Good-Bye Presents, Last Recipe, and a Final Craft Idea (for here in Munich)

Dear Readers,

It is a sad and strange time here for me in Munich, Germany. I am completely torn between wanting to leave right this minute and staying forever. I love Europe and I have decided that someday I would like to live here for real, but until then I have to continue to follow my dreams of traveling around the world and seeing new places. I have decided on a place I would like to go next, but I would rather wait to discuss that in detail at a later time.

Meanwhile, I have been working on cards and good-bye gifts for the children. (I also made the host parents a card.) For gifts, I crocheted teddy bears, of which I do not have pictures of (they are already wrapped) but if you go back to the post I wrote a while back on the first one I made, they look just about the same except in different colors and one is a different style of yarn. I do, however, have pictures of the cards, which I worked very hard on. I decorated the envelope, the front of the card, and on the inside of each card I put a picture of an animal that I had associated with each of the children. (For example, I asked my mom once what animal I most reminded her of, then after a while she said "hummingbird." So I would be "Hummingbird Holly" although the alliteration is unnecessary, meaning the first letter of the animal doesn't need to match the first letter of the name. Mine just happens to work out that way.) Of course I wrote each child a note which I made unique to each card. I'm very proud of the work.

The front of the cards. I added those little photo corner things and tried to write as neatly as I could.

Sequins (because everyone loves them, even those who deny it) glued on the front of the envelope. Each letter represents the first letter of their names.

Tiger.

Antelope.

Monkey. (How did I do these pictures? Keep reading!)

You will likely recall how I said that I would do my vegetarian lasagna and possibly the stuffed onions. I just won't have time to do the onions. So I decided to pick up lasagna ingredients, which were fairly cheap (not as cheap as the chili recipe, but still), and decided to make it all on my own. Therefore, here is the final recipe as of Munich, Germany:

Holly's Vegetarian Lasagna!

Okay, I'll admit this pictures doesn't look that great. The sauce started cracking because I didn't par-cook the noodles like I have described below, so the noodles sucked up all the moisture. The detail picture below is better.

Ingredients:

One Package or Nine Large Lasagna Noodles (you can find these gluten free)

One Large Jar of Herbal or Plain Tomato Sauce (I used a medium jar and it was a bit small, I'd say 400ml or 1 3/4 cups to be on the safe side)*

One Tub (they always seem to come in tubs) of Ricotta or Mozzarella Cheese**

One Medium Yellow or Green Zucchini, sliced into medium thick circles

Eight Medium/Large Mushrooms, stemmed and sliced medium thick

One Bag Frozen Spinach, thawed and thoroughly drained***

*Note: Can't have tomato sauce? Here's a solution: PESTO! Tastes great and is good for sensitivities.

**Note: Obviously, ricotta is authentic for lasagna. But I do happen to know someone who doesn't like ricotta, and I know others who are sensitive to milk products. Cheeses are actually lactose free for the most part because of enzymes present in cheese (and usually yogurt) that aren't present in regular milk, but it's still a milk product. For those who just don't like ricotta, the first suggestion would be mozzarella. For those who are sensitive to cows milk, don't buy that horrible fake cheese stuff. Even if it is organic. Go out and buy some goat cheese. It's delicious, has the consistency of a combination of feta and ricotta, and would taste just fine with the lasagna. Goat milk sensitivities are not as common and goat cheese is actually very easy to find. Just go up to the cheese counter at your local grocery store. (But organic is better!)

***Note: You can use fresh, it's just a little bit more of a pain to use. Chop it into small strips before using.

Directions:

1) Lasagna is not known for being difficult to make. However, there is a serious debate as to whether to cook or not cook the noodles before layering it in the pan. I followed the directions on the box of noodles, which said to leave them uncooked, and I ended up having to add water. At the same time, cooking the noodles completely can water log everything else and leave the noodles soggy. This is what I suggest: cook the noodles in boiling water for 3-4 minutes to par-cook them. Drain on paper towels, then you have a safe noodle to work with.

2) Preheat oven to recommended temperature on your box of noodles (they do get that right... every noodle is made a little differently, but if you're unsure 400 degrees Fahrenheit or 200 degrees Celsius.). In rectangular glass dish large enough to hold your first layer of noodles (usually three side-by-side), place about 1/4 cup of tomato sauce evenly at the bottom. Add your first layer of noodles. Top the noodles with a layer of cheese. Add mushrooms on top of the cheese then add some of the drained spinach on top of this. Finish this layer with an even coat of tomato sauce.

3) Top the previous layer with another layer of three noodles. Coat these noodles with cheese, then add the zucchini slices. Top with spinach and an even layer of tomato sauce.

4) For the top layer, place remaining three noodles on top. Spread leftover cheese on top of the noodles. (If you have leftover spinach and would like to use it up, put it on now.) Pour the rest of the tomato sauce evenly over the lasagna. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil, poke a few small holes, then place in the oven for 25-30 minutes.

5) When the lasagna appears to be heated through and the tomato sauce is bubbling, remove the aluminum foil and continue to cook for about 10 minutes or until the top layer of sauce begins to brown slightly. (The browning is optional. If you don't want it to brown on top leave the foil on.) You know the lasagna is done when the edges of the lasagna begin to turn brownish.

6) Let cool, covered, for about 30 minutes, then enjoy!

Mmmm... much better. Love the yellow zucchini.

Lastly, I have a final craft idea. The pictures of the animals you saw above came about in the method I will show you below. But here's the basic idea: don't have a printer? Want that picture on your screen for a project or other use? Some people may have realized this method but I'm going to describe it anyway. Your computer screen makes an excellent light box which means it's great for tracing. Check out the steps below!

Step One: Find a picture, preferable a coloring page or black and white picture, that you would like to have or use. (I found this picture from Google Images, I'm not sure what source the picture above came from, but I don't claim this image as my own.)

Step Two: Cut a piece of plain white paper to the size you'd like for your picture. Turn up the brightness on your screen if necessary. If needed, tape the paper in place on your screen. Use a pencil to roughly trace the picture (it doesn't need to be perfect yet).

Step Three: After the picture is traced, like above, remove the picture from the screen. Take a Sharpie pen or other thin, felt tipped marker, and go over your pencil lines, making it as even and as exact as you'd like. You don't need to follow the pencil lines exactly, as the tracing will likely be a little off. (As you can see in my picture.)

Step Four: After the Sharpie pen layer, let rest for three minutes or so to let the ink set, then take a good eraser and erase over missed pencil lines and such.

Step Five: Admire your tracing, then color or decorate as you wish. True, your picture won't be exact, but it's better than not having it! (Plus it's fun to make!)

Step Six: Appreciate your final work of art! Just don't claim the image as your own! Copyright is a serious thing. You wouldn't want to have someone steal your ideas would you?

Close up of final image. Not perfect or exact, but I really enjoy doing these. So much so in fact...

... that I've done a whole bunch! To me this is the best idea I've had in a while. I don't always have a printer on hand and now I can color whenever I want to! And it's fun!

I haven't done anything else this week, just a bit of shopping and such, but I still plan on doing my final two things! I'm very excited about it and will post pictures as soon as I can of these things. (Likely Saturday.)

By the way, even though I still have 12 days remaining here, I want to thank all of the people who have read even one post of my blog. It means a lot to me and I do plan on keeping this blog up and running because I plan to do more exciting things, even if it's only in the States!

Take care everyone!

Sincerely,

Holly