A Haunted Jezebel, Together With A Haunted Mansion Halloween Repast
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Morning Mortals
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September 1, 2024
Our Son-In-Law Brian’s 40th. Birthday!
Brian loves The Haunted Mansion Ride at Disney’s Magic Kingdom, and he loves my Brunswick Stew, so I incorporated the two and came up with this.
Sort of a Haunted Stew 🙂
The Wishbone is from the chicken I used to make the Brunswick Stew
Brian and Veronica are already Getting into the Halloween Spirit at their house.
I Set Everything Up for Them To Enjoy
Their Dining Room
Happy Birthday Brian!
Julie and Gordon
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Our Grave Digger’s Lasagna
(Recipe Down Below)
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Spooky Graveyard Brownies
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A Bit of Comic Relief 🙂
I purchased this Haunted Mansion shirt for Gordon overseas. It arrived way too small. European sizing. We were laughing so hard! 🙂 We ended up giving it to our son Brodie.
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Grave Digger’s Lasagna
(The Ingredients you see Below Were Made for TWO Large Lasagna’s. One to Eat, One to Freeze.)
Ingredients: (Where Do I Even Start?)
(You can always half the ingredients in order to make just one large Lasagna.)
3, 16 oz. Lasagna Pasta Noodles (You may not use all of them, but you will use most of them.)
5 Jars Various Pasta Sauces (Around 24 to 32 oz. Each)
2, 1b. Italian Sausage, Sweet and Hot
3, 2 lb. Container’s of Ricotta Cheese
1, 16 oz. Container Cottage Cheese
Crinkle Cut Carrots (About 2 Cups)
2, 14 oz. Bags of Frozen Broccoli, Thawed and Drained
4-6 Large Whole Garlic Cloves, Minced
1/4 Cup or as Much as you Like of Italian Style Bread Crumbs
Sliced Fresh Mozzarella Cheese
8 oz. Blocks of Parmesan and Parmesan-Reggiano Cheese, Grated
Freshly Ground Black Pepper to Taste
Fresh Herbs of Basil, Oregano, and Parsley, as much as you want
Topping: 7.9 oz. Basil Pesto
High End Extra Virgin Olive Oil for Drizzling Overtop
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So Excited and Ready To Get Started
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The first thing that I want to do is to brown my Sausage in a large sauce pan on a medium-high heat.
The pan is a non-stick and I don’t need to add any Olive Oil. The Sausage will provide the fat needed.
Some of my Sausage is in casings. You just want to slit the casing open to remove the Sausage so that it can be browned evenly.
I’m using a combination of Sweet and Hot Sausage.
In the meantime, I have placed my Frozen Broccoli into a microwave safe casserole dish, with a lid, in order to thaw and cook my Broccoli. You can always use fresh Broccoli if you like. I’ve used both in the past and I don’t find that it matters much if you use Fresh or Frozen. I find that keeping Frozen Broccoli in the freezer to use for recipes like this comes in handy.
Cook the Broccoli according to your Microwave’s directions for Thawing and Cooking Frozen Vegetables.
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While my Sausage is browning in the sauce pan I am mincing some Garlic Cloves. Gordon and I used to chop so much Garlic that it would take forever to mince all that up into such small bits. Now, we just grab this wonderful tool and squeeze to have it turn out exactly how we want it and in just a few seconds. I’m mincing about 4-5 large Garlic Cloves in the photo above. You can use as much or as little as you like. We just LOVE Garlic!
Broccoli Ready…
Here I am draining the water out of the casserole dish and into the sink.
Then filling the casserole dish with cold water for the Broccoli to sit in so that it will stop the cooking process.
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My Sausage and Garlic have finished browning. I used the spatter screen you see in the photo above to drain the excess fat into the sink.
Just make sure your Sausage doesn’t fall into the sink as well.
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In a very large pot on the stove top on a high heat, start boiling your water to cook the Lasagna Noodles in.
Add a bit of Salt to the water.
While that comes to a boil….
Make Sure the Fresh Herbs are Clean and Dry
Fresh Herbs, Carrots, and the Broccoli
The Carrots have been washed and the water is being drained from them.
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Now that my water has come up to boiling…
It’s time to add the Lasagna Noodles
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My Ricotta Cheese
In two separate bowls I will be mixing the Ricotta Cheese with other things.
I am evenly dividing up all 3 containers to place into the two bowls.
In this bowl I am placing in some Fresh Parsley Leaves.
I don’t chop them I just pluck the flowering end off and add it to the bowl.
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My Lasagna Noodles are Done!
Time to Drain into a Colander
Allow to Cool a Bit
Keep them in the sink because you may need to add water to the noodles if they start to harden up while you are still working with them building your Lasagna.
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Into the Second Bowl of Ricotta…
Place a Nice Basil Pesto, as much as you Like
(Reserve some of the Pesto as a Lasagna topping.)
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Here Gordon is Chopping Some Basil…
To be Equally Distributed into Each Bowl
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Our Two Casserole Dishes
Coat Both Well With a Cooking Oil Spray, Bottom and Sides
(One we are giving to Veronica and Brian as a gift, along with this great Lasagna that it will house, and the other is ours to place into the freezer for a later date.)
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My Various Jars of Spaghetti Sauces
In the bottom of each casserole dish place enough of the Sauce to cover the bottom.
You just need a nice thin layer.
Now, place down a layer of the Lasagna Noodles over the Sauce.
Like So
Now place some of your Herby Ricotta Cheese.
Spread out a nice later. Use a spatula.
Then add more of the Lasagna Noodles over the Ricotta Cheese and then add a layer of yet another Spaghetti Sauce.
Like So
Time for a nice layer of the Sausage.
Then top with more Lasagna Noodles.
More Ricotta Cheese….
More Sauce….
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Remember our Broccoli? Time to add it here.
Cooking and Softening the Carrots in the Microwave
Adding Slices of Fresh Mozzarella Over the Broccoli
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Cottage Cheese
Dolloping spoons of Cottage Cheese between the slices of Mozzarella Cheese Slices, photo top left.
My Carrots are cooked the ready, time to add them over top.
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Italian Bread Crumbs
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Here I did sprinkle some of the Italian Bread Crumbs from above, over the top.
Maybe about 1/4 Cup?
Now it’s time for more Lasagna Noodles
You can see them beginning to get hard in the photos above.
When this happens you can just add more water over top underneath the sink faucet and that will get them pliable again.
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Time For More Ricotta Cheese….
Dollop as much as you like and smooth over with a spatula.
Here I Added Fresh Herbs of Oregano
Then Top With More Lasagna Noodles
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Time to Top Them Off With the Remaining Spaghetti Sauce
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We Have Built Our Lasagna Up To The Very TOP!
Now It’s Time To Grate Our Parmesan Blocks Of Cheese
Grate As Much As You Like
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We Then Topped This Lasagna With The Leftover Basil Pesto, and a Drizzle of Really Nice Extra Virgin Olive Oil Overtop
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Place Into a 350F Oven for About 45 Minutes.
Be sure to check it at about 30 minutes to make sure it isn’t burning on top.
You can always cover it with Aluminum Foil to prevent it from burning.
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Allow To Cool A Bit
It’s Looking So Beautiful!
Delicious too!
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BEWARE OF HITCHHIKING GHOSTS
