The MIL is having a bunch of people over this afternoon for dinner and to watch old home movies she had converted from film to DVD. The better-half has been taking the DVDs and attempting to make sense of them since they are out of time order. That is a scene from the 1950s is followed by one from the 1970s. He showed me a little of one yesterday that had been double-exposed. There were people at a backyard barbeque from one moment in time and kids and dogs running around like little specters from another moment in time all sharing the same frames. As he says, the family was never much good at technology.
The MIL is serving lasagna and wanted all of the lasagna to be gluten-free. Um no. She’s the only one with the disease and she’s on a mission to force everyone to eat gluten-free all the time. Since we were tasked with making the lasagna we made two small trays of gluten-free (by small we used the 8X8 pans). I tasted a cooked noodle and it wasn’t bad. I think it resembled those whole wheat noodles that are out now. Which is kind of weird since these gluten-free noodles were made from rice. Not bad, but I’m not going to work on making lasagna for 5 hours and then eat something I don’t particularly like.
Some of the supplies were stacked neatly. We ended up not using all the Barilla noodles. The better-half had planned on making 4 trays of regular lasagna but we cut it back to three:
He found a wonderful sauce recipe. I usually use the one on the back of the noodle box:
We set up stations around the kitchen in order to process all the lasagna trays:
The better-half had never made lasagna before. I was stunned to learn this. He’s only assisted me when I’ve made them and his mother never made them when he was growing up because she said they were too hard. Yes, the crazy talk has always been present.
His first pan:
The pans of lasagna are stored in every available cold place we have. Some are stacked in a cooler in the garage with ice packs around them. Some are in our refrigerator. They’ll all be fully cooked at the MIL’s house. I hope her oven is large enough.
We have three large loaves of bread, salad ingredients, dessert and DVDs to take over in a few hours. Dessert is pound cake. And, yes, we’re aware she can’t have it. She’s taking care of the gluten-free cake/dessert. Frankly, her desserts always taste terrible. I don’t know why she doesn’t let us do the gluten-free desserts because ours are better. Because we pay attention to the recipe and cook times. Shocking how that works out.
Since I titled this entry Fancy Feast, here’s Simon eating some:
Thanks for the updated picture of Simon. He looks healthy and shiny and cute as can be!
Lasagna is one of the easiest things to make! I make it all the time for large groups. I’ve never tried the gluten free version and I’m sort of glad of that. Funny how she’s having people over and you guys get to do all the work.
Yeah, it is funny how that worked out. We were exhausted when we got home. The number of days it took all told for 5 hours or so of entertaining was ridiculous. I think the better-half started cleaning and moving furniture last Wednesday.