Summer pea soup, lasgna and easy sesame tahini.

Time to check in again with what I have been doing in the kitchen. It's interesting to see what inspires me to cook these days.

I was working in my garden yesterday and realized that some volunteer pea plants were producing a nice amount of peas.

I was thinking about what to do with them when I remembered I had a head of lettuce that needed using in the fridge. Lettuce plus peas equals Potage St. Germain, which is the fancy name for fresh pea soup.
I shucked the peas, there weren't quite enough for the recipe so I added some frozen organic peas as well.  After almost caramelizing the onion, I added the peas, lettuce and broth. After simmering it for about 10 minutes it's waiting for me to puree it in the blender. It will make a nice light summer lunch or dinner

My next inspiration came from a dinner I had at Avanti Pizzeria.
I have eaten there several times recently, I love this place, simple fresh tasty food. The first time, they were out of the lasagna which I had heard was great, so we ordered a pizza Margherita, it was simple but very tasty, I loved how crisp the crust was with just the right balance of sauce and topping.

Luckily the second time, they did have the lasagna, apparently what they put in it, changes daily.
My lasagna had asparagus, fresh corn and mozzarella cheese, I know this doesn't sound very traditional but it really worked. Once again I appreciated their balance of sauce, cheese and filling.
In fact I was so impressed and hungry for more, I decided to try my own version. I used asparagus, yellow squash and onions in mine. I roasted them all first to bring out their natural sweetness and remove moisture. Here is what it looked like before I added the cheese and top layer of pasta. I love the idea of using what I have on hand and playing with a dish like this.

Sesame tahini is something I try to have on hand, it had been on my to-do list for a while. In cleaning out a cupboard I found a large jar of sesame seeds and decided it was time to make it.

It's so very easy, I just had some on a cracker for lunch, it's great in dressings and sauces too.

Looking for inspiration for a recent potluck supper, I saw in my fridge a partly used napa cabbage, and some carrots, time for Asian peanut slaw. These days I don't bother making my own dressing, instead I use the Trader Joe's spicy peanut dressing, it's in the cold case, it makes this salad quick and very easy.

I love this photo from my original post on this recipe.

I am lucky to still have plums, I combined them with some boysenberries to make a fruit crisp yesterday. It smelled delightful, that's all I know since by the time I got to it at the potluck it was all gone.

Easy Lasagna

Like Garfield the Cat I love a good lasagna but I don't like the hassle of boiling the noodles having them break while they are cooking, then burning my fingers as I try to handle them hot or ripping them as I try and place them into the dish, TOO MUCH WORK !!

I love the "no need to cook" kind of noodle. So here is a simple recipe for making lasagna semi homemade, you can do it all from prepared foods or make any of it yourself. Heck knock yourself out and make the noddles if you like, I am just going to give you the way I did it.

I use no bake lasagna noodles, a jar of pasta sauce, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese and for filling I used roast squash and onions.
I found this summer squash hiding in my garden.

I chopped it up , removing any seeds that were too large, chopped an onion, tossed it all with olive oil and roasted it at 400 F for 45 minutes, stirring it a couple of times. It's the same way I do it when I freeze it.

You can also fill your lasagna with cooked greens like spinach or chard, sauteed ground beef, mushrooms, roasted eggplant, ricotta cheese... the possiblities are endless. In fact my daughter recently made a lasagna without noodles using slices of summer squash and eggplant instead.

This lasagna is best made the day before or that morning so the liquids from the sauce and filling can soak into the noodles.
I start by spraying the baking dish with a little bit of olive oil and a layer of sauce, then a layer of noodles, filling, cheese and more sauce.

Repeat for a couple of layers, ending with noodles and sauce.

Save a bit a cheese for later and cover with foil and store in the fridge until you are ready to bake it.
Bring it out an hour ahead if you can, preheat the oven to 375 and bake for a total of one hour . Remove the foil after 45 minutes and sprinkle with cheese for the last 15 minutes.
It is really best it you let it cool for 15 minutes before you serve it.

 And of course it is great as leftovers !!