A Stroll In My June Garden!

What would summer be without taking early morning and late evening strolls in beautiful flower gardens?  I just cannot imagine this season without the sight and smell of these beautiful blooms!  

Every year I add more perennials that usually take a good 3 years to expand and fill their spot in the garden.  And this year was the year for a great show of daylilies, roses, hostas, and sedum.  Here's just a few shots of how things are looking up outside of the kitchen:

Pink daylillies in front of hostas.

A close up shot of a buttery yellow daylilly.

"Blue Mammoth" is huge among other variegated hostas.

I love how the morning sun at dusk shines through delicate flower petals.

More daylillies!

The gardenias have been blooming since May!

"Knock Out" red roses just pop with vivid crimson color against the texture of the stone wall and walkway and the velvet-like green lawn (thanks to all of the rain that we received this year).  These rose bushes are only one year old, highly prolific, as well as being bug and disease-resistant too!

Another brilliant pink daylilly!

A patch of pink and chartreuse Sedum in front of a lime-colored "Sum and Substance" hosta, soon to be another huge plant, it's only 2 years old.

 Lastly a shot of a large bed of hostas, daylillies, and roses.  I just love water elements in gardens and this tall water fountain is perfect with a lovely, trickling sound out in the quiet of the countryside.  The azaleas are in their green stage, having already bloomed back in April.  We've already planted a new group of smaller hostas that will fill in the empty spaces after a few years of growth.  If there is one thing that gardens teach us, it's patience!

Thanks for going on this little garden stroll with me today!

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Baked Pasta Fagiole

At a family reunion many years ago, I prepared this baked pasta, beans, and cheese recipe to feed a big crowd.  It's a cheese-laden casserole version of the classic Tuscan soup, "Pasta Fagiole" (lovingly called "Pasta Fazool" in my family).  This pasta dish was a huge hit at that reunion in the 90's and so for this year's family reunion 20 years later, my mother and I prepared it once again.  The same result happened . . . it was devoured!  If you're watching your weight, you'll have to pass up on this, because it's pretty heavy in the calories, carbs, and fat.  But you have to indulge sometime huh?  If you don't like beans, you can leave them out, but then it wouldn't be a spin off of the famous Tuscan Pasta Fagiole soup.  "Fagiole" simply means "beans" in Italian.

Here's the recipe for you to prepare someday when the heat of summer turns down and you're wanting some rib-sticking comfort food.  I hope that you enjoy!

Mangia!

click on 'read more' for this delicious recipe!

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A Slice of Lasagna!

A slice of the lasagna that I made yesterday . . . I've posted this photo a day later because once sliced, it sort of falls all over itself when cut directly out of the oven.  It holds it's shape much better if you wait a day, plus it even tastes better.  The recipe is included in the preceding post.  Enjoy!

See how nicely it stays stacked?  Four layers of pasta deliciousness!

This special lasagna pan was purchased from Chefs.com and could easily have handled an additional fifth layer!

Mangia!

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Lasagna for Loved Ones in the Heat of Summer!

If there is one pasta dish that is truly a labor of love it has to be lasagna!  The time and expense of making lasagna sadly prevents me from making this indulgence very often; my family is lucky if I make it once a year.  But my husband insisted that I make my lasagna for a very dear friend today whose mother passed away.  Despite the 90 degree temps outside, we heated up the oven and the kitchen to bake two big pans of lasagna.  And as you know:  special people deserve special things and our friend is certainly worth this extra effort during her time of loss.

This recipe is very special to our family; so special in fact, that our oldest son loves it so much that he asked for the recipe to prepare for dinner on the evening that he proposed to his girlfriend (and she said 'yes'!).  Now that's a compliment!  I've also given this recipe to my daughter who shared it with all of her teaching friends in Tennessee.  My youngest son in Chicago, an aspiring young cook, always "wow's" his friends with this lasagna too.

I've only used one lasagna recipe other than this one, which is a very traditional lasagna for the Italian Carnivale and that I shared in a post on February 22, 2011.  Truthfullly, this recipe is even better than the decadent "La Grande Lasagna di Carnivale".

The Bolognese sauce for this lasagna is not my family recipe, but it is still wonderful.  It has a little bit of sugar added that many Italian cooks often add to soften the tang of the tomatoes and which my family never added.  Actually for this recipe, I think it is quite a nice addition.  If you don't like to add sugar to your tomato sauces, just omit it.

If you decide to go ahead and jump in and prepare this lasagna, give yourself quite a big portion of your day to make the Bolognese sauce OR make the sauce the day before.  The sauce is the big time demand of this dish.  I hope that you enjoy this wonderful lasagna.  Please let me know if you prepare it and what you think!


Mangia!


please click on 'read more' below for this delicious recipe!

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Strawberry and Mascarpone Cheese Crostini!

For Mother's Day, my daughter and her husband gave me a really sweet Italian surprise!  A beautiful jar of outrageously rich and decadent imported "Fragole" Italian strawberries in syrup.  When I opened up the box I knew immediately that I would use some of the strawberries for an Italian mascarpone crostini.  

But first, I was recently invited to write a guest post on my good friend Liz's blog, "That Skinny Chick Can Bake".  I was so honored to be asked and sent Liz this post that she published on June 15th to her readers.  Not only was this a nice recognition from Liz, but it also gave me a rare opportunity to let both of our readers know how the two of us met . . . way back in the late 60's!  You see Liz has been good friends with my sister Kelly since their childhood in Ames, Iowa where they met in Kindergarten!  Growing up only a few blocks from each other, our families even went to the same church together.  Kelly and Liz's friendship continued through high school, their college years at the University of Iowa, and beyond school to this day!  It was totally bizzare when Liz and I found each other's blogs and realized who we were!  

In my guest post for Liz I thought it would be cool to share some photos of Liz and my sister.  Liz was sweet enough to send me old photos that she had digitized (I've got to do that with my old photos too!), as well as a few recent photos of these two very thin ladies!   I must admit that both Kelly and Liz work out a lot to stay in such great shape.


Mangia!



please click on 'read more' for this delicious recipe and story!

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