Dish-o-the-week: Lasagna!

I realized after I started taking pictures while I was baking the lasagna last night, that really I've been posting a food a week.  And yes, they have all been from the Pioneer Woman Cookbook.  Before you start having visions of Julie and Julia, I just want to put out there that this is not my fault.  I like to use new cookbooks I have (if I can, sometimes the ingredients are ridiculous and expensive) and this one is really fun, easy to do, and lets just say it, darn delicious.  I am also not the cook in this household, Speed Racer is.  I can bake all day long and turn out delicious fatty things, but cooking, I get a little flustered with.  With that in mind, I'm looking at this as practice cooking...so I don't live on Mac and Cheese when Speed Racer is gone, even though I would love to.  So we're just gonna go with it for now, maybe there will be a recipe next week from a different cookbook, who knows.  And as always, you can check out her full, mouth water recipes at www.thepioneerwoman.com.  To the Lasagna!! I didn't realize that I have never cooked lasagna before.  Everyone's made lasagna right? No, not me.  So I did not realize how long it would take.   Really long, that's the answer, really long.  I also didn't realize how hard it would be to take pictures without Speed Racer around, it was tricky.

Rule numero uno, don't be afraid of meat.  Is that ok to say on the interweb?

Or the garlic...delicious delicious garlic.

Definitely a good idea to put your noodles on the aluminum foil.  I tried some that way and some without, and the without ones were really sticky and hard to manage.

I'm getting hungry again.  You let the tomato's and meat simmer for 45 minutes, which is just pure torture.

I am not a cottage cheese fan, but I do love it in lasagna.

Mmmm, cheesy.

Let the layering begin.

This was my attempt at an action shot, with the not kind of lens for that sort of thing, on.

At this point I was starving, 35 minutes in the oven and I was famished.  So what did I do?  I dug in as soon as it was out of the oven and burned my mouth.  Start this lasagna early, or have a snack ready while you wait.

The kitties concur.

Meatloaf Mania

For those of you who talk to me frequently (sorry about the daily calls!) you know that I have been raving about this meatloaf that Speed Racer and I made.  And by that I mean Speed Racer made and I, well, took pictures.  But I did make the buttermilk biscuits!  And that is why there are no pictures of them.  So there.  But the meatloaf that we made was from my newest cookbook "The Pioneer Woman Cooks, " by Ree Drummond.  Ree is a blogger extraordinaire, and mother of 4.  She blogs about her antics of adjusting to  life on a ranch, photography, cooking, and homeschooling her kids.  If you haven't checked her blog out you need to, it's a great time, and she makes me laugh.  My friend Renee (also a blogger check out her site too!)  and I recently went on a Pilgrimage to D.C. (a post to come in the following days) to Ree's book signing, which is where I picked up the cookbook.

Now back to the meatloaf: I love this meatloaf, I openly drooled over this meatloaf, I would have babies with this meatloaf...you heard me, meatloaf babies.  Speed Racer thinks this meatloaf and cookbook have saved him...I have no idea what he means by that.

Bacon does, in fact, make everything more delicious.  I will vouch for that.

Happy little loaf...

Wrapped in a warm blanket of bacon.

There you have it, what I've been raving about all week.  Once you've tried it you won't be able to stop either...I promise.  The Pioneer Woman features several recipes from the cookbook in the cooking and tasty kitchen sections of her blog.  I obviously, highly recommend checking it out!