Dueling Lasagna...

Mario loves lasagna. We didn't have anything really planned for Sunday and so I said, we could do a family dinner and make lasagna. He jumped on that. Plus, we had extra red wine from the wine party, so what better to pair it with :)

I guess I kinda taught Karen how to make lasagna a few years ago. I use the term "taught" very loosely. We decided that we would each make a lasagna - Mario always mentioned a vegetarian version she's made.

What a great idea - it made it soooo much easier. Karen browned the Italian Sausage and Beef and I chopped mushrooms and zucchini. We each layered a pan of lasagna, reducing the prep time quite a bit. At one point, Karen looked over at me and said "are you sure you taught me how to make this? You're doing it different." I guess that's the beauty of a dish like this, you can "do it differently" and it will still be good. You really can't go wrong with such yummy ingredients. (Although I have to say, I never order lasagna out. Homemade is just too good to compare.)

My layers (between sauce and uncooked noodles)...

• Ricotta & Large Curd Cottage Cheese mixed with an egg, Mozzarella, Salt and Pepper
• Cream Cheese, Mushrooms and Spinach
• Cooked Italian Sausage / Ground Beef
• Mozzarella

Karen's ingredients were almost the same. She used a different kind of sauce (both of ours were from a jar) and she added zucchini. She mixed her spinach in with her cheese mixture too.

Lasagna can be a pricey dish to make. But it feeds a ton of people, so it was great to do this as a family dinner. I hope to do this again maybe in a couple of months. And - if you have any, the leftovers are amazing...