Monday - Let the "Vacationing" Begin! Kicking it Off With Lasagna

Today my "vacation" started at 4pm when I left work. I put vacation in quotations because I'm not going anywhere, and I'll be back at work after six days, but nonetheless I'm SO excited for some time to relax!

This time off is now officialy deemed my Home & Food Holiday! I plan to spend every second that I want, cooking, baking, and organizing/decorating my home. And to kick off my culinary vacation, I made lasagna with ceaser salad and toasted baguette. I made sure to take lots of pictures so less writing and more yummy photos for this blog post!

I must preceed this recipe by letting you all know that I am parting with a lasagna recipe that I feel I have perfected. If I wasn't in such a good mood about being on holidays, you may just be looking at pictures of delicious looking food wondering how it came to be. :) I've only shared this recipe in the past with two of my closest friends... and now I'm sharing it with all of you.

Jayme's Lasagne

Brown spicy italian sausage (my first secret)...
Strain the grease out of the meat (this is a crucial step, and if you don't you will surely regret it).
Sautee onions and garlic...
Add extra lean ground beef to onions and brown. Add cooked, strained sausage.
Add a small can of tomatoe paste...
And a jar of your favorite tomatoe sauce.
Slip in a couple glugs of balsamic vinegar (my second secret), and then reduce (my third secret; reduce out as much liquid as possible so that your sauce has all the rich tomatoe flavor without being runny. I've also found it easiest to add the tomatoe sauce bit by bit while reducing it down in between doses).
While I let the meat filling reduce I start on my cheese filling. One large tub of ricotta cheese...
And 3 large handfuls of spinach roughly chopped.
Grab a bunch of fresh basil leaves...
Chiffinade the basil and add to cheese mixture (chiffinade just means to roll it up and finely chop into strips).
Grate some mozzarella...
And add to mixture.
I then layered all the ingredients into two seperate baking pans in the following order;
-start with a very thin liquidy layer of the meat sauce
-then a layer of noodles
-then a thick layer of meat sauce
-top that with a good layer of cheese sauce
-then top it with noodles
-repeat until you reach the top of the pan
-add a final thin layer of meat sauce
-top with a generous portion of grated mozzarella cheese (I'll often blend cheddar and mozza for the top layer).
-cover with tin foil
-bake at 350 farenheit for 20-30 minutes (until sauce is bubbling and cheese is melted)
-remove foil and bake another 10 minutes until cheese is golden (I'll usually put on the broiler to speed this part up).
Once the lasagna is in the oven I (after cleaning up the pots and bowls) I got started on my Ceasar Salad. I started with washed a torn romaine lettuce.
I stumbled across these beautiful baby heirloom tomatoes and had to use them!
Tossed them together!
Since I've discovered homemade ceaser salad dressing I'll never go back to store bought! Actually, I love to make my own salad dressings now no matter what the salad is. It's a lot easier than what people might think, and the plus side is I know what is in my dressing.
I use two different types of oils in my salad dressings, mostly EVOO and a couple tbsp of the Omega3 Oil (flaxseed oil, grapeseed oil, and EVOO, the flaxseed oil is beneficial to women's health).
Add a crushed clove of garlic, fresh ground black pepper, fresh squeezed juice from one lemon, a quick dash of worcesteshire sauce (in place of anchovies), a whole egg and a couple tbsp of oil to a food processer (I use a handheld mixer in a tall measuring cup, came as a set). Blitz all ingredients until the egg emulsifies. Freshly grate in 3/4 cup parmigiano reggiano and blitz again quickly, add more oil as needed.
By this time the lasagna should be ready to take out of the oven!
While the lasagna rests for about another 10 minutes (to settle all the juices so it's not runny when you go to serve) I cut a couple slices off a baguette...
...and topped them with a drizzle of the ceaser salad dressing and some chiffinade basil. I popped these in the oven (still heated from the lasagna), and toasted for few minutes, then drizzled with EVOO.
Plate and serve! By the time I'm done cooking I just want to eat...sorry this picture isn't the pretties, but it did taste the yummiest! ;)