cheese on my head but don’t call me a cheesehead.

I feel like rotten crumb cake that’s been soaking in yesterday’s milk.

[striking visual]

This is some serious bullcrap.

BULL CRAP.

There’s a small woodpecker in my upper chest and it’s banging its beak over and over again and it’s really rude.

[Dew, if you’re reading this: “when I roll my eyes up towards the sky, it hurts and that’s how I know I’m sick” haha].

I’ve got this way of telling when I’ve got the sicks…I look towards the ceiling while keeping my head straight, and if my eyes feel sore, I know I’m sick.

How I came to realize this, I do not know, but it’s a failsafe method and I continue to do it, despite looking like some sort of possessed nutcase.

Although I feel wonkified, I feel slightly functional: slightly.

I made the lasagna last night [in a sloppy stupor] and it came out really great.

It was super easy and I’ll definitely make it again [but if you don’t have a food processor, you’re a bit SOL because you’ve gotta do a lot of basil/ricotta/parm/mozz/egg pulsing].

I adapted a recipe from Epicurious [I used Angus ground beef and mozzarella perlini and Linoni ricotta—also, most of the measurements I did were semi-unmeasured—pinch, splash, dash]:

 

Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound spicy Italian sausages, casings removed
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 3 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
• 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes with added puree
• 1 14 1/2-ounce can diced tomatoes with green pepper and onion (do not drain)

Filling:

• 1 1/2 cups (packed) fresh basil leaves
• 1 15-ounce container plus 1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1 1/2 cups (packed) grated mozzarella cheese (about 6 ounces)
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 2 ounces)
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Assembly:

• 12 no-boil lasagna noodles from one 8-ounce package
• 3 cups (packed) grated mozzarella cheese (about 12 ounces)
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 3 ounces)
• Nonstick olive oil spray

 

Preparation

Sauce:
Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add sausages, onion, garlic, oregano and crushed red pepper and sauté until sausage is cooked through, mashing sausage into small pieces with back of fork, about 10 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes and diced tomatoes with juices. Bring sauce to boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer 5 minutes to blend flavors. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Chill until cold, then cover and keep chilled.)

Filling:
Using on/off turns, chop fresh basil leaves finely in processor. Add ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, egg, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Using on/off turns, process filling until just blended and texture is still chunky.

Assembly:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Spread 1 1/4 cups sauce in 13×9x2-inch glass baking dish. Arrange 3 noodles on sauce. Drop 1 1/2 cups filling over noodles, then spread evenly to cover. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layering of sauce, noodles, filling and cheeses 2 more times. Top with remaining 3 noodles. Spoon remaining sauce atop noodles. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses. Spray large piece of foil with nonstick olive oil spray. Cover lasagna with foil, sprayed side down.

Bake lasagna 40 minutes. Carefully uncover. Increase oven temperature to 400°F. Bake until noodles are tender, sauce bubbles thickly and edges of lasagna are golden and puffed, about 20 minutes. Transfer to work surface; let stand 15 minutes before serving.

 

Anyway, after that, I had a lovely interaction with Captain Naughty Pants…well, it wasn’t really an interaction because I abruptly hung up the telephone and said “we can talk about this tomorrow” because my head was doing rollercoaster movements.

I should try to talk to her today but I’d really rather not.

The latest crisis isn’t even a crisis but trying to talk the situation down is useless because there’s no perspective: everything is dire straits, always.

Whatever…a few months ago, this nonsense would have had me in tears but after spending some time talking with DH, she’s really helped me realize that none of those problems are my problems…I haven’t done anything wrong and I shouldn’t be held hostage like this for the rest of my life [psycho-babble works].

Moving on: despite boozing down the Nyquil last night, I had more wacky dreams—although one was a nice one: a baby was involved, Sauce found a baby near a swimming pool and we kept it hahhhaha.

CRAASAZZZZZYZYZYZYYZYZYZYYZYZYYZZZZYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.

~ by ninamazing on November 3, 2009.