One Sunday a friend told me about a show called "Cooking Grannies." Intrigued I watched a few ten-minute episodes and was impressed. Both by their humble cooking and the food that they made that really looked quite good. Always looking for some break in the tedium that is motherhood and all the responsibilities there I decided to try the lasagne technique.
All their recipes start with making the pasta. I've made pasta before but never totally by hand. It was surprisingly easy to mix the kneading was strenuous. Those old ladies have muscle! To test you poke the dough and if it springs back it is done, if not knead some more. Finished dough. I wrapped it up and set it aside to rest for an hour or so.
Afton wanted to help and volunteered to peel carrots for the Ragu, meaning vegetable-laden red sauce. Being little she peeled where she could. Oh, my sweet helpers.
This one watched and tasted as he could. Also offering protection from something, note the pistol to his side he's loved that present.
Next step for the dough was rolling out. Again not for the weak. The grannies had a 3-foot rolling pin and used a different method I think that would be slick. I made my meager 14 inch rolling pin work but it sure worked my arm muscles.
Bringing home the crew from school. This dinner took about 5 hours start to finish, I told them they better love it! I am so thankful for the new bus schedule this year that gets my kids to our town before 4 p.m. It has saved me literally hours and hundreds of dollars of fuel and wear on my car to have them delivered so promptly.
The cooked noodles. The cook in boiling salted water for about a minute then are laid on a towel to dry.
The Sauce and noodle cooking. Yes, it made a mess boiling the sauce.
The layering. I noticed two things in the show. One the grannies used a bare minimum of garlic and shredded cheese. They used parmesan sparingly. Much cheaper than the old American way. With the addition of vegetables to the Ragu, the meat sauce went a lot farther too. Instead of ricotta or cottage cheese, they made a basic white sauce no cheese just nutmeg. I was very hesitant about the nutmeg I know that taste and could not imagine it with red sauce. I only used the white sauce on about half the layers but we liked it, it was not too much flavor.
The noodles were also pretty dry so I could stack them with flour. I used 3 cups of flour and 6 eggs. 1 egg per half cup of flour.
The sauce simmered and brewed for at least three hours it smelled so good. A jar of home-canned sauce and a jar of tomatoes.
The finished product was delicious. So much so that John requested it again for his birthday. This time it took only 2.5 hours with baking not too bad and I really like the new flavors. I use more parmesan than the grannies and add some mozzarella cheese because I like it. Yum!
Another day I worked with a friend to make the pie crusts for the school harvest auction fundraiser dinner. The lady who had been doing this for the past 30 years resigned saying it was too much for her. I was not worried pie is something we do often here. After 2 hours and about 15 lbs of flour, we had 37 pies we only needed 25. So we filled a few with apples and made some pies to enjoy here at our house.
It was such a delight to visit with a real adult in my house. I had an enjoyable morning getting to know an associate better and enjoying the steadiness of working as a team. The kids were good and we created a minimal mess.
Balloons leftover from Harolds' homecoming date asking. The kids were super happy to have them for a few days. Bruce was instructed not to pick in the pies as he has gotten really bad about tasting everything with his fingers lately. Life is sweet and good.
One lesson learned from our family's expereince with death is the consideration of others in your time of grief. We also really enjoyed all the kind offerings of food. I hurried and made cinnamon rolls after I got the call reporting the neighbors death. I do this most anytime there is a death these days. My hope is not to stop the hurt but to say I understand in small part and I am here to mourn with you and love you.
This time it was sweet to get to deliver these small tokens with my sister. I rarely get to spend time with her and she was excellent company. I was so thankful to be spared a collision heading to her house. There were honestly angels with me that day as I had one second to avoid an oncoming car who had been rear ended. There are so many blessings daily if we just notice. I have had some special experiences visiting with those who are mourning and have had my heart touched by their pain and friendship. We have a uniquely good community, with many people working hard to live the life they choose, and accidents happen because of the long hours and big equipment they work with daily.
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