My
beautiful niece recently mentioned to me that she wanted cooking lessons. She is now an adult and on her own with a
daughter and busy schedule. When she made the request I said to myself, “Oh my
goodness!” because I was thinking of my own elders (mom, aunts, grandmothers)
and how they THREW down in the kitchen.
From
scratch.
No
cookbooks in sight.
I learned
to cook by helping and observation. I remember fondly my childhood summers
spent in Virginia at my grandparents. I
have a huge extended family (my mom is one of thirteen) so the kitchen was
always bustling with activity. I remember helping my grandmother to snap string
beans. I LOVED it. I remember trying to find the sharpest knife to peel
potatoes. My dear grandmother made the BEST fried potatoes and onions, hands
down. Fried apples, mackerel and salmon cakes? Go on and sit down. I grew up in
a generation where children were “seen and not heard”. So as a kid, being
allowed to hang around the kitchen was a treat.
I am
chuckling to myself because I am now the “next generation” who is considered
someone’s “elder”. This is a serious
example of “stepping up to the plate”, no pun intended.
Titus 2:3-5
instructs us to teach the younger women, by example and by training.
I am
thankful to God for using my niece to be a reminder to me. Although I did not
see myself as being “fit” to teach, there are lessons that she wanted to learn.
There were
certain dishes that my niece liked so I picked one of those to start with for
her lesson on yesterday.
No Boil
Lasagna
Two boxes
of Lasagna
About 1.5 –
2 pounds ground turkey
2 (26 ounce)
jars of spaghetti sauce
Small onion,
chopped
1
tablespoon garlic
10 ounce
box frozen spinach
32 ounces ricotta
cheese
8 ounce bag
shredded mozzarella cheese
8 ounce bag
shredded cheddar cheese
Egg
½ cup grated
parmesan cheese
Seasonings
(Salt, pepper, seasoned salt, oregano, etc)
Preheat
oven to 350 degrees.
In small
saucepan, prepare spinach as directed.
In
stockpot, sauté chopped onion and garlic in a little oil until translucent. Add
ground turkey and seasonings. Brown the ground turkey. Add the spaghetti sauce.
Simmer.
Put the
ricotta cheese in a bowl. Mix with an egg, seasonings and parmesan cheese. Add
spinach. Mix well.
Grease the
bottom of a roaster pan. (A 9 x 12 baking pan is too small) Spread about a cup
of spaghetti sauce on bottom of pan. Take some uncooked lasagna noodles and lay
at the bottom of pan. Spread some ricotta cheese mixture across the noodles.
Spoon spaghetti sauce over the noodles. Sprinkle some of the mozzarella cheese
and cheddar cheese over the sauce. Layer
more lasagna noodles. Repeat until you use all of your ingredients.
Put about a
cup of water in the spaghetti jar, then pour this around the edges of the
lasagna then top. (This extra water is what cooks the lasagna)
Cover the
pan tightly with aluminum foil.
Bake for 45
minutes.
Take off
foil and finish baking for another 15 minutes.
Enjoy.
My family
went IN on the lasagna so I did not get a chance to take a picture of it.
Smiles.
