Monday Night Golden Shrimp & Election Day Lasagna

Monday morning I had my teeth worked on. I was so hungry before, during, and after the procedure. I had to wait for the Novocaine to wear off before I could finally eat something. I had discussed what to have for dinner because food was the only thing on my mind. So after a quick but tasty lunch at O'Charley's, I decided on fried shrimp with a creamy cocktail sauce. Partly because I was craving the dish, and partly because I had not quite mastered the breading process to make it that gorgeous golden brown color. I used the deep fryer turned to 375° and using a combination of cornmeal, AP flour, dried bread crumbs and a heavy amount of seasoning. Dropped the shrimp into the hot oil for 3½-4 minutes and my beautiful Golden Shrimp were cooked to perfection. I then, mixed together some Worcestershire sauce creamy horseradish and ketchup together and created a creamy cocktail sauce to go along with my golden bites.

For election night, I knew it was going to have to be full on comfort. I made my first ever attempt at a homemade lasagna. I understand that for the most part the build of a lasagna is generally the same. I modified mine to make it my very own by, adding both sweet Italian sausage and ground beef, added additional Parmesan cheese to the Ricotta and egg mixture, as well as a generous handful of chopped parsley. While building the layers in addition to the meat and marinara mixture added large dollops of creamy Alfredo sauce and mixed in. I topped each layer with portions of mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses and the top and final layer with the parm, mozzarella, and Swiss and jack. It was divine and just the type of comfort food needed to get through the first part of a stressful election night.

Please do not let me even try to pretend that the lasagna is ready for the cover of Gourmet magazine. It is extremely rustic but oh so yummy! I'll post the actual recipes in the following weeks after some verifying and tweaking!

IEADTT