The Absolute Best Lasagna

Once, a few years ago, I made a meaty lasagna for some friends. One of them, Uncle Ben, as I call him, asked whether everyone else was finished. We all said Yes. He then proceeded to hoist the remaining 1/3 of the pan of lasagna onto his plate. I am sure that my mouth dropped. I always have leftovers... until that moment. I guess he liked it. A lot.

So last night we had another guest over for dinner and I made the same recipe. And let me tell you this, dear readers, it really is *that good*. Oh Yeah. Cooks Illustated Simple Lasagna is to die for. The 'meat mixture' calls for veal, which I don't buy, so they suggest substituting ground beef and sweet Italian sausage. It's freakin' delicious. With guests, I say 'forget healthy - we're going all out on fatty goodness'. So it's the whole milk ricotta cheese. Uh Huh.

The really momentous part of this entire meal is my attitude. So. There are people reading this that might be shocked to discover that I went home, after a full 8 hours of work, and made this lasagna, from scratch, Without FREAKING OUT. Yeah, I see you nodding your heads in disbelief. There are some that knew me before I was a semi-experienced cook, that needed to plan WAY in advance for such a complex meal. No way was Heather going to make something as complicated as lasagna (or anything else) after work for someone she didn't know. No way, no how. I'm looking at the ex-boyfriends (and I'm sure that maybe one of them actually reads this blog), and they're the ones who know the best. Anyway, it was fun. =)

AND DELICIOUS! Oh how I love it when a plan works out.