Artichoke Spinach Lasagna and Garlic Cheddar Biscuits

My in-laws came all the way from Louisiana to New York to visit us last weekend. They hadn’t been this far north before, so I know they had been looking forward to it for a while.

 

The evening they arrived, hubby and I picked them up from the airport. I put dinner in the oven, and we passed the next hour or so sitting on the balcony in the cool air, watching the sun set, drinking wine, listening to jazz, and eating some bruschetta to take the edge off our hunger while we caught up with each other and the puppies stared longingly at the ducks that live on the little pond in our backyard.

It was nice to participate in that without spending too much time in the kitchen. Hubby’s parents are vegetarians, so I had picked out a recipe for artichoke spinach lasagna that I’d found back when I was doing dinner parties for friends back in Pennsylvania.

That was my living room at the time. Grad students living on a stipend don’t have fancy furniture, but they make it their own.

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My dining room was especially awesome.

Okay, moving on. When I found out that hubby’s parents were coming, I though instantly of this recipe. It had been years since I’d made it, but I remembered how yummy it was.

First step, I heated water to boil lasagna noodles.

Then I set about getting everything ready to assemble. First, I took a medium-sized sweet onion and diced it.

Next, I got out some fresh rosemary.

But didn’t take a picture of it after I diced it, because that would have been smart.

So, here’s my onion in a skillet, along with some garlic, softening up.

While that happened, I started chopping up some artichoke hearts. Tried really hard not to snack on them, because that’s a weird snack. But they’re so yummy.

Back to the stove. I added some vegetable broth and that chopped rosemary.

(I almost typed “chicken broth” out of habit. That would have been bad if my in-laws saw that. Definitely used vegetable broth, not chicken!)

Next, I thawed a box of frozen spinach and squeezed out the water.

Ooh! The water’s finally boiling! Add some salt and drop in the noodles.

The broth is boiling, too.

Add the spinach and chopped artichokes.

Then I put the lid back on and let the mixture simmer for a bit.

Here’s my secret ingredient: a jar of Wegman’s spaghetti sauce.

Once it’s all mixed in, this is what it looks like.

And then it’s time to assemble! Just start layering sauce…

…and noodles…

…and mozzarella cheese…

… and more sauce…

… and so on…

… and so forth…

And the last special ingredient: a sprinkling of tomato and basil feta cheese.

And then cover with foil and put it in the oven.

While it was cooking, I decided to try out a Pinterest recipe for Red Lobster garlic cheddar biscuits!

I used pancake mix that has been abandoned in our pantry since hubby doesn’t like pancake mixes that only call for water to be added (he prefers the ones that call for eggs and milk).

Some of that…

And some grated cheddar cheese…

And some garlic powder.

And then milk.

Pretty goopy. I was concerned. So I added more mix before shaping into biscuits and putting the blobs on the tray that fits into the toaster oven.

Mix up some melted butter, oregano, and more garlic powder.

Cook the biscuits…

Then brush with the melted butter/ garlic/ oregano mixture.

Fin!

Okay, so it’s been a while since the lasagna went in, and it’s about time to take it out.

Let it sit for a few minutes, then cut and serve.

Delicious!

Rosemary. Mozzarella. Artichoke. Tomato sauce. Spinach. So many strong, wonderful flavors.

Oh yeah, and garlic!

Everything went over very well. Definitely recommend all of it. The lasagna was much less cheesy than my meat lasagna is, but it worked well. Like I said, there were a lot of strong flavors that worked really well with each other. Warm and delicious.

Now, the biscuits? Somewhat disappointing. I think I did something wrong. They weren’t bad, just not as spectacular as Pinterest would have you believe. I think I’ll try again, though.

Stuffed Shells

I first found this recipe when I was living in my little one bedroom apartment above a photography studio in an old-fashioned Pennsylvania town.

I first prepared it when I was dating this guy long-distance and he was coming to visit me for the weekend. I think I wanted to impress him.

Honestly, I don’t remember how it turned out. I just remember how little I cared about the food once that guy showed up at my door.

The second time I made it, I had taken my relationship with that guy to the next level and had moved to Maryland to live with him. I served it when he had some friends over for dinner. His friend asked for hot sauce and immediately drenched his shells in it. I’m still mad at that guy for it, even though we’re not friends with him anymore.

This was my third time. The boyfriend is now my husband and we had just moved back to New York. We’d invited my family over for dinner and I decided to make these shells for them. The nice thing about it is that it can be prepared way in advance, so all I had to do when people were over was to get off the couch and put it in the oven.

Start off with some fresh, juicy baby portabellas.

I do love that colander. All the mushrooms get diced when they’re clean.

Sure makes for a lot. It occurred to me after I was done with this that I could have saved a lot of time by doing it with my food processor. Ah well.

Yep, definitely should have used the food processor. The onions made me cry.

But the garlic was easy (I used the stuff from a jar).

First step is to sizzle all the mushrooms, onions, and garlic in a big skillet.

It’ll cook down after a bit.

When you’re satisfied with it, add a pound of ground turkey. It had been a long time since I’d used ground turkey, and I’m not sure why. It’s good, and a lot healthier than beef.

Cook it up a bit.

Don’t forget to season with salt and pepper. I tend to forget that. Not this time!

While that was happening, I had prepped some other things. Here’s some fresh parsley.

And some frozen chopped spinach. It was in a bowl because I was thawing it in the microwave.

When the turkey was cooked thoroughly, I added the spinach (after squeezing out the water) and the chopped parsley.

And then a whole bunch of cottage cheese. I think I chose a reduced fat container of it.

And finally, some grated Parmesan cheese.

When it’s all mixed in, this is what it looked like.

I waited until this point to boil the jumbo shells because I really wanted to give the mixture a chance to cool down before sticking my fingers in it. I remembered from last time how hard it was to stuff the shells when the mixture is hot.

Once they were boiled and drained, I put them next to the cheese and turkey mixture in preparation for stuffing.

As far as stuffed shells go, these were so pretty!

Am I right? I’m right, I know.

As for topping them, this is what I had: “Grandpa’s Sauce” from Wegman’s and grated skim milk mozzarella. I’d never had that sauce before, but that name is pretty effective marketing. I needed it and I’ve never even had a Grandpa to make homemade sauce before.

Covered with foil and put it in the fridge until later. I made a big mess but had plenty of time to clean it up!

Fresh out of the oven, this is what it looked like.

And once it was served up, this is what it looked like.

None of the ingredients alone stood out – no one seemed aware of the mushrooms or the turkey or the cottage cheese – but they all worked very well together. The taste just works.

Definitely too much work for a normal weeknight, but it’s certainly doable on weekends and well worth the effort.

And they make for good leftovers. Hubby had them for lunch at work and I should have frozen some for later, too. Mmmm!