Dinner Party Perfection: OMG Lasagne

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Normally, my posts here are about dishes I've made and photographed a ways before writing about them – I have a running tally of foods to 'put up on the blog'.  I don't always go in order, but I rarely get around to posting within a week of making something.  This time, though, I just couldn't wait, and I'm getting this post in just under the one-week wire because I had to share.  This lasagne is just that good.

How good, you ask?  Well, I made a 9x13 pan of the stuff, with 1.5x the meat the recipe called for, and there were only five of us eating, but there were still barely any leftovers; what little there was left, the bf and I fought over the next day like little kids bickering over the last piece of cake.  It was so good I was sneaking bites of it as I put it away, long after our guests left (I also sneaked some bites the next morning, before the bf woke up – sorry, honey! (not really)).

Less Healthy, Still Easy: Peppermint Cream Cookies

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One of my favorite things about the holidays – besides the family time and vacations and trees and frolicking – has always been the limited-edition flavor combos that companies put out, usually involving peppermint and chocolate in some combination or another.  I used to hoard peppermint bark and mint M&M's and dark chocolate York patties for weeks, long after my stocking had been packed away in the cedar chest with the rest of the holiday decorations.  But, my love of chocolate aside, my absolute favorite treats were always pure peppermint.  And I wasn't alone.

My friend Rachel practically swoons over the mint M&M's every year, and my college roommate, Emily, and I used to go to the grocery store in St Louis (Schnucks!) every December and buy huge tubs of Dryer's (or, in the Midwest, Edy's) peppermint ice cream while it was still on the shelves.  We'd stick one or two gallons in the back of the freezer and pull them out for a scoop (or a naughty late-night spoonful straight from the carton) well into the warmer months.  It was one of my favorite flavors, so much more pure than mint chip, and somehow so exotic because it was only in the shops for a short time (unfortunately, I later discovered that one of my fave ice creameries in SF, Swensen's, does a scrumptious peppermint ice cream, year-round, but luckily parking around there is a nightmare so it still retains its rarity, and thus its charm).