingonberry jam, and a toy deer later...





It was a complete success. Everyone loved it and it was so yummy!

And I highly recommend the book to anyone with kids who love the silly, macabre, or downright disgusting.

The New Nutrition Symbol

It's a plate! NPR reported that the out-dated and unwieldy pyramid is out and the plate is in.

To my eyes, this makes a lot of sense. After all, we usually see our food on a plate and so this makes it easy to see if anything is missing. I also really like the broad categories. It's going to be hard to lobby any specifics into this baby. Meat lobby? You've got a whole protein category right there, Ditto to you, soy lobby. Lots of fruits and veggies, and a reduction of grains. Also good. The proportions are good too - more veggies and grains than proteins and fruits, and just a cup of dairy to the side. It doesn't have to be milk - it could be a cup of cheese to sprinkle on everything.

In fact, this plate is very similar to my concept of The Three G's.  I hope this makes meeting nutritional requirements easier on parents. I personally think it makes it more like an art project when serving up - arranging plates to cover all your bases could be fun. Actually, it is fun! I do it with my Gs all the time. Making attractive, colorful, diverse meals is an artistic delight. Which makes cooking less of a chore and more of a game.

I like games.

 

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I just learned about Reverse Graffiti. This is brilliant. I am totally thrilled. Actually revolutionary, in my opinion.

Two Conversations with a Four-Year Old

We have an anatomy book in which the different systems are represented by different teams of tiny people working inside the body.

Brother-Bug: Mama, when those little guys are working inside the body, where do they go to the bathroom?
Mama-Bug: Sweetie, those little guys aren't really in your body. It's just imaginary in that book.
Brother-Bug: I KNOW it is imaginary. But where would they go to the bathroom...if we were imagining?
Mama-Bug: I suppose if there are imaginary people inside your body, they must have imaginary bathrooms.

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And with their Grandmommie just back from holiday in Sicily, we were talking about volcanoes and Mount Etna today. A lot.

Brother-Bug: Mama! I think the inside of my nose is turning into a volcano!!
Mama-Bug: What might happen then!?
Brother-Bug: I will have hot lava snot! I might erupt!
Mama-Bug: Well, if that happens take it outside. I don't want volcanic ash all over my living room.
Brother-Bug: Maybe I can erupt by the mail box?

My New Anthem

You might remember it - "Really Rosie" by Maurice Sendak (of Where The Wild Things Are) and sung by Carole King. I had forgotten all about it until just the other day. I grabbed it at the library and took a walk down the lane to childhood days of singing with my sister at the top of my lungs.

"I'm Really Rosie...and I'm Rosie Real...You better believe me! I'm a great big deal!"

But listening to it with Brother-Bug this morning I realized there is a perfect song for a mother deep in the fray, trying to perfect her own mother-magic to keep her family happy and calm and maybe even Stop the

Screaming and Yelling
(From Really Rosie - by Maurice Sendak)

When everybody
Screams and yells
Who calms them down?
Who rings their bells?
When everybody screams and yells
The enchanted one
That's me
When everybody screams and yells,
There's nothing to do!
There's nothing to see!
Who dreams up a place they'd like to be?
The enchanted one
That's me
It takes personality
A lot of personality
To make them see it my way
It takes personality
More personality
To turn twelve boring hours
Into a fascinating day!
I CAN DO IT!
That's a fact
I CAN DO IT!
Don't you see?
AND I'LL DO IT
ALL FOR FREE!

Do you know?
Can you guess
Who I simply have to be?
STOP SCREAMING AND YELLING
SCREAMING AND YELLING
SCREAMING AND YELLING
SCREAMING AND YELLING
AND I'LL TELL YOU ALREADY!
The enchanted one
That's me.

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I love it - especially the bit that talks about making 12 hours into a fascinating day. Isn't that just the way of a mom? Or at least our goal when we wake up and plan for fun?

I'm going to start referring to myself (at least privately) as The Enchanted One.