Sort of a shepherd's pie thing for lunch

I had a bit of ground beef/tomato lasagna misture left over from my lasagna making this week. I also had some of my potato/turnip/yam mash. Put them both together, and you get a nice hearty lunch. I have no idea what to call this concoction, but it sort of reminds me of shepherd's pie. I liked having something so meaty and soft to eat this week, as the rain continued to pour down from morning until night.

It was kind of a happy accident...but I boiled up the last of my potatoes from the bottom of the plastic bag this morning, and am thinking about doing a PROPER Shepherd's Pie for the P-man's lunch next week...

Seigel's Bagels Smoked Meat Sandwich

I STRUGGLED through torrential rain and horrible traffic to get into Vancouver on Wednesday night. What did I get for my troubles? Rain soaked hair and makeup, and a 40 dollar parking ticket! The event I had been sooooo looking forward to, a panel discussion at the Museum of Vancouver on Vancouver's New Food Writing was a bore. The wine was crappy, and the food was strange and scary. What saved my evening, and gave me the strength to carry on? A delicious, hot, salty, tangy, soft and slightly greasy, Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich on a poppy seed bagel! You can see from the photo that I had already devoured half, before I remembered to photograph my lovely sandwich!

Seigel's Bagels on Cornwall Street in Vancouver can cure whatever ails you! ( In my case...all of the above!) I took a dozen bagels home to freeze. 4 onion, 4 poppy, and 4 multi grain, and after eating my sandwich...which was, by the way, ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS...I headed home with the seductive smell of salty onions perfuming my car.

And Finally...JELL-O

The P-Man is one lucky guy. After this crazy day, with every manner of kitchen mishaps, and blog mix-ups...I still mustered the strength to make JELL-O. The P-Man has been travelling in the far East...and as far as I know, he is not overly fond of the food...and even told me a harrowing tale of being offered TURTLE PUDDING for dessert! UGH!
I have been eating JELL-O for most of my life. I remember having my tonsils out at 5 or 6 years old, and being offered JELL-O AND ice cream, when I could manage some food. I have tried making different flavours, and using different preparations that included, Cool-Whip, and fruit juice, and sparkly water...but in my opinion, there is only one JELL-O flavour worth risking some terrible form of JELL-O cancer for, and that flavour is RASPBERRY.

Lasagna, AND JELL-O! The P-Man is one lucky Monkey!

Winter mash

For at least a week now, I have had a sad little turnip sitting in my crisper drawer. Every time I open my refrigerator, there it is...looking at me. I decided to make a winter mash up. I peeled my turnip, and a couple of small potatoes. I placed them in a pot, with an unpeeled sweet potato (the orange one. I can never remember if it is a yam or a sweet potato!)put in water to cover, and let them boil. The turnip was the last to get tender, but when it was, I drained them. I warmed up about a cup of 1% milk, with a knob of butter in the microwave, and added it to the potato/turnip mixture. Then I threw in about a tablespoon of grainy Dijon mustard, and the same amount of creamed horseradish, salt and pepper, and started to mash.

It took some elbow grease...thank goodness I have been doing some arm/shoulder exercises...but I got a relatively smooth mash. It had a nice bite from the horseradish, and a bit of tang from the mustard. The sweet potato gave the whole mixture that nice root vegetable sweetness that I LOVE.

I ate a bowlful, topped with some of the leftover meat sauce from the lasagna, and found it to be a lovely sweet, sour and meaty combo. I have a piece of salmon in the fridge. Just in case the P-Man hogs the lasagna, like Garfield on a Monday...I have a Plan B!

Lasagna for the P-Man

The P-Man has been far, far, away on a business trip. He is arriving home tomorrow. While he has been gone, as is my usual routine...I ate what I wanted, when I wanted, and didn't make set meals. I could have, of course, made spaghetti for a welcome home meal, but decided to make something I haven't made in awhile...Lasagna.

I started by sweating about 2 cups of chopped celery and a large onion, with a large clove of garlic, and a whole bunch of dried basil. When the veggies were soft, I added a pound of lean ground beef, salt and pepper, a few chili flakes, and turned up the heat. When the beef had some colour, I added a jar of organic tomato sauce, a good squirt of tomato paste, and a splash of red wine, and let it simmer. After I boiled some lasagna noodles, and let the sauce cool, I was ready to put it together. I started with a layer of noodles, spread on some fresh ricotta, some meat sauce, and sprinkled on some grated Parmesan and provolone. This was repeated until the dish was full, and after a slight delay, due to a filthy,greasy oven, It baked at 350 degrees for half an hour.

It came out bubbly and hot. When the P-Man and I eat it tomorrow...I'll let you know how it turned out...