Manger Mondayz

"Who is John Salt?"

Aw guys, I feel terrible. I haven’t blogged at all since school started. I want to apologize to all five of you who read my blog (and no that isn’t a conservative estimate). If you want to now the honest truth, I’ve been cheating on Cookin’ Classy with, gasp, another blog!

You all know that I am pretty busy lately. And I don’t mean busy like I have too much TV to catch up on/need to clean my house/have so much internet surfing to do. No I’ve been really really busy with school related stuff. I’m on McGill First Aid Services again this year, this time as one of the Social Coordinators. This means I have trainings, evaluations, shifts and party planning to worry about each month. I’m also on the Anthropology Student’s Association as the VP-Communications which has been keeping me super busy planning anthropology events. And on top of all of that I have school.

I spend way too much time in the Peterson Hall Lab

My Honor’s Thesis is sucking the life out of me, but more than that Grad School Applications are pretty much making me cry every single night. The point of me whining is just to say hey, I’m sorry I haven’t been blogging but I have been getting my life in order!

This is me working on my thesis...clearly

Ok now for the confession: I cheated on Cookin’ Classy with the Parc Safari Archaeological Project’s blog. In my defense it was required for one of my classes but I still feel like a two-timer. That’s why I’m posting today; I’m posting out of guilt. If you want to check out the archaeology blog click on my profile. It’s a pretty cool project which one day may help science predict the occurrence of mass graves, especially in cases of genocide or war crimes.

My friends Genna, Michelle and I tried to start a new tradition this semester. We call it Manger Mondayz, and basically it’s the three of us getting together every Monday and cooking dinner. Each week someone is responsible for dinner and the other two bring wine and appetizers. We’ve been slacking a lot lately presumably because of school, but a month ago it was my turn to host Manger Mondayz.

My mom is one of my favourite people in the world because she is constantly sending me packages. It’s like getting a postcard only A MILLION TIMES GREATER! Often, in these packages she sends me cook books or food magazines. In a recent package I received there was a copy of the Better Homes and Garden food magazine “Quick and Easy Recipes”. I had been itching to try it out so Manger Mondayz was my chance!

Because it was a cooler October night, I settled on making a warm and hearty “Ravioli Skillet Lasagna”. It was pretty quick to make and easy since I have an electric skillet and tasted great, though not much like Lasagna.

Ravioli Skillet Lasagna

(25 minutes, but honestly it look me a lot less time)

What you Need:

-2 cups of chunk style spaghetti sauce (I used my Mom’s frozen pasta sauce, which is my very favourite but any type will do, except Ragu ‘cus that stuff is gross!)

-1/3 cup of water

-1 9-ounce package of refrigerated meat or cheese-filled ravioli (I used the Bertoli fresh brand. They’re my favourite and cook quickly. I would advise against using frozen ravioli)

-1 egg, slightly beaten (I was making enough food for 5 people and my skillet is wide but shallow so I used 2 eggs)

-1 15-ounce carton of ricotta cheese (full disclosure: I was feeling super chubby that day so I used low fat. As if that was going to make a difference…)

-¼ cup of grated Romano or Parmesan Cheese

-1 10-ounce package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained (I couldn’t find frozen so I used canned spinach which was such a mistake. It was disgusting. I’m serious)

What you need to do:

1. In a large skillet, combine spaghetti sauce and water. Bring to a boil. Stir in ravioli and cook covered over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until ravioli are nearly tender, stirring to prevent sticking. I boiled my ravioli first and then drained and added the water/sauce mixture because I have a fear of uncooked foood.

2. In a medium bowl combine egg, ricotta cheese and ¼ cup of the parmesan. Dot the ravioli, which is in the skillet, with the spinach. Cover the spinach and ravioli with the cheese mixture.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Cook, uncovered over low heat for about 10 minutes or until the ricotta layer is set and pasta is just tender. Sprinkle with additional cheese.

3. Serve to the delight of one Calgarian, one Londoner and her boyfriend from New Brunswick. Then sit back and finish that second bottle of cheap wine.

Everything went fine with this recipe, with the exception of the spinach. Ew! Canned spinach has the consistency of slime and tastes very bitter. It was not a good addition to the meal so I strongly encourage you either use fresh or frozen spinach or non at all.

Yes that is Popeye's Brand

The only other problem with the recipe is that I expected everyone to be at my house around 7. They didn’t turn up until 8 so the food got a little overcooked since I left the skillet on the ‘warm’ function. The lesson here is, leave a little cooking for when the company is just showing up since a) the food will be fresh and hot b) they can tell you how adorable you look in your apron.

I also did a little cooking today, in between watching episodes of the X-Files (a friend recently suggested I start watching it. Yes Mulder is a dreamboat, but I also want to be Scully. She is so hot! And she has such a sexy voice). I had a bag of McCain Super Fries in my freezer but no ketchup left. I needed something to dip my fries in so I decided to make my own version of garlic aioli.

1. Combine, in a small bowl, a couple large globs of mayonnaise, a teaspoon of vinegar, a tablespoon of dejion mustard, a pinch of salt and pepper.
2. Next crush two small cloves of garlic in a garlic press, or crush using the side of a knife after mincing.
3. Mix the garlic into the mayonnaise mixture
4. Enjoy with fries or on a sandwich, while watching bad TV on the internet.

Ok that’s it for now. I have a lab and paper due on Tuesday and a huge research project due on Wednesday. I promise to post more often!

PS. Here is a photo of one breakfast this summer in Cuzco, Peru

PPS. The last post started opened with the first line of Jules Vern’s classic science fiction novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

PPSS. According to blogger.com I have a bunch of readers in South America, specifically Brazil. That’s so cool. Then again I also have a ‘reader’ in Russia, but we all know that that was just Genna this summer.