Non-intentional Hiatus - meets - Collage Catch-up
(in no particular order)

This past Saturday morning, some of the girls from my MOPS group table surprised me with a baby shower at what I thought was just a girls' brunch outing at a cute little Tea House... Beautiful, colorful, fragrant roses (Christy was so cleaver and picked that preference up from my "47 Things" note on FB!), a gift card to Target, and a scrumptious brunch of English B'fast Decaf and Lemon scones... Fun conversation and much talk about babies, families etc. Thanks gals!
Also pictured: Sarah's penchant for using her toes like her Mama, a random duck nesting outside of the tea house, Sarah sporting a cute birthday outfit from Aunt Heather...

A couple of weekends ago, we went down to the Seattle Children's Museum to catch the Minniapolis travelling exhibit of Curious George... Sarah LOVED it... If only she didn't need her naps so badly, we could have stayed longer...

Baking with Sarah is one of my favorite activities... She's a very "hands-on" girl and loves tasting EVERYTHING, touching everything - especially cracking the eggs, and really enjoys helping to eat the end product! (As does her Daddy...) I hope this pattern continues and we'll eventually get into cooking...
Also pictured: Sarah in her Chinese dress that Jos brought back for her... Thanks again!

I've been in major craft project mode... and driving Todd crazy (Why do you need to do something more?) =) He's so great at humoring me...

Finishing up Sarah's room (highlighting her name on the wall, personalizing her lamp shade, finishing up the hanging flower balls - so THERE Pottery Barn - not giving you my $ on these! Button wreaths from a former roommate from 6 or 7 years ago... Thanks Elizabeth! Little did you know at the time they'd be cute additions to her room!)

Hmmm... What else?

• Still trying to read through the beginning of Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood - a response to Evangelical Feminism
• Organizing/revisiting all the baby clothes to figure out what we need - Seems like we have WAY too much pink/roses/"cutsie" things... I'm thinking - not pink, some fun funky things will be on the wish list...
• LOVE the fun M'udder Wear Nursing Cover . and pillowcase dress for Sarah from Amber B... If you are expecting, or have little girls, check out her Etsy shop!
• Still need to use our new carpet cleaner... A MUST at our house between lil' messy eater/potty training girl & our resident cat-who-pukes-on-a-regular-basis...
• I've handed over the church secretary role to wonderful Kay... so now I'm always thinking I have something to do, and then realize with a sigh...that no, I don't! =)
• Like everyone else, I wish spring would show up soon and perhaps give us some unexpected days of sunshine... If only I could dig in the dirt more easily... I have blueberry bushes to plant! I'm afraid that there will be few garden pictures this season since I haven't/won't be gardening as much in the next few months...or blogging for that matter...
  

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OH - and, by request (sorry it's taken me so long Heather C.), here's the super yummy lasagna combo that I made last weekend for some old friends stopping by and some new friends just up the street... I don't like touting my cooking, but this one did come out great... And who can beat cooking/entertaining for nine AND having enough afterward for a freezer meal?

Great-Grandma Mayme Morici's Prize Winning Sauce
(as featured in the Chicago Times, 1955)

1/4 c. olive oil
2 cloves chopped (I put in 4)
1 small onion chopped
1 6oz. can tomato paste
2 cans (#2.5 - which must be a type of can used back then, but can't be found today) peeled Italian (Roma/Plum) tomatoes drained ** I used the Italian Seasoned Crushed Tomatoes - the big cans
1 c. water
2 T. parsley chopped
6 leaves basil chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat oil in 6 qt. pan. Fry garlic & onion until brown. Add tomato paste and continue cooking garlic and onion until soft. Press tomatoes through sieve (read: "open crushed tomatoes and pour in" - we have it SO easy today...) Add parsley & basil. Let simmer for 15 min. Seasoon to taste....

Homemade sauce really does make a big difference...

I used 1lb. of each ground turkey and sweet Italian sausage browned and ground in food processor (for a smooth texture), Ricotta cheese dolops, Plenty of whole-milk mozerella, chopped frozen spinach thawed(with water thoroughly squeezed out), cottage cheese, parmesean, and of course, lasagna noodles...

Combine:
First, a little sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 pan so the noodles don't stick(I also got a 9x9 lasagna pan filled with the extra ingredients), noodles - I overlap them a bit, meats sprinkled, sauce, mozerella/parmesean/cottage cheeses spotted over mixture, spinach... Repeat. Inevitabally I overfill my pans, but it doesn't matter if you make sure to line your oven with something to catch possible/probable overflow...

Cook at 350 for 1 hour or until bubbly... Let sit 5ish minutes before cutting into it...

Why this one was especially good this time I *think*... Great depth of flavors with sauce, just the right amount of moisture/creaminess/firmness...

Complements all around and GREAT leftovers... Oh, and the garlic bread (which you probably already do) is the bread buttered, put under broiler to brown, and then scraped with a clove of garlic... Much more authentic/better than garlic salt or other methods I've seen/tried... Our new friends brought a Caesar Salad and of course there was a fabulous Cab-Sav that we had... Can't wait until my conscience can let me have more than a few sips! No pictures because of awesome conversations and kid patrol going on.... =)

So... What do YOU all put in your lasagnas to make them yours? It's always so fun to know different people's traditions/versions...