Cooking can become a bit tiresome when we prepare the same recipes over and over. Try to spice things up a bit by changing recipes or adapting old ones to make them new again. Like the following recipe for seafood lasagna, the original meat recipe is adapted using seafood in place of the meat and using the béchamel sauce to heighten the taste even further.
Seafood Lasagna
12 sheets ready-to-bake lasagna sheets
1 14 oz tin whole tomatoes with juice, chopped
2 tbs chopped garlic
1 large onion, chopped
2 tbs butter
2 tbs flour
2 cups milk
2 tbs olive oil
2 lbs shrimp cleaned
1 lb crabmeat
1/2 cup parsley and basil chopped
Preheat oven to 350? F
Melt butter in a heavy medium sauce pan, add flour and cook until mixture is slack.
Add milk and one tbs garlic, season with salt to taste, cook stirring until smooth and thick, add tomatoes simmer until thick and adjust seasoning.
Meanwhile, heat sauté pan, add olive oil, remaining garlic and onion, cook for four minutes, add shrimp and crab, add herbs cook for about five minutes until shrimp is pink and curled.
Lightly grease a medium casserole dish, place about 4 tbs sauce at the base, place three lasagna strips to cover dish surface, spoon some shrimp on top, spoon sauce, add cheese, repeat until all sauce and seafood is used, about three layers.
End with Remaining seafood, sauce and cheese.
Bake for about 20 minutes until cooked.
There must be enough liquid to cover the lasagna to enable it to cook. Serves eight
CRANBERRY ORANGE WALNUT CAKE WITH ORANGE GLAZE
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tbs lime juice
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp grated orange zest
1/2 cup cranberries, dried
1/2 cup walnuts
Preheat oven to 350ºF
Cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy
Add eggs one at a time beating well between additions, combine milk with lime juice let stand for ten minutes.
Chop walnuts and cranberries.
Combine flour, baking powder and soda, add chopped cranberries and nuts.
Fold flour mixture into butter mixture alternately with milk, adding flour in three additions and milk in two.
Spoon batter into a greased and floured bundt pan.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool and drizzle with glaze.
Glaze
Combine two cups sifted icing sugar with about one tbs. orange juice, until thick and pourable.
Pour onto cake.
Serves eight to ten
