Monday Morning Confession

So, I've been hiding something for the last month. It's something that I never thought I would do and frankly, I'm slightly embarrassed by it. But, it's the way things are now so I decided to come clean to all of you today. Call it starting the week with a clean slate.

If you'll recall, I've never been shy about my coffee snobbery. It was partly due to my training as a barista and partly due to my loyalty to specialty coffees. I mean, I've never in my life purchased Folgers or Maxwell House or any of the coffee that my parents have been drinking for the last several decades. And I certainly had never considered instant coffee...until last month.



In Greece, it's seriously hard to find a decent American auto-drip coffee. And by seriously hard, I mean that you need to find an American who bought a coffee maker (no self-respecting Greek ever would) and beg for a regular cup of joe. As a result, my parents have been drinking instant coffee for years while on the mainland (we have a coffee maker on the island.) However, I've always refused. I mean, instant coffee?? I would rather go without than venture into that area... at least, that was until this year when I had Parker with me and going without was not an option.

So, I took the plunge and prepared myself for the worst. And I was humbled. It had a wonderful taste and a smooth texture. How have I gone almost 31 years without knowing this? Now comes the confession part. I've been drinking it consistently ever since...even when I have a perfectly good auto-drip coffee maker available.

I'm not sure what this means, but in the vein of honesty, I had to share it with you. Instant coffee is *gasp* pretty darn good. I use one heaping spoonful for a single mug and I doctor it up with my usual amounts of half and half and sugar. Now, please excuse me while I heat some water right now.

Lasagna!

When Parker was first born, meals that provided leftovers and could easily be frozen took top priority on my weekly menus. I mean, there were days when my lunch consisted of a rolled up piece of turkey and a slice of cheese shoved down my throat while standing at the refrigerator holding a nursing child. It's sad, but it's true.

Anyways, back to lasagna. My mom passed this recipe along to me around that time and it has been part of the rotation ever since. The best part about it is that you don't need to boil the lasagna noodles first. Oh and all of the cheeses are part-skim so it's not that bad for you! Of course, if that turns you off, by all means, use the full-fat versions. Ok, here are our ingredients:

1 container (16 oz.) Skim Ricotta cheese
1 egg
3 cups Part-skim Mozzarella cheese
1 tsp. Oregano
1 pkg. (10 oz.) Frozen chopped spinach
Salt and Pepper
1 lb. Lean ground beef
1 cup of water
1 box uncooked lasagna noodles
1 lg. Jar spaghetti sauce (I prefer Ragu Garden Combination)
1 sm. Chopped onion
3 clove garlic minced
½ cup Parmesan cheese

Before I get started, I know that this looks like a lot of steps, but it comes together really quickly, so don't be afraid to give it a go. Your family and guests will thank you!

First, you want to thaw and thoroughly strain spinach. Or if you're like me and you alwayd forget to do this, rinse the spinach until it's thawed and then strain it (squeezing it until all of the water is gone). Go ahead and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Now, saute the onion and garlic in a little bit of olive oil over medium heat (about 3-4 minutes).



Add the ground beef (and salt and pepper to taste)...



...and cook until meat is browned (about 5 minutes). Then, add 2/3 of the jar of spaghetti sauce to the pan. Give it a good stir...



...and simmer an additional 15 minutes. While meat mixture is simmering, slightly beat one egg in a medium size bowl.



Add 2 cups of the mozzarella, ricotta cheese, spinach, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste to the bowl.



Mix well.



After 15 minutes or so, the meat should by ready to go. Oh and if you're a meat sauce kind of person, this is fantastic over cooked spaghetti. Sticking with my freezing theme, I usually have a couple batches of this frozen to use when I decide to skip a home-cooked meal and go straight to spaghetti.



Alright, time to assemble our lasagna. In a 9”x 13” pan (greased if it is not glass), add 1/3 of the meat mixture to the bottom. The small strip on the bottom is a different shade of sauce because that's my portion, so I put just plain sauce (no meat).



Now, add three or four uncooked lasagna noodles. (I had to break a couple inches off of the one on the bottom.) If the entire thing was a meat lasagna, I would have only added 3 because the noodles expand, but since I needed some way to distinguish my meatless portion, I added 4.



For the next step, add half of the cheese mixture on top of the noodles. I usually use my fingers to spread it because it sticks to the noodles and moves them around if you try it with a spoon.



Add another 1/3 of the meat mixture...



...and more uncooked lasagna noodles.



We're almost there! Add the other half of the cheese mixture...



...the last 1/3 of the meat mixture...



...and the last three uncooked lasagna noodles.



For the last step, combine (in a separate bowl) the leftover 1/3 of spaghetti sauce (that did not go into the meat mixture) with the last cup of mozzarella cheese and the Parmesan cheese.



Spread this on the top.



Finally, put the cup of water in the spaghetti jar...



...and pour it around the edges of the pan to keep it from burning.



Cover tightly with foil.



This is going to bake for 70 minutes or so. Then, take the foil off and turn oven off. Bake for an additional 10 minutes or so.



Remove from the oven and let it sit for 15 minutes, then serve!



Another great thing about lasagna is that it is always better the next day so most of the time, I'll make this after we've eaten dinner and it will all be ready to go for the following day.

I also wrap up any leftovers in individual portions so that the Irishman can heat them up either for lunch or on days that I have Moroccan Stew or something equally exotic planned for dinner. Silly Irishman.

Cherries...For Free!

Having lived in an urban setting for all of my life, I am accustomed to buying whatever produce I need. The idea of gardening and growing my own fruits and veggies is so appealing to me, but I have been forced to admit that I have quite the black thumb. I cannot take credit for any of the surviving plants in my yard. Mother nature simply built them sturdy enough that I was not able to kill them through my ignorance.

So, imagine my delight when I saw that our neighbors tree on the island was covered in tens of thousands of ripe cherries. Here's just one little branch that I cut off when I jumped his fence to collect some.



As a disclaimer, our neighbor is out of town for the next couple of months so all of those beautiful ripe cherries would have just gone to the birds..literally. Plus, I'm pretty sure that my mom said that he said that it was ok. Or something like that.

I was totally overcome by the volume of ripe cherries and I went a little overboard picking them. When I looked at the fruit of my labor (again, literally), I had collected about 5 lbs. of cherries, which is more than 4 adults and one munchkin can possibly consume. But, I couldn't help myself. I mean, they were there and they were free!

Isn't it sad that this is what society has come to? A city girl can't believe her luck because she found a tree that produces fruit and isn't owned by a major corporation who will charge her to eat it. That does it, as soon as we buy another house, I'm planting fruit trees. On second thought, I'm going to pay someone to plant them for me. And to take care of them because let's face it, I am simply not capable. I'm sure that there's a support group for people like me...

Oh Dear.

Some of you have wondered why the Irishman isn't featured more on this blog. I can answer that question in one picture.



Here, we are posing with the Irishman's cousin and his cousin's wife (and their soon to be hatched son). It had all of the makings of a lovely family photo...except that my husband has great difficulty acting normal if he knows that a camera is on him. Okay, okay, he has trouble acting normal in general. Seriously, what is with that face? And for heaven's sake, when did he acquire his 18th yellow t-shirt?!? I know that the Steelers addiction is genetic, but what is wrong with the much subtler black shirt that his cousin is wearing?

The Irishman is one of those people who is very quiet when you first meet him. And then he gets comfortable with you. And then he blows out your eardrums with exuberance. And then you look at me with a pitying glance because you know that it is impossible to hide in public with this very vocal person in a neon yellow shirt.

But seriously, don't worry about me. I've turned to booze to cope. Just Kidding. Sort of.

Back to Reality...Kind Of

Even though we're back firmly on American soil, there are still so many pictures and stories of our adventures that I want to share. Oh and recipes! Lord help me do I have recipes to share, but first I need to lock myself in a room and edit the 398 photos that I took of them.

So, I thought that I would weave island posts into the shenanigans here so that my vacation can continue on for all of us. With that said, I wanted to give you this.



Sometimes, the sunsets are so beautiful that they don't seem real. The ripples in the water look like the strokes of an oil painting and the velvety smoothness of the sea is in start contrast to the fire in the sky.

My favorite part of sunsets is waiting to see what the clouds will do. One day, the entire sky was overcast so I didn't bring down my camera, which I now regret because the clouds parted for just a second and a stream of pure gold light shone down on the sea like a spotlight. I had just enough time to record it to memory and then it was gone. I love moments like that.

Breakfast Burritos

My friend Kristina is a genius. Truly she is. A couple of years ago, I was lamenting the fact that the Irishman barely ate breakfast in his haste to get out the door. He isn't a fan of cereal and I didn't want to buy frozen breakfast foods because they're filled with sodium and preservatives. Well, she told me how she makes breakfast burritos in advance and freezes them so that after a quick zap in the microwave, a homemade breakfast is ready every day of the week. See, genius!

So, of course, I'm sharing it with you. I didn't photograph the first step, but all you have to do is scramble eggs in one pan and brown sausage in another. If I have salsa on hand, I'll add a couple of tablespoons to a pan and cook off the liquid for 4 minutes or so. Then, I'll add in the eggs to give them a southwestern flair. Another tip is to use Jimmy Dean's Sage sausage. From what I remember (since I haven't had meat in 18 months), it has a great flavor and the Irishman still prefers it.

The other ingredients that you need are flour tortillas and shredded cheese. For 8 tortillas, I generally need 6 eggs, 1 cup of shredded cheese and the entire roll of sausage.

I generally lay a big piece of saran wrap down on the counter and make an assembly line. Then, I add the eggs, sausage and cheese.





Be careful not to overfill each burrito because you want them to roll up completely. Cut a square of saran wrap and put your rolled burrito inside it before wrapping it tightly.



Then, just stack your burritos in the freezer. When you're ready to eat one, heat it in the microwave for 45-50 seconds and enjoy! Trust me, the carnivores in your life will thank you.

Hide And Seek

This, my friends, is Parker playing Hide and Seek. Like all 2-year-olds, his brain thinks that if he cannot see you, then naturally you cannot see him. Whenever the Irishman told him to hide, this is what he did. And I laughed. A lot. To which Parker replied, "Sssshhhhh Mommy! I'm hiding!"

Sorry to blow your cover kid.