Hello World! Here's some lasagna!

Hello world! My name is Natalie and I'm a student at UCSC studying....well, I don't know what yet. But I'll figure it out soon!
I love cooking and am a self proclaimed (unmarried) housewife. By that I mean, I love messing around in the kitchen and feeding my friends and family tasty meals. I tend to cook delicious comfort food, which may not always be the healthiest, but, hey! At least you'll be happy eating it!
I am also a celiac, so I cook gluten free and am always working towards making non gluten free dishes into yummy gluten free dishes.
Seeing as this is my first post, and this is in fact a food blog, I think that I should give you all a recipe! Here is a recipe for lasagna that I made for a dinner party with my friends last week. I found it on allrecipes.com and it's super easy, especially for lasagna, and I think you will all like it a lot. Don't be intimidated by the long ingredient list, just gooooo with it. I doubled this recipe (we are in fact hungry college students) and I served it with garlic bread and my friends brought salad. Made for a great dinner and a fun night! (Click to read more!)






Lasagna
1 lb sweet Italian sausage, removed from casing
3/4 lb lean ground beef
1/2 cup minced onion
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
2 6oz cans of tomato paste
2 6.5oz cans of tomato sauce
1/2 cup of water
2 tbsp white sugar
1 1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tbsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
4 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
12 lasagna noodles (Tinkyada has great gf ones)
16 oz ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 lb mozzarella cheese, sliced
3/4 cup parmesan cheese

Cook sausage, ground beef, onions and garlic over medium-heat until well browned. Throw in the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, sauce, and water. Stirrrrr it up really good then add Sugar, basil, fennel, Italian seasonings, pepper, 1 tbsp salt, and 2 tbsp parsley. Let it simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 hours. Or if you're me, wake up early and make the sauce then go right back to bed for 2 hours.
Here's my magical trick for getting the lasagna noodles ready. If you boil them, they could be too soft and then they just fall apart while you're trying to put it all together. Thats wayyyyy to complicated! So here's what I do: put the noodles in the lasagna pan and then pour HOT water over them. Let them sit for about 30 minutes until they're just softened. Because the lasagna gets baked, the noodles will be cooked just right once it comes out of the oven.
While the noodles are sitting, make your cheese mixture. In a bowl combine ricotta, egg, and the remaining parsley.
Now it's time to put it all together! Lets get ready to rummmmmmble!
alright first of all, preheat the oven to 375F. Then drain the noodles and set them aside. Put the layers in this order: meat mixture, noodles (about 3 or 4 across), cheese mixture, and mozzerella slices. Then just keep going until the pan is full! Sprinke parmesean cheese liberaly over the top. Don't skimp on the cheese! Now is not the time for skimping.
Cover the pan with foil, but make a sort of tent out of it. You don't want the lasagna to touch the foil otherwise the cheese will stick to it.
Bake for 25 minutes, remove the foil, and bake for another 25 minutes.
Then yell at everyone to come and eat! Dig in, but not too fast or you'll burn your mouth. you have been warned.

Happy eating!
XOXO
Natalie