"Lasagna"

Cooked Lasagna

Dinner

Word of the Day

Gleak - 1. A fountain of saliva which spurts out of the mouth in large droplets. 2. When a person extends the muscles in their mouth in such a way as to send a minimal amount of watery saliva a great distance.

I try to pick my zucchini before they turn into logs but, sadly, there's always at least one that hide and get away from me. At that point, I have to figure out what to do with them...other than burn them in the fireplace or leaving them by some unsuspecting neighbor's front door. Ma would frown upon such an action. BW Babe and I both suffer from this particular Ma Guilt. I mean...normal people...would just throw the dang thing away. However, if I'd thrown the darn thing away, I would never have enjoyed my wonderful noodle-less lasagna last night. Using a combination of several recipes, I thinly sliced my zucchini log. Dipping each slice in a bowl of beaten eggs, I covered each slice with a combination of Panko crumbs and dried garlic. I ended up with two large sheet pans of slices. I baked these for 15 minutes at 400 degrees...flipped...and then 15 more minutes. These, I used as my noodles for "lasagna". Then, dragging out my Betty Crocker Cookbook, I followed the recipe that I've used for years....kinda. I used hamburger for the meat. I used jarred spaghetti sauce instead of taking the time, I used cottage cheese AND ricotta cheese. I used fresh minced parsley. I used Romano cheese instead of Parmesan, and I topped it all with mozzarella and freshly minced basil. Totally wonderful!

With the aroma of homemade "lasagna" still lingering when I woke up this morning (Eau Di Garlique), I decided to pick my maturing peppers....both Anaheim chili peppers and the Italian peppers from the plants that I'd purchased from Burpee, thus giving my plants more strength to keep producing. I cleaned, minced, and froze the Anaheim chili peppers. The Italian peppers? I cooked them up using the "recipe" that I got from HTP's Mom....she had two "recipes" but, my favorite was the one with tomato. I had so many peppers, that I ended up frying up three batches. Recipe? Well...it's hard to actually pin this down to a recipe card type thing. One large onion, chopped in hunks, an equal amount of Italian peppers, chopped in "hunks", three or four large cloves of garlic, minced. Fry the bunch in a pan with olive oil and garlic salt to taste until most of the juice is gone (REALLY wilted and COOKED), then, add about a half small can of tomato paste. Done. Repeat. Actually, for the last two batches, I diced up some of the tomatoes that the squirrels munched on. Hey! I cut off the munched on portions! It's another Ma Guilt thing. They were really nice and large tomatoes that I just couldn't bring myself to waste...unlike the nasty squirrels who seem to only want to take a couple of bites before tossing said tomatoes aside. Grrrrr!!!!

I've set traps for the squirrels but...so far...no takers. Meanwhile, I've had continuing problems with them munching on my tomatoes AND my jalapenos. *sigh* I guess treating my plants with cayenne pepper won't work.

Random Quote of the Day

Comedy is nothing more than tragedy deferred.

- Pico Iyer

Rest in Peace Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014)- You made us all laugh but... all I can think of is the lyrics of Smoky Robinson's song..."the tears of a clown,
when there's no one around."