What do all these things have in common? Well, I happen to love getting out my easiest of the year recipes during this time of year.
And, since we can't post recipes on Active Rain anymore, I thought I would tell you about one of my favorite cookbook writers, and why I love her....even though she has gone on to a place where she no longer has to cook.
I tried and tried to get my kitty to pose with this Great Pumpkin that the Man of the House brought home, but no luck.
It is one of those warty pumpkin that before we became ever so chic, we would eschew in the patch, grocery store, or nursery. Ah, the days of being afraid of a wart or two.....
Well, on to Peg Bracken. Most of you are too young to remember that she was the doyenne of taste back in the 60s. I didn't come upon her until after matrimony when I was faced with a hungry man....and, in this case, he wanted food, unfortunately for me.
According to Wikipedia, Peg who was born Ruth Eleanor Bracken, was born in Filer, Idaho, Bracken grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and graduated from Antioch College in 1940. She married and moved to Portland, Oregon, where she worked as an advertising copywriter along with Homer Groening, father of Matt Groening.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Bracken's writing reassured women that they did not have to be perfect to have a happy, well-managed home unlike Martha Stewart, who has made all of us feel so inferior that we aren't making our own cheese and butchering our own chickens.
Her best-known book is "The I Hate to Cook Book", written in 1960. The book came about when she and some other working-women friends "pooled their ignorance" and came up with a core of recipes strong on ease of preparation. It was followed by "The I Hate to Housekeep Book" and "The Appendix to the I Hate to Cook Book".
Now, what I love about her recipes is that she will intersperse when something needs to simmer or boil, or otherwise cook that you might want to get something that will refresh you and make you ever so much more joyful to see the hungry people in your life descent with a line similar to "What's for dinner?"
Her cookbooks and other books read like someone you would talk to in the elevator or over the back fence. And, yet, she conveys an aura of "tres chic."
So, on to the lasagna recipe which I have adapted greatly from Peg's meager recipe....she did hate to cook after all.
Take about 1 lb. of ground beef, and saute it with some good olive oil and minced garlic. Then add about 1 8 oz. can or the equivalent of chopped tomatoes and about 4 to 6 oz. of tomato sauce. Then I also add either oregano or Italian seasoning, freshly ground pepper, chopped green olives and sliced mushrooms....you can be the judge of how much, if any, your family likes of either of those. I also add about 1/2 cup of a nice burgundy for flavor.
Simmer for 20-30 minutes and while that it simmering, cook the lasagna noodles al dente and get out some ricotta (or cottage cheese in a pinch).
Then in a buttered or sprayed casserole dish, start laying the noodles, add a layer of the meat, followed by the cheese layer....either the ricotta and parmesano-regianno, or whatever, followed by another layer of noodles and meat ending with the cheese. Let it bake for 20-30 minutes at 375. Take it out and let it sit for a good 30 minutes to "set up". Serve with garlic bread and a nice green salad.
I make this a day ahead, refrigerate it and I am good to go for a nice easy weekend meal when I do opens or showings.
T
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