She was a hottie                                                   who liked to have fun.

I miss my grandma a lot.  My Uncle sent me these pictures yesterday - not exactly sure why.  He probably misses her the most.

Love you Rowdy.  *mwah*

I called my husband.

I called my husband on the way to work yesterday...

"Why on EARTH do we have to drive when it is snowing and icy out like this...there ought to be a law."
"Preaching to the choir babe."
"Plus, I am convinced Brooklyn Center does not own a plow."

And all I could think of the whole way into the office as I moved at a glacial pace* was how if I were Governor of Minnesota I would make it illegal to drive if the driving conditions were such that if it took you more than twice the time normal to drive there - or you could potentially die because it is so darn slippery!

Then of course I think of how that would hurt our economy, and how there would have to be all kinds of exceptions.  Doctors, pregnant ladies, sick people, etc.

Sigh.

And as I got to the last part of my drive where 694 and 10 split...

I see the plows in my rear view mirror.

At least my drive home was fine.  And yes, *I used glacial on purpose.

Early and Cold

My child has a strong relationship with the donut.  This kid LOVES her some fried up flour and water and cinnamon, or apples.  Or both.

I USED to love donuts too...then I got old and well, my tummy does not love them any longer so I usually avoid them.

This morning I wanted coffee and thought - you know my local Wuollet bakery is not much farther than Caribou, they have good coffee and Boo Boo could have a donut....

So out I went.  

The car thermostat registered TWO BELOW ZERO.  But I am a Minnesotan, so it barely registers...

*snort*

I got a fried cinnamon, two apple fritters and a raspberry bismark.  The nice man made me a latte.  I was the ONLY car downtown besides the Star Tribune paper delivery truck.  Doesn't anyone else go out for donuts in the freezing cold early on a Saturday?

When I got home Boo Boo ate about three bites of her fritter...

I ate TWO donuts.

Now she is running around care free...

And I am on the couch with a lump in my stomach.  

Go away bad food baby.  Go.A.Way.

I start a crime spree.

Over New Year's we went up north.  This usually means a stop at some Northern Minnesota bar/restaurant - no exception Friday, December 30, 2011 - we stopped in the Crozz Lake Zorbaz.  I know, its really Cross Lake, but Zorbaz has a sense of humor...at least they think so.

Anybloodymarylater.

We had a nosh and a beverage and headed back for the cabin. I realize that a fork

is stuck to the magnet on my Vera Bradley.

 "Huh, I stole a fork from Zorbaz" I say to the hubs, @Iambooboolala and our friend Todd who happens to be riding with us.

Hubs asks, "Really?"

Yup.

"MAMA" exclaims Boo Boo, "We need to take it back!"

"Yup.  I see the waitress running out of the restaurant after us." teases Todd.

Hubs and I shrug and we continue on...

Then Hubs sees one of these in the rear view.

We were on a road "Up North".  It was a Friday afternoon, most people were working, there is little traffic anyway - the roads look like this...

...so Hubs was speeding a bit.  He says, "Shit.  I am getting pulled over."

I open the glove compartment as he pulls over and gets out his license.  No one is saying much and I am just glad Hubs only had one Bloody Mary.   The Trooper comes up to the window and says his name and did we know he monitored us driving 65 in a 55...the twist coming that he TELLS Hubs he is just writing up a warning and wants to just run his license and we can be on our way.

Whew.

Then from the back after the cop heads back to his patrol car @Iambooboolala says....

Wait.for.it.

in a hushed tone...

"Mama, you should have just given him the fork."

Choo Choo Trains - Movies - Rock N' Roll - and the Crazy.

Happy New Year - here is what my loved ones were up to:

NYE:

Well...the Daddies were out at the bar betting on which artists song the band was going to cover first (in case you care it was the Rolling Stones) We had a Mommy Party at the cabin with tiara's Dick Clark's Rockin' NYE and Sparkling Cider - until 10pm, then Mommies watched "The Help" and cried in our beers, wine and other specialty cocktails.

And New Year's Day my brother "I'm CRAZY!" jumped into Lake Minnetonka for the 13th time.



Today - we are officially still on HOLIDAY - and T-bone is planning to take down the tree.

How was YOUR Happy New Year Peeps?

Tomorrow we head North...which means I cooked all day Monday!

Originally posted January 6, 2011

Picture Courtesy of http://www.fauxmartha.blogspot.com/

So yesterday I got this email response from my friend Beth (the one on the far left in the picture):

Thanks Lisa! I will have to check it out. (I told her about LaGrolla in St. Paul) And, I am definitely going to get the gel polish! (If a salon offers you a gel manicure, DO IT!) If you have your recipes from Lasagna night typed up Harry and I would love them. He asked me if you made those all or if they were from a restaurant! (I am BLUSHING ten shades of pinky-red!) 

So I responded and I thought, hmmmm??? I wonder if my blog friends would like a good lasagna recipe.  Sorry, no pictures though - BOO Mama Lena!  My response MIGHT be long-winded but I personally believe I must SHARE where I tweak recipes and add in exactly what I used when possible.  Keep in mind when I make lasagna it takes a MINIMUM of three hours to do it right - all the chopping and cooking and assembly, then baking!  So it is definitely a Saturday or Sunday project.

damn, now I am hungry

*********************************************************************

Tell Harry THANK YOU for the compliment. Lasagna and fettucini alfredo are Terry's two favorite things -so I have prided myself on perfecting fettucini alfredo and lasagna, just call me Mama Lena - the Norwegian-Itallian chef.

I use my laptop in the kitchen so I don't write any recipes down any more. I just save them on website recipe boxes or my favorites in my browser. Here are the absolute best lasagna recipes out there I have found - and I have tried about 20!

For the version of this we had at the cabin I added a 15 oz can of tomato sauce to the recipe and tripled the goat cheese. I normally add the tomato sauce but not the extra goat cheese - I think its to "dry" without the extra sauce. I also use just one container of the sweet itallian turkey sausage links from Jennie-O I think it works best with the sharpness of the goat cheese, although I have used hot itallian turkey sausage and pork sausage before when it was what I had in the freezer. (p.s. the extra goat cheese was FANTASTIC and that amount at Costco was the same price as the four ounce package at Cub or Target.)

Ina's Turkey Lasagna

For the one with bolognese sauce I added 15 oz can of tomato sauce only because I was freezing it - and I use 8 pounds of canned tomato in dice form instead of fresh for quality control - that is about 9 cans of 14 oz diced - I used the organic Del Monte ones you can get on coupon at Costco every so often - I always buy two or three cases of them.

I find that the sauce is A LOT - that one recipe made TWO lasagnas and left over for making bolognese - but I only did two layers of pasta and three layers of sauce in each pan. I don't have a lasagna pan that would fit as many layers as Alex suggests. When I made one lasagna last time the bonus was the leftover bolognese - it made GREAT "sloppy joes" later in the week.

Also I cook the carrot, onion and celery for quite a while over medium-low heat. I like them really soft and carmelized. She says five minutes, I do about 15.

And YES it takes a CUP of olive oil. The first time I freaked out about that cup - but it takes that much.

Alex's Old School Lasagna with Bolognese

Bon Apetit!
Lisa

p.s. here are the pictures I took this year (Monday, December 26th was my lasagna day) and posted to @mommylisa on @twitter and put up on Facebook!

And that is just the cheese lasagna & bolognese!

Merry Christmas!

Santa Claus is Coming To Town - just like in ELF!

Boo Boo La La wanted me to record her singing "Santa Claus is Coming To Town" after she watched Elf for the millionth time.  ;)  We love that movie.

Merry Christmas Peeps, may you enjoy all the joy and peace of the season.

I know that you've been good.

Santa's of Christmas Past

And lo, Mama Kat Angel came from the east and said...

Write about Santa's past.

Santa, Mrs, & Boo

Which means of course I can show cute pictures of Boo Boo.

But also that I can re-hash my Santa tale from Holiday 2010.  In case you had not noticed I am not blogging a lot lately.  The first reason was I felt uninspired because I had no job, and now it's because my job is keeping me SUPER BUSY (and Kid-fu, Girl Scouts, Sunday School teaching, volunteering and kindergarten...whew!)   So here you have it - What happened LAST year:

  

Yesterday I played along with Wordless Wednesday and put up this picture of my Dear Sweet Child, Boo Boo La La. 
I got lots of nice comments about how cute she is - Thank you - and I wanted to tell you how it came to be that I found myself paying for a picture with Santa Claus for the first time EVER in her life. 

You see my husband is in a union and every year they have a Christmas Party for all the kids to come and see Santa and Mrs. Claus - she sat on the SAME Santa's lap (or at least near it) every year since she was 11 months old.

The Evidence:

At 11 months

Just about Two

At almost three she didn't think she liked the big guy...

Almost four and starting to get the picture...

This year however my husband had to WORK on the day of the party...and while I would KNOW people there, including my BIL and his family, it was essentially my husband's WORK Christmas Party and who goes to their spouse's Christmas Party without their spouse? 

I thought to myself...you DO have a backup Santa.

THIS is what I call a good backup Santa!

Boo Boo's Pre-K ALWAYS has a visit from Santa!

wah wah wah

Remember what happend at Boo Boo's Pre-K Christmas Pagent?  Snow-maggedon 2010?  The blizzard of SEVENTEEN INCHES OF SNOW that took down a football stadium? 

yeah, no Santa that day either.

So what does a mama do that PROMISED her Boo Boo she could visit Santa?

She takes her to the mall on the COLDEST night in December that is possible and does it on the night they ALSO allow people to bring their pets. 

I am a genius.

But Boo Boo was soooo excited.

As we stood there in line for nearly two hours she was as patient as any four year old could possibly be...having to wait for THREE dogs to sit with Santa ahead of her...hair dirty and in a scraggly pony...not dressed up in her Christmas Best like years past...but you know what?

She chatted with Santa for the longest time.  And this Dear Santa really listened and talked with her on a whole other level than our Santa's of the past. 

And T-Bone still got to watch The Vikings at Applebee's.

MAKE.IT.STOP.

If you need a reason to dislike Rob Lowe or Kimberly Williams...this is it.  Or CBS for that matter.

I love Christmas music...the radio is set to our all Christmas music channel from Thanksgiving to Christmas -- Pandora too -- EXCEPT when this creepy dang song comes on.

Seriously, it's not sweet.

It's creepier than Tom Cruise in a makeout scene with Nicole Kidman.

Yes, that's how I really feel. 

You may now feel the freedom to bash my opinion.