Christmas is certainly in the air now! St. Nicholas came to visit Calvary Lutheran Church last night. Children at the worship service each threw one shoe into St Nick’s giant bag, then waited with joyous anticipation for church to be over so they could run out into the narthex and locate their very own candy filled shoe.
For dinner tonight, we served a four cheese with Italian sausage lasagna, a few pans of vegetarian lasagna (by special request), Italian garden salad with an Olive Garden Italian style dressing, bread, and two choices of cake, coconut cream or caramel chocolate. We served 470 for dinner tonight, a little less than the usual crowd, with some of the Confirmation groups out on mission projects. Due to popular request, I’ll post the recipe for the lasagna at the end of this post. Here are a few photos from dinner:

Tuscan Bread loaves from La Brea Bakery (ordered through Sysco) filled the dining room with the smell of fresh baked bread.

Coconut Cream Cake, made with a basic yellow cake mix, infused with cream of coconut and topped with crushed pineapple and a white frosting and toasted coconut.

Chocolate Caramel Cake, made from a basic devil’s food cake mix, infused with sweetened condensed milk, caramel and chocolate ice cream toppings, and frosted with a chocolate non-dairy icing.

A lettuce blend with the addition of Kalamata black olives, banana peppers, tomatoes, red onions, parmesan cheese, croutons and a homemade Italian dressing.
Four Cheese Lasagna Serves 12
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(adapted from Southern Living Cookbook)
|
1.5 pounds | lean ground beef |
1.5 pounds | Italian sausage |
1 1/2 cups (about 20 oz) | chopped onions |
24 oz | tomato sauce |
18 oz | tomato paste |
3/4 cup | water |
3 tablespoons | dried parsley |
2 tablespoons | Italian seasoning |
1 tablespoon | Beef bouillion |
1 tsp | garlic powder |
24 oz | cream cheese |
24 oz | cottage cheese |
12 oz | sour cream |
6 whole | eggs |
24 oz | lasagna noodles, dried |
12 oz | sliced pepperoni |
24 oz | Mozzarella cheese |
16 oz | parmesan cheese, shredded |
Saute onion in heavy skillet with olive or vegetable oil until tender. Brown ground beef and sausage.
Stir in tomato sauce, paste, water, parsley, Italian seasoning, bouillion, and garlic powder. Bring to boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
Combine cream cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream and eggs; stir well.
Cook lasagna noodles and drain. Spoon small amount meat sauce in bottom of greased 9×13 pan.
Layer noodles, cream cheese mixture, pepperoni, meat sauce, and mozzarella; repeat layers. Sprinkle top with parmesan.
Cover and bake at 350 for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
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