Kitchen Aid Pasta Making: Round 2- Lasagna!

On a mission to redeem myself from my pasta making fail, I scoured my cookbooks this morning and picked out a few things I want to try. I decided to give Bobby Flay a rest and channel my roots with some Southern Living cookbooks. My upcoming list includes:

Easy Lasagna (tweaked a little bit)
Mac and Cheese
Tomato Basil Pesto Tart
Milk Chocolate Bar Cake (saving for Zeke's b-day later this month)
Pita Bread
Cherry Pie

After I made my shopping list, I spent the next 30 minutes arguing with Zeke about him shaving off his mustache.

Yes, you read that right. His mustache.

As part of their "Relay for Life" fundraising, the guys in his office did "No Shave May" and all grew beards. He shaved it into a handle bar mustache for the actual event last night, which was fine. It was funny- for one night. I refused to to go anywhere with him this morning with a damn handlebar mustache. It's not funny at noon on a Sunday!

Finally, I won, and he shaved it off. We walked across the street to the farmer's market and picked up a few things. My favorite booth, Smith Family Farms, had some special guests with them today!

We were a little confused at first... were they bringing new meaning to the term "fresh chicken breasts"? Since I felt guilty buying chicken (because there were chickens staring at me), I opted for ground beef and sweet Italian sausage.

I needed some different cheeses for the lasagna, so we hopped in the car and ran a few errands. We went to Home Depot for some paint for his office and dropped it off. Then we did our weekly trip to Crate and Barrel to exchange some curtains that we changed our mind about, and I picked up a few kitchen tools. Next, we went to Whole Foods and fought the crowds to buy overpriced organic groceries.

Tonight, I tackled the lasagna recipe. This was out of the "Best of 2007 Southern Living Recipes" cook book, but I tweaked it a bit.

Original recipe:
1lb ground beef
1 jar tomato basil sauce
6 lasagna noodles
1 tub ricotta cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese
Oilve oil
Salt/pepper to taste

I added:
1 small tub cottage cheese
1 package sliced mini portobello mushrooms
1 carrot, diced
1/2 cup parmesan, asiago, and fontina cheese
2 cloves garlic
Fresh Basil

And... I made my own noodles! So it was truly a home made meal. This time, I tried Red Mills Semolina flour instead of whole wheat. It made all the difference in the world... the texture was MUCH lighter, not grainy, and the noodles came out smooth.

Not crubmly, perfect consistency!

6 cheeses: Ricotta, cottage, mozzarella, asiago, parmesan, fontina

OXO herb mincer- one of my favorite wedding gifts! 

Sauteed mushrooms, carrots, garlic, basil.
Set aside and cover, then brown ground beef.
Add veggies back in, mix with tomato sauce, cover, and simmer. 

One layer meat, one layer noodles, one layer cheese, repeat twice.
Cover with layer of mozzarella cheese and basil.
Bake at 375 for 45 minutes covered, then 10 minutes uncovered.
The finished product!

This was one our favorite meals so far! The noodles turned out perfect, the consistency was just right. Next time, I'll probably reduce the amount of cheese I use by 1/3... it kind of overpowered the tomato flavor. But- there's no such thing as too much cheese- so it was delicious. It's a good thing we liked it- because there's 3/4 of a pan left. Leftovers, anyone?