Throw It In Lasagna

I have a weakness. Not many people are aware of it, but I'm going to share it now. I....I....I love Italian food. You shove a plate of pasta in front of me and I'll pretty much do anything you want. Which is why when I made this, I proceeded to make a lasagna big enough to serve 12. I currently have 6 pieces in my freezer. Hello, lover.

This lasagna is not authentic by any means, but it's pretty easy, and pretty dang scrumptious. You won't have to pick up too many ingredients for this one - most of the fixin's are pretty standard pantry items if you cook at all. Shall we get started?

You'll need:


-1lb ground beef (or turkey)
-1lb ground pork (or italian sausage)
-couple cloves of garlic
-oven-ready lasagna noodles
-2 cans tomato paste (the lil' guys)
-2 cans whole tomatoes (or diced tomatoes...or stewed tomatoes...or fresh tomatoes...are you seeing what I mean by throw it in lasagna?)
-italian seasoning, or whatever you have on hand (basil, parsley, oregano)
-about 14 slices of mozzarella cheese (or grated cheese...)
- 3 cups of cottage cheese (or ricotta cheese - just as delicious!)
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, then more for the top of the lasagna

Let's get assembling.

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Start browning your meat over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Throw in the garlic too to get that flavor cookin'.


In the meantime, we can make the cheese layer! In a large bowl, mix together 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, 3 cups cottage cheese, 2 beaten eggs, and 2 teaspoons of italian seasoning.


Now MIX!


It's that easy folks.

At this point your meat mixture should be browned, so go ahead and add the tomatoes, tomato paste, a pinch of salt and 4 tablespoons of Italian seasoning. I used 2 tablespoons of parsley, 1 tablespoons of oregano, and because I'm obsessed with fennel seed, 1 tablespoon of that. Makes it taste reallll Italian-like. Mix it all together until they get to know each other.


Assembly time!

First, you need a layer of noodles. Just a heads up, I used a 9x13 pan for this. It makes a TON of lasagna, but you can freeze it so no worries.


Then, lay down 1/2 your cottage cheese mixture. Try and get it pretty even, unlike this crap job I did. No big deal guys.



Now, lay out your cheese slices/shredded cheese. It'll use about 7 slices on each layer. I only had 10 slices total. Way to count, Courtzilla. Watch how I epically messed this up.


Oh it get's better, wait til the next cheese layer.

Then, meat layer! Use about 1/2 of your meat-y tomato-y goodness.


Now, repeat! Noodles...



Cottage cheese...



Mozzarella layer... with shredded Monterrey Jack because apparently counting slices of mozzarella when you're at the grocery store is for winners.


Talk about not traditional.

More MEAT.


Then, top with grated parmesan.

Now...bake it at 350 degrees for about 30minutes, or until the top is bubbly and beautiful.

And then... AND THEN....


Feeding frenzy. The best part is I have 6 more slices of this in the freezer to eat. *DIES*

Enjoy!

<3 Courtzilla

Tomato Tortellini Soup

Can we have a moment of honesty here? I swear, I started with a recipe. Then...thennnnn....I got adventurous. I added. I added. I ADDED. Let's try and recall what I did, shall we? This should be a fun game.


You might need:
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of tomato sauce
4 cups of chicken broth
1 cup of milk
Mayhap a splash of beef stock
1 stalk of celery
1 small onion
1 carrot
1/4 cup of flour
1 - 2 cups of cooked chicken
1 small package of cheese tortellini.
2 cloves of garlic
3-5 thyme stems
2 bay leaves
Plenty of salt and pepper

Maybe. That's what I remember anyway. Moral of the story: this is more of a technique then an actual recipe. Nonetheless, it was a DELICIOUS experiment.

First, you want to create a base for the soup. In french cooking, the combination of onion, celery, and carrots is called a mirepoix. Basically, it's magical. The sum is far greater than it's humble parts.

So, chop up your celery, carrot, and onion.


And saute in a bit of olive oil. Use a big pot. Especially if you're prone to adding. Don't look at me.


Then, my pictures jump from the saute above, to this:



So, let's piece together what I did.

First, add the flour and mix it with the vegetables until they're all coated. This will act as a thickening agent. Now, you can dump in your broth and milk. Allow that to cook for about 5 - 10 minutes until it reduces a little and thickens up. Then, add the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce for a good tomato flavor. Add your garlic, salt, pepper, thyme, and bay leaves. Taste it at this point. Do you want to tinker with it? It's all about what you like. Feel free to throw in vegetables, some spinach would be really good in this. Or some green beans! I'm pretty sure this is the point I threw in the towel though.

Bring the soup to a boil, and throw in the chicken and tortellini for 8 - 10 minutes, until it's warm.


Serve up a big bowl with your favorite crusty bread.



Feel free to burn the bread while you're tinkering with the broth too. It's what the cool kids are doing.


Enjoy!

<3 Courtzilla

Foodie Blog Roll

So, as you may have noticed I'm part of a foodie bloglist. You can see the application on the left side of the screen. Akin to googling yourself, I searched Courtzilla on the browse blogs portion of their website.

What tags did they designate for my humble blog?

Tags: recipes, college, easy, humor, dinosaurs, 30 minute meals, 5 ingredients or less

Recipes, college, easy, humor, 30 minute meals, 5 ingredients... all legit.

But DINOSAURS?

I literally snorted into my diet coke. I feel like I should cook up a massive steak and call it like a brontosaurus slab or something. How much do you want to bet that I'm the only one on the Foodie Blog Roll with a "dinosaur" tab.

Keep your eyes peeled for a new post or two this evening.

Dinos for life,

<3 Courtzilla

Drunk Potato Wedges

So, last night I had a random Courtzilla Cooks moment at a friends place at around 2am. What we had - potatoes. What we wanted - drunk food. Solution?

Drunk Potato Wedges.

Recipe... ehhh.... photos of me making it... ehhh... these important things become irrelevant at that hour. But here's a basic break down of what I did.

- Washed potatoes.
- Preheat oven to 425
- Cut potatoes into wedges.
- Drizzle wedges with olive oil.
- Sprinkle on seasonings... in this case, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a bit of cayenne.
- Put in oven for 45 minutes to an hour, until browned.

Make sure you toss it up once about 20 minutes into baking so they don't stick to your pan.

Then, you end up with this!





My friend Ian, enjoying his drunk wedges. Note - the disaster of a kitchen and the naked lady cup he's holding. NSFW kids.



You also end up with a fantastic invention.... we called it, "Ranch-up". Or maybe it was "Ketchanch". I can't say I clearly recall.



Enjoy!

<3 Courtzilla

Courtzilla: Origins

Oh no. It has begun. I've been contemplating starting up another blog for a while, and it hit me today.

I need somewhere to save my recipes.

See, I experiment. A lot. And then I forget to save whatever scrap of paper I wrote down everything on. Then I get angry and go on a Courtzilla rampage.

This is my attempt at preventing rampages. It's for the good of all mankind really. You should be thanking me right now.

To understand this blog, you must have an understanding of me.

Courtzilla is my drunken alter ego. She's sassy. She's destructive. Best of all, she's hungry. I don't get in this state often, but when I do ... oh man.

I feel like when I cook, Courtzilla often takes over. I wake up from a daze. The kitchen is a disaster, two bottles of wine are missing, and I have a massive amount of food in front of me. I make probably about 2352 times too much food everytime I cook. I'm not neat, and I'm not organized, but damn, I can cook. I'm working on the baking thing, but cooking I have down.

So, hold hands, don't be scared. This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

<3 Courtzilla