Culinary Catastrophes

I was thinking that in my ongoing efforts to try to find better ideas of what to cook, that I would chronicle my journey. Remember this is not the blog of an expert but rather a first timer who was never very good at saving, spending less, making real meals, etc. Might as well share it all. Who knows, maybe I'll manage to make a eatable if not somewhat tasty dish that 4 out of 5 members of my family (at least) will be willing to eat. Or, maybe I'll just add some "sure glad that's not me" stories that can make you feel better about your cooking. Here goes nothing...

I have started this series by attempting to make New Frugal Mom's Double Duty Dinner Lasagna Rolls and Mini Meat Loaf.

First off I should tell you that I have never made Lasagna other than Stouffer's before and as such I didn't even know the correct size pot to use to cook the noodles! I started with a pot large enough for my standard "Not quite Spaghetti" dinner, (not quite, because my 5 year old son refuses to eat actual spaghetti noodles so we alternate whatever random shapes he picks and add spaghetti sauce). I started the water boiling, put 3 noodles in and waited somewhat impatiently for them to soften enough to sink into the pot. After a good 30 seconds, it became clear to me that this was going to be an exercise in futility. I moved the (by this time) 5 noodles to a large stock pot along with the already boiling water. Add some more water to make up the difference in volume and another 3 noodles and I was finally ready to start the timer on the suggested 12 minutes for the lasagna noodles.

By this time I had already mushed up the meat loaf mixture. I'm not sure what cheese is typically added to meat loaf (as I have never been much of a fan and thus never made that before either), and the ingredients listed simply stated Sargento Cheese. Of course had I bothered to look at the detailed picture included on the site I might have noticed it was a mozzarella and provolone cheese mixture, but alas I did not and the result was the use of shredded cheddar cheese instead (because when I finally got ready to make this, it was all I had).

I mixed up the meatloaf and pushed it into my new silicon muffin tin. By this time, my poor lasagna noodles were ready (I hoped). Again having never used them, I made a beyond foolish not even rookie mistake. I pulled out a pair of tongs and promptly tore the corner off one noodle. It was then that I remembered that the directions stated to rinse them in cold water "to prevent them sticking" Now please understand that I make pasta on a fairly regular basis (see above) but whenever I undertake a new recipe I tend to get flustered and fail to use common sense, and this was two meals at once! At any rate I picked up the pot and strained the remaining noodles under cold water, leaving them in the sink.

It should be noted that as I had prepackaged food saver bags of 1 lb of ground beef, that I opted to use only 1 lb of ground beef as opposed to the 1.71 lbs or I assume roughly 1 3/4 worth that was listed in the ingredients list. I had already opted out of the onions and peppers so I used the 1/4 lb of ground beef left over from the amount needed for the meatloaf and fried it up in a pan. After frying it up I added the sauce and cheese (again Cheddar) and mixed it all together for the Lasagna Rolls.

I took the meatloaf out of the oven and let it cool on the stove, pulled out a cutting board for the lasagna noodles and ladled it with no where NEAR 3 tablespoons of the meat, sauce and cheese mixture. At this point the lack of mozzarella cheese became impossible to ignore, but being a cheese obsessed household we have a steady supply of string cheese. I used two sticks to painstakingly string tiny strands of cheese to cover my six (not 8) rolls, some of which definitely have more meat in the meat sauce than others.

I rolled up the lasagna noodles, made up some more sauce (sans meat) and ladled some of that onto the top of the rolls. Then I took the remaining half of a string cheese and used it to cover in strips the top of the rolls. I put the dish covered with foil in the oven, along with the meatloaf tin. I'm not sure just how much grease should have been associated with the meatloaf cups but in an effort to fully cook the meat I stuck it in for 3 of the lasagna's 20 minutes.

I took the meatloaf tin out and let it cool, eventually placing the cups on a paper towel in an effort to soak up some more of the grease. After removing all the grease I could, I placed them all in a food saver bag, making sure to separate them slightly. I sucked out most of the air and hit the force seal button when it became apparent that the grease was encroaching on the top of the bag, thereby preventing any sealing from taking place.

Meanwhile I took out a 1 lb bag of baby carrots, poured half into a food saver bag and added the brown sugar, butter (in this case margarine) and cinnamon. I sealed that bag without sucking the air out (as I hope this is what you do in order to steam it in the bag), and took the lasagna rolls out to cool. It could be the minimal cheese and could be the missing two rolls but whatever the reason they look nothing like the picture on the site.

I didn't have time to make the Twice Baked Potatoes.

This entire process took New Frugal Mom less than an hour. Me? I came in at just under two hours! On top of that, since I am freezing this for dinner another time, I don't even know how good it's going to taste! But, I'm finally finished with the beginning process. Technically all I have to do when I'm ready to eat it, is put them in the microwave, so I shouldn't be able to mess that up, but we'll see ;)

I'll check back in to let you know how it ends up tasting!