Lasagna, dear?

As I wrote last time, my resident dragon and I have been experimenting with venison.  We used venison to create a tomato gravy which we served on cooked spaghetti.  Because we made such a large quantity (the sauce can be frozen, by the way), we had enough of the basic Pomodoro Sugo di Cervo sauce to make a scrumptious lasagna!


Lasagna is such a great dish; you can add different vegetables, meats, and cheeses for variety.  Here's our latest effort!

Buck High Beef Prices With Venison!



White-tailed deer
Photo by: Scott F. Bodle, USDA Forest Service



With the price of beef so high, we've been searching for palatable alternatives, including game meat. 

Wake Up to this Savory Breakfast Casserole

Both of my children visited this weekend which meant that I had the opportunity to prepare some of my old-faithful recipes.  One recipe that my son requested was Breakfast Casserole.  While we usually have it on Christmas morning with fruit, it's a great way to use leftover meat and bread in a time-saving breakfast meal.  Here's the basic recipe:

Hot Potato for a Cold Morning

I am so lucky that my Resident Dragon loves to cook (and cooks well).  For a family dinner yesterday he prepared my daughter's favorite:  scratch-made mashed potatoes.  YUM!  At the table we reminisced about his grandmother's potato pancakes so, this morning, he set about creating his own version. 

Stir Up a Savory Dinner in a Snap!

Let ginger's bright flavor give your dishes
a "helping hand!"

It's been a busy, busy day--so busy that dinner time sneaked up on me!  I had little time to prepare a filling meal on this frigid night, but, fortunately, I had a few things stuck away in the freezer.  Here are my go-to ingredients!

  

Garner Laurels For Your Cooking!

For years, the pace of my life was so fast that I did a lot of cooking from memory.  After a while, my life slowed enough that I began to enjoy cooking again.  No longer satisfied with my bland rendition of beef stew, I pulled out my mother's Betty Crocker Cook Book to check the recipe.  I went through the ingredient list, checking off each in my head until, eureka, the missing element appeared:  the noble bay leaf.

Ham It Up, Honey!

My family really, really likes ham!  I confess, however, that I just cannot bring myself to pay upwards of $8 per pound for the nationally advertised brand.  Hams are super-easy to cook.  Try this recipe!

10-ish pound fresh ham ( I really like Smithfield and MASH )
2 T. pickling spice
1 c. warm local honey
Water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Trim skin from ham.  Place fresh ham cut side down in a prepared (spray with Watkins Cooking Spray) roasting pan.  Warm the honey (microwave for a few seconds) then mix in the pickling spice.  Spread over the ham evenly.  Add warm water to the roasting pan to a depth of one inch.  Cover entire pan and ham with foil.  Bake for 17-20 minutes per pound (just under 3 hours for a 10-pound ham).  If you wish a crisper crust, baste with pan drippings about 30 minutes before end of cooking time and remove foil.  When cooking time is over, allow to rest for a while before slicing. 

If you want a glaze, strain the pan drippings (to remove the spice pieces) and cook until slightly thickened.

Serve on a bed of washed fresh kale leaves and garnish with fruit slices.

Beautiful, easy, luscious, and, best of all, $1.50 per pound!