Chef Rho

Every since I've been cooking,
I've been popping my apron.

It's rare that I'm posting more than once in the same day.  But I'm in the mood to cook, so I'm going to post about it.  I'm making crockpot lasagna... I got this recipe from an amazing person, Nada Dee.  Check out her blog under Stuff to See.

Anyways, I made it do what Rho do. (Don't judge my grammar.)  I can say that even though I'm a southern girl, I definitely don't come from a cooking family.  I mean we cooked, but it wasn't edible banging.  I mean, I'm alive aren't I?  So, recently (I've been doing quite a lot recently haven't I?) I've taken it upon myself to learn to cook become a whiz in the kitchen.  With the exception of my initial try at asparagus, my food has turned out wonderfully.  Reading is fundamental and cookbooks and my friends have been a great help with this adventure.

So far, I've made bread from scratch, meatloaf (recipe from Nada Dee again), chili, cream of cabbage soup, this lasagna and a bunch of sides.  I'm not counting the basic baked chicken, spaghetti and steak I've thrown together or in the oven.  I've loved all of my adventures in cooking.  I've had a few scorches and one flame in the oven (don't ask).

To start, brown the meat (1 lb)... you can use turkey, beef, sausage, etc.  Today, I used ground turkey.  The other times, I used spicy turkey sausage from the farmers' market.  The sausage was delicious, but I already had the ground turkey.  I added seasonings including dried oregano, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, Ms. Dash, and some secret spices... After the meat was completely browned, I drained it.  While the meat was browning I mixed ricotta cheese (15 oz), Italian cheese mix (one pack) and chopped spinach (like 10 oz).

After I mixed the cheeses and spinach and browned the meat, I layered the lasagna noodles, meat, 1/4 cup water, sauce and half the cheese mixture.  Then I repeated.  Cover the pot and let it simmer for 4 1/2 hours.  Simple right?



And oh yeah, the crock pot liners work wonders! No messy clean up... just wash the pot out without suffering.