Have you ever had a recipe that you are definitely going to try and you actually do-several years later? Me too. Why didn't I make this recipe sooner? Fear of failure I suppose. Well, I made that recipe and my husband, well, you'd a thought he'd died and gone to heaven. Why didn't I try it sooner? I sure didn't do it any younger.

This is the way the recipe was written down and my changes in parenthesis:

Lasagna: Meat sauce: Brown 1# ground beef(I used ground chuck)...1/2# Italian sausage...Season w/ salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Italian seasonings(I didn't season the meat)...Add 1 sm. onion, finely chopped(I used a medium onion)...Cook until meat is done...Drain and add 1 lg jar of Prego Spaghetti sauce w/ tomato, onion & garlic(I bought traditional)...

Cheese sauce: melt 1-8oz. pkg of cream chees, 1/4c butter and 1/2c. milk, add salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, onion powder and a dash of garlic powder. Cream together(I put the cheese, butter, and milk in the food processor and added oregano, garlic powder, a couple pinches of jarred basil, salt and pepper)...2 pkgs of mozarella cheese-shredded (I shredded chunk cheese)...1 pkg of lasagna noodles-cook 12 for a large lasagna...Parmesan cheese.

Layer Noodles, meat sauce, cheeses, repeat twice.

Bake @ 350* for 30 min. or until evenly browned on top.

To quote Gary: "Don't you ever change a thing in this!"

While I made this, I also made a vegetable lasagne becasue I can't eat the other one. I use spianch whole wheat lasagna noodles. I would like to improve on the veggie one, although it isn't too bad. It's missing something, maybe it needs more garlic. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Do any of you have a feared recipe? I still have a couple, but this was the most feared.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), November 30, 2000

Answers

Yes. A year ago I bouth several pounds of wheat gluten from a wholesale distributor (the Y2k thing, sort of non-perishable protein source that I didn't have to feed before eating it) thinking I was going to make gluten steaks etc... I even went to a one day cooking class at a vegetarian friends house to watch someone make the stuff. I'm afraid of trying to make it myself. Don't know why. Maybe the same reason why I have to make myself do experiments with the kids in the kitchen. Everything has to be just right in order to start. Clean kitchen, clean house, clean coop, yard mowed, ironing done...you get the picture.

-- Heather (heathergorden@hotmail.com), November 30, 2000.

For veggie lasagna, you can try roasted veggies. Eggplant, onion, garlic, tomatoes and even your favorite greens.

I will attempt anything at least once. I even tried to feed my family green fish jello. We all make mistakes.

What I will not do is bake cakes and sweets from scratch, at least not for public consumption. Having a sloped kitchen floor and a very bad oven has made for some very embarrassing cakes and sweets for community gatherings.

From now on, I bow out of every cake walk, cookie exchange and anywhere they want Mommie made sweets.

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), December 01, 2000.

I am not a good cook, I would rather clean out the barn than cook. Once, I was making a cake from a BOX, I added all the stuff, put in the mixer bowl and turned it on to go around a while. I knew I had to go out to the barn and get some eggs for the cake. I stopped the mixer and got eggs and put them in. Well, I started doing the pans and all and didn't turn the mixer back on. I baked the cakes. When my husband and some company sliced a piece of cake, there was huge yellow circles in the slices. (choclate cake) I had used very large Duck eggs. Everyone had to look very close to see just what the circles were! Someone touched it with a fork. Someone said "That's the biggest hard boiled egg I have ever seen!" Now I let Steve make the cakes from the box!

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), December 01, 2000.

I would have to say it is Kolachki! My sister has been making these holiday cookies for years, since my Mom passed away. (They were a tradition in my Mom's family.) There are only a few ingredients, mix them together, roll and fill and bake. Not too hard, but I guess I've been afraid they wouldn't come out as pretty as the ones my sister and Mom made. And I bake for a living! OK, I'm gonna do it this year! Thank you, Cindy, I'll let you know how they come out!

-- Cathy Horn in NY (hrnofplnty@yahoo.com), December 01, 2000.

Cathy, I'll be looking forward to your report and maybe the recipe?, Heather, you hit it right, there's always something to do before we can do what we want to do, or is that to keep us from doing what we think we want to do?:~} I t sure feels good once we cross that mountain though, even if the house isn't clean, (wished I practiced that sermon).

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), December 01, 2000.

Mine used to be yogurt, but I finally figured that out. Now it's hard cheese. The couple of times I've tried to make it, the weather was warm and humid, and the cheese molded badly. So the next time I have a surplus of milk in cooler dryer weather, I'm going to try again, but I am a little apprehensive about it.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), December 01, 2000.

AAARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!! We just had our first 4-H meeting and what is the first thing they did? Planned a bake sale!

Do I make the kids bake their own? It would turn out just as good as mine. I thought about finding a friend to do it, but that wouldn't be fair. I am even considering buying goodies at one bake sale to take to our bake sale. Or I could just not show up and let everyone think I am a bad mommy.

What to do? Have everyone know I'm a bad mommy because I don't bake or let them all know I am the worst baker in the world?

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), December 02, 2000.

Laura, How sloped is your floor? Could you put some pieces of boards under your oven to level it out? Maybe you need to change the temp just a little either way depending on if you oven cooks hot or cool. Seems there would be something you could do to make things a little better. What about making some mixes instead of a ready to eat item. Good luck

-- Amber in WA (mikeandamberq@hotmail.com), December 03, 2000.

Hey Laura, get a couple of those "no bake" pudding pies, with the graham cracker crusts, and chololate pudding. No one will care if you didn't bake it or make it from scratch. They just want to earn money. That's what I do, then I can't mess it up! Just put it in the fridge! I'll bet your's would be the first to sell! They are always the first to go at the Church potlucks.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), December 03, 2000.

Thanks, Cindy, pudding pies are a good idea. I think that is what I'll do. I already teased my daughter about making JELLO pies. She agreed to make stuff as long as it is not JELLO.

I was thinking horse cookies, too. They don't care how they turn out as long as they're sweet.

It's not so much the sloping floor as the oven with the giant cold spot in it. I just hate cheap electric stoves.

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), December 03, 2000.

When I seen the title I was sure it was going to be all about fruit cake!

-- Patty (fodfarms@slic.com), December 03, 2000.

Hi Cindy,

Pies! We all love them ,but I never could roll that dough out right until my friend showed me the plastic wrap trick.I'm better now (somewhat) but I still prefer to "cheat"-much less mess.The first pies I ever made(About 6 or 7 years ago I figure)I had such a rotten time with the dough I was nearly in tears!I decided to pat it in as if I was making pizza.The pie was good even if far from lovely.

Cocoa fudge.I just can't seem to get it right...

God Bless,~~~Tracy~~~

-- Tracy Jo Neff (tntneff@ifriendly.com), December 06, 2000.

OK. Where are the guys on this one? I like to cook and can and experiment, and will try anything once. I will also eat anything once, a trait Maggie has yet to acquire. Cindy - I have printed out your recipe, and will ask her to try it. You see, we each have our areas of expertise. Hers is breakfast, lunch and supper. Mine is limited to specialties such as lobster, chowder, crock pot cookery, canning and the like. I am, however, the baker of breads. Since getting a bread machine, I have become even more so. Laura, get a machine. They have become very reasonably priced and are NEARLY foolproof (except for the time I forgot the yeast and wound up with a bowling ball that even stumped the pigs for a few minutes!). And do not forget that pie crust made with 2/3 cup of LARD, plus 2 cups of flour, and enough water to make it the right consistency is the absolute BEST crust you will ever taste! Ask Maggie what "enough water" is. She is the wizard of pie-making and I have no desire to change that. I do peel the apples, though! GL!

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), December 06, 2000.