Archive for category Food & Wine

My World Famous Lasagna Recipe

From NYC, Paris, Hong Kong and even Vietnam. Hundreds have tried it. You will love it.

List Of Ingredients

• One Pound of Ground Beef or Ground Chuck
• Two 6 ounce cans of Tomato Paste
• One 16 ounce can of Tomato Sauce
• One 16 ounce carton of Small Curd Cottage Cheese (may substitute 12 ounce carton of Ricotta Cheese)
• Grated Parmesan Cheese (the real stuff!)
• One Pound grated Mozzarella Cheese (again, the real stuff!)
• Lasagna Noodles
• One clove of garlic
• Two Eggs
• Parsley flakes
• Basil
• Anise seed (optional)
• Salt (optional)
• Pepper

The Recipe

Brown One pound ground beef or chuck with one clove of garlic minced or pressed. After browning, drain off fat.

Add Two 6-oz. cans of tomato paste; One 16-oz. can of tomato sauce; One tsp. parsley flakes; One tsp. basil; 1/2 tsp. salt; 1/2 tsp. anise seed crushed. Simmer until sauce is thick, about 30 min.

In a medium size bowl beat two eggs. Add One carton (16-oz) small curd cottage cheese, 1/2 tsp. pepper, Two tsp. parsley flakes, 1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese. Set aside.

Boil Ten oz. (ten strips to be safe) Lasagna noodles as per package. Rinse in cold water. Place half the noodles in a 13 X 9 X 2 baking pan. Spread half the cottage cheese mixture, half the Mozzarella Cheese, half the meat sauce.

Repeat layers.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 min. Let cool 5 min. before cutting.

Suggestions

Serve with a tossed salad with fresh spinach, crusty sourdough bread and your favorite dry red wine.

A couple of suggestions on the Wine:

Tyrrell’s Long Flat Red An Australian blend of Cabernet, Shiraz and Malbec grapes, give it a very full, mellow flavor.

Heitz Cellar’s Napa Valley Grignolino A lighter bodied red wine you can serve at room temperature or slightly chilled.

Both around US$7.00 - $8.00 a bottle (750ml)

Here are some suggestions to add to the recipe that others have sent in…

“About 4 or 5 pieces of chopped sundried tomatoes could add some zest to this dish.”
— Dennis Quinn

“Here’s a family favorite in our lasagna - sliced ripe olives. Maybe not traditional, but we like olives in almost anything.”
— Bob T.

“Instead of meat, you could use spinach mixed with either cottage cheese or ricotta, along with a bit of nutmeg.”
–Brandie

“A little something to cut the acid from all of the tomatoes, especially the paste, is to add about a quarter to half of a teaspoon of baking soda to the sauce while cooking. Helps mellow the tomato taste and it makes a difference when you over-indulge.”
–Lou

“Just a tip from your favorite italian: Try substituting sweet italian sausage (boiled and thinly sliced before adding to sauce) or cooked chicken breast ( hand shredded ). For an especially zesty version (I’ve served this at parties in small squares) layer with sliced pepperoni.”
–Sassy Sicilian

Don’t forget to send us an e-mail to kremerblog (at) kremer (dot) com and let us know your special touches to the Lasagna!

Enjoy!

If you are planning to drink a little, or perhaps a lot, of Champagne during the holidays here is an essential instruction guide on opening a Champagne Bottle with a Saber courtesy of The Wired.com Wiki.

1. Choose your weapon and gather your gear. If you’ve purchased a pricey ornamental champagne saber, whip it out. Otherwise, a solid butcher’s knife will do just fine. And have some glasses (and maybe a couple of towels) handy.

2. Remove the foil wrapper and little wire cage. This will make for a clean break, although some people say it’s not necessary to remove the packaging.

3. Grasp the bottle properly. That would be firmly, by the base, and pointed away from any onlookers. UrbanDaddy recommends a 30 degree to 45 degree angle, and a close inspection to “locate one of the two vertical seams running up the side of the bottle” to the lip. That intersection is where you’ll aim your saber.

4. Do the deed. Run your saber or knife (blunt edge toward the bottle’s lip) back along the neck toward your body, then quickly and firmly thrust it back toward the bottle’s tip, striking the lip sharply. (UrbanDaddy recommends a solid follow-through.)

5. Enjoy. If you’ve performed the task properly, the cork (with a little ring of glass around it) will fly off the end of the bottle. You’ll then commence pouring the bubbly, and offer a witty toast.

In a previous post titled “Spiced Octopus Doesn’t Sell In Indiana” I talked about how certain foods don’t sell here.  Food taste is a culture thing.  How about these examples of snack foods from Japan.  

Stawberry Chocolate Cheetos & Chocolate Flavored Cheetos

Honey Butter Doritos & Wasabi Doritos

Green Tea Kit Kats & Ice Cucumber Pepsi

At the Kroger grocery store in Westfield, Indiana this afternoon and spied this in the manager’s close out bin.  Originally $4.75 slashed to 50 cents.  For some reason Hooiser’s didn’t take to canned Spiced Octopus In Seasoned Red Sauce.  They had a lot of canned seafood that didn’t sell.  To perpetuate the stereotype Indiana is more a giant breaded pork tenderloin and a Budweiser kinda place.

Update:  Greate tweet from @fezick: “But what if you deep fry it at the state fair?”  He’s referring to the Indiana State fair’s obsession with deep frying Oreos, Snickers, etc.

I tend to drive  a little like Michael Schumacher.  My little Audi drives like it’s on rails and the 2.0 liter Turbo screams.  I usually have no problem thrashing the car around curves..that is unless I have a hot cup of Starbucks in the cupholder.  Even though it has a lid, my Starbucks “Tall” coffee always slops out the little drinky hole in the top.  My son Dan has the same problem…well..he drives like his Dad.  The solution was to ask the Starbucks Barnisterias (or whatever they’re called) to give you a “Tall” coffee in a “Grande” cup.  That way the coffee has a little more room at the top to slop while I’m doing my Grand Theft Auto imitation on the way to work.

Here’s where the “FREE” part comes in.  I’ve found that 9 times out of 10 when you ask for a “Tall” in a “Grande” cup, they fill the cup up all the way to the “Grande” level anyway.  Even if they mark it “Tall” like this picture of my cup from this morning.  Perhaps they’re too sleepy and on autopilot filling the cup.  I still get the slop problem, but it’s FREE coffee slopping out. Free coffee, almost as good as FREE BEER.  Anyone have any ideas on getting free beer?

UPDATE:  Andy over at IndyScan tells me that Starbucks may thwart my free coffee scheme by offering a new plug for the drinky hole called a Splash Stick. 

Human powered answers sites:  ChaCha.com and Mahalo.com

I work for ChaCha based in Carmel, Indiana.  In April I visited Santa Monica, California where Mahalo is located and took this snap of ChaCha Chicken.  Jason Calacanis (Mahalo CEO) have you ever eaten ChaCha Chicken?  

Friday night I had the best Italian dinner in my life.  Great restaurant in an out of the way location.  The restaurant is Sapori. Sounds like a Japanese restaurant, but it’s not. It’s in the Marina del Rey area of Los Angeles.  Out of the way location, but out of this world food.  I had Farfalle alla Carrettiera - Bowtie pasta with a triple cheese roasted garlic cream sauce, chicken, prosciutto, mushrooms.  Stefano Baccianella who is the Owner/Manager took care of us.  A great red wine Gravity Hills, Paso Robles Zinfandel.  They are listed as a top Italian Restaurant in LA by the Zagat Survey. Unbelievably good.

Click here to visit the Sapori Italian Restaurant Web site.