The day after the consumption of all that wonderfulness, I needed a detox. No better way to do that than with some good ole' fashioned antioxidants, but where oh where can I find some of those???
That's right! Wonderful dark chocolate! Granted, this isn't the 90% that I'm used to, but it'll do I guess!
This was all I ate for a good portion of the day. When we were about to start on dinner, we decided to finish up the last of those amazing Sprouts gummy worms. It turned out that there were 8 left, so we split them.
Sorry for the overly dramatic lighting, I just had to. We also decided to finish off some prunes that we've also had for a while. I don't really know how many I ate, but we pretty much split this bag and finished them off.
Then we got to making dinner. Sidney really wanted to make lasagna, and she had done her own interwebs scouring to find a recipe she really thought looked promising. We had all the ingredients, now just to cook them. I'll give a brief overview of how we did that.
- Browned ground beef and ground Italian sausage.
- Added crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and a bunch of spices and seasonings.
- Let that simmer for 90 minutes.
- Make ricotta mixture.
- Cook lasagna noodles.
- Layer everything in pan with meat sauce, noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan.
- Bake for 25 minute with foil cover, then 25 minutes uncovered.
We also made some homemade garlic bread with French bread, butter, and fresh garlic.
This all culminated in a beautiful sight:
The bread was looking really good, and it was smelling even better.
The lasagna was looking straight amazing.
I scooped out a big (HUGE) portion onto a plate. Look at those layers!
To complement the lasagna and garlic bread, we had an Italian chopped salad.
It had a bunch of yumminess in there.
But just look at that lasagna and garlic bread. Let's start with the bread. It was really good. I would very happily make this again instead of buying premade frozen garlic bread. It was easy and it tasted better, and it was likely cheaper too.
But that lasagna tho... Let me start off by saying that I'm not a big fan of lasagna. I never order it at Italian restaurants, instead opting for more cream-based things like Alfredo. I just always picture lasagna as some bland noodles with bland pasta sauce on top. Obviously, this isn't an appealing thought, so I always take my taste buds elsewhere. So when Sidney said that she wanted to make lasagna, I agreed with reservations. Not only have I historically swerved away from lasagna, she nor I had ever made it before. But I'm always up for new adventures in the kitchen, so it was all systems go.
With my first bite, my entire mindset changed. Not only did it change, it was now the farthest away from it's former state that it could possibly be. I simply could not believe, like literally and physically could not believe, how utterly and mind-blowingly good this tasted. I cannot in any way, shape, or form express to you how good this tasted.
I made the proclamation that this was one of my favorite things that we've ever made. This was better than literally anything else that I could think of that we had ever made. This was so good that for one of the first times in my life I believed that no restaurant could make it better. I mean, with everything else we've ever made, even if I had been impressed with how it tasted, I always knew that it could be better or that there was a better version at some restaurant somewhere. But not this. This was so good that I can't even imagine how it could be better, even at a very good Italian restaurant. After tasting our lasagna, I made the decision that the next time we visit an Italian restaurant, instead of ordering fettuccine Alfredo I would be ordering the lasagna. I expect it, though, to not be as good. I'm still blown away.
Now for the second mind blowing of the night. We had some cake leftover that my mom so graciously let us take with us.
This time, though, we let it sit out on the counter for a while to let it come to room temperature. You see, yesterday, we ate it straight out of the fridge. I think this was a mistake. Tonight we paired it with some classic vanilla ice cream. Oh. My. God.
With the cake and frosting being at room temperature, it tasted 1000000000 times better, maybe more. I don't know why this is, but letting it come to room temperature makes all the difference. This cake literally just went from a decent chocolate cake to by far the best chocolate cake I've ever made. Again, for the second time tonight, I simply could not believe how good it was. I was yet again blown away. Finally, I have found a chocolate cake recipe that is truly amazing. I will no longer search for new recipes. This one will always be my go-to recipe for chocolate cake and frosting. Again, I'm still not over how good this cake is!
By now, I'm feeling pretty good about my abilities in the kitchen! Maybe I should consider a career in the food industry...NOT!!!
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