Chasing the Wind

So, where was I? Oh yes, my 3-day weekend. Saturday morning I woke up with one of those headaches, but I’m getting better at curing them. Only 2 Advils this time with an ice pack to the back of the head for an hour or so. By noon, I was feeling pretty good again. Good enough to go to Schlotzsky’s for a sandwich, anyway.

I mostly relaxed at the computer for the afternoon, and by 4pm it was time to make the dessert since it needed time to cool. More on that later though.

Diane came by a half hour early to make the salad. Salads don’t look very complicated to me, probably because all I do is buy a head of lettuce or a bag of spinach and pour some salad dressing on it. Then it tastes icky, so next time I don’t make it at all. Diane, though, made a fabulous salad, so she’s in carge of salads from now on. It had a mix of lettuce greens, sun dried cherries, pine nuts, and feta cheese. Those sun dried cherries were excellent.

For dinner I made:

Mexican Lasagna

• 1-1/2 lbs ground turkey or beef (I used turkey which was only sold by units of 1-1/4 lbs, so I was a little light on the meat, but it didn’t seem to make a difference)
• 1 (17 oz) can whole kernal corn, drained (except they don’t sell 17 oz cans, so I used 15-3/4 oz)
• 1 cup picante sauce (I bought mild but I wish I had bought spicy)
• 1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce or Italian style tomatoes (I used Roma style tomatoes in sauce, very nice)
• 1 envelope taco seasoning
• 1 (16 oz)carton cottage cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon oregano (I think I used more like 1-1/2 tablespoons though cuz I really like Oregano)
• 10 corn tortillas (I need 12 though cuz they were little)
• 1-1/2 cups (6 oz) shredded cheddar of Monterey Jack cheese (except I used 2-1/2 cups cuz I oopsed along the way)

———

• In a 12 inch skillet (or 14 inch skillet if you’re a manly cook like me), brown meat, stirring to crumble, drain excess grease (and since I used turkey, there wasn’t any excess grease).
• Add corn, picante sauce, tomato sauce and taco seasoning. Simmer for 5 minutes.
• In a separate bowl, combine cottage cheese, eggs and oregano, mixing thoroughly. (Here’s where I oopsed – I mixed in the Monterrey Jack cheese. Then I mixed in the cottage cheese, and had to go get more cheddar cheese for the next step. Extra cheesy, it tasted good to me. I added the emphasis since I almost munged that step.)
• Place 5 tortillas (or 6 cuz they’re tiny) in bottom of lightly-greased 13x9x2 inch baking dish, overlapping to fit.
• Layer in order listed: 1/2 of meat mixture, cottage cheese mixture, 5 tortillas (or 6 cuz they’re tiny), and remaining meat mixture. Sprinkle with cheese. (except I got to this part and didn’t have any cheese left, so I had to go get some more.)
• Bake, uncovered, at 375° F for 30 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

It says it serves 12, but I think cutting it into 8 was better. Big helpings, nobody leaves Michael’s hungry. There was some french bread and some cheese and crackers, but those turned out to be unnecessary since there was so much food.

While it was in the oven, Dean & Debbie came with 3 bottles of wine. Right on time. 🙂

Another long post. I’ll get to dessert in the next post. 🙂