Call me Betty..

So I feel really Laura Hall right now... Laura is a dear friend from Santa Barbara that is pretty much a Martha Stewart meets Jamie Oliver cross. That's Laura -She's incredible inside (and outside) the kitchen. Laura is one of those people that can just COOK.... or bake. Whatever. She'll whip together some cutesy 3 course dinner without breaking a sweat. And I'm not talking grilled chicken with broccoli and Nestle Tollhouse cookies for dessert... I'm talking gourmet stuff that will blow your mind. Most memorable - my first experience with bread pudding. Mmmm. She's always looking for new recipes, and uses ingredients for which I didn't think even had a purpose. She's really good at throwing together all her leftover veggies in a pan, saute-ing them up with some random spices and liquids, and wa-lah. A masterpiece. Well... this week I had a Laura Hall moment.

I get a little over zealous at Farmers Markets. I know I do. I think it drives Josh nuts. Because I come home and say "Look at this swiss chard I got! Isnt it beautiful?" and he looks at me like I'm crazy and says "How do you cook swiss chard? Have you ever even eaten swiss chard?" to which I reply... "No. I've never had it nor do I know how to cook it, but it's beautiful and really really good for you. So there." and then it ends up wilting in our fridge and I end up throwing it away. But not this week.

On Thursday I took a look in our fridge and we had: Cauliflower, yams, swiss chard, spinach, zucchinis, cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, and celery. Okay. Overload. But I just started handing Josh veggies and said "Chop these." With no plan in mind. I then looked at my cheese selection. 2 tubs of parmesan, ricotta, mozzarella balls, goat cheese, feta, havarti, and cheddar. Man. Why so many freaking cheeses?? But then I thought of a good friend - Ina Garten -

and her turkey sausage lasagna calls for a ricotta, goat cheese, parmesan blend. Perfecto! So in one foul swoop, I got rid of some of our cheeses, most of our veggies, and we ended up having a DELICIOUS veggie lasagna! All we needed to buy were lasagna noodles because I happened to have a can of marinara sauce in my cupboard and a bag of shredded mozzerella in the fridge. From this thrown together meal we had enough for dinner, lunch the following day, and more than 1/2 of it frozen in the freezer.

Thank you Laura for the inspiration and thank you Ina for making such a damn good lasagna that I embedded the recipe to memory for times like these.

Dear friends - I realize I need to get the camera out more often and document such milestones in my life, but until then, enjoy Miss Laura's pretty face, the Ina-meister herself, and a picture of lasagna via google images. Sad, I know.