Birthday dinner for the old boy

The man turned 31 early this week. To celebrate his big day, I decided to whip out his favourite pasta dish - Lasagne. A simple to eat dish, but trust me it's not very simple to make if you follow the traditional receipe, it can take quite a while and a whole lot of effort. In view of my aching limbs and big belly, I decided to cheat a little and used bottled tomatoe sauce instead of canned tomatoe and paste as requested by the recipe. It worked! Saved me quite a bit of time and and aches from heavy grocery shopping (Less weight cos less cans. It was a surprise menu, so the hubby wasn't there to help with the load).

It was my first attempt making this dish, it turned out funny looking as you can see here...


The top layer was cracking and turned up at the edges!!! Like an old book which has been dried after being out in the rain. Taste test: quite good...if u take away the top layer..hahaha....it really tasted quite wholesome and very hearty with the good among of minced beef and chopped ham and carrots I used. it just didn't score high on looks. There are definitly room for improvement...I will soak the lasagne sheets in hot water before use in future. I was fooled by the instructions on the pasta box which says you don't have to. Argh....

I also made two side dishes.

Invented a new dish...Fried wanton with stired fried portobello mushrooms and chedder cheese stuffings

Fresh salad with Honey Mustard Dressing & Chipolata Sausages. (Salad dressing from Donna Hay's receipe)

Closed up of the lasagne.